The Hunger Map, recently released by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), leaves Colombia in a very poor position. Despite the efforts announced by President Gustavo Petro to support agricultural production and facilitate access to financing with the aim of reducing costs for producers, in the country, around 6.6 million people face acute food insecurity, which is equivalent to approximately 12% of the population. Colombia and Haiti are on the list of countries with food insecurity.
Globally, these figures place Colombia among a group of 16 nations with worrying levels of hunger, alongside historically complex countries such as Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen, or Afghanistan. And in terms of the Latin America and Caribbean region, the Andean country resembles Haiti. Both are marked in intense red, an alert signal associated with Phase 3 or higher (crisis or worse). Colombia with 6.6 million people exposed to food insecurity and Haiti with 5.9 million (53% of its population).
Discrepancies with information from the Government of Colombia
The WFP report finds no point of coincidence with what President Petro has reported. The head of state strongly defends what he says his Government has done in the fight against hunger, and highlights the increase in agricultural production, the relative reduction in food prices, and the exit of millions of people from poverty.
The Hunger Map also offers a very different perspective from the one presented, for example, by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), which stated that in 2024, more than 167,000 people came out of food insecurity. It also said that in Colombia, there were more than 14.4 million people affected that year, equivalent to 27.6% of the total population, which represents a reduction of 0.8 percentage points compared to 2023.
The following year, President Petro reported on the social network X that food production had increased, its relative price had fallen, and that more than two and a half million people had come out of poverty during his government up to the end of 2024. But today, access to three meals a day is not something that occurs with certainty for Colombians. It is a reality that in many households is experienced as a daily pressure.
The situation is framed in a broader context: in the Americas, countries such as Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador also record high levels, but not as critical as those of Colombia and Haiti. In addition, the global food crisis continues to worsen, to the point that, in total, 318 million people in 68 countries suffer from acute food insecurity, driven mainly by armed conflicts, climate shocks, and economic crises.
This is how the WFP Hunger Map is built
HungerMap Live offers AI-assisted forecasting capabilities on expected food needs in the “hunger hotspots” designated by the WFP: 16 countries with populations already facing catastrophic famine. Studies have shown that early warning of emerging food security problems can generate enormous cost savings and operational efficiencies.
The launch of the platform comes at a critical moment in which the number of people facing food insecurity in Phase 5 (catastrophe, the most severe form of hunger) has multiplied by 15, rising from 85,000 in 2019 to 1.4 million in 2025. The platform brings together data from the WFP’s extensive network, made up of more than 300 analysts working on monitoring and mapping food security, with information from dozens of trusted partners.
This includes the global benchmark index for the analysis of food insecurity (IPC), statistics validated by governments, as well as climate, market, agricultural, and economic data. Through predictive models, provided with the support of Google, HungerMap Live answers three fundamental questions: What is the current situation of food security worldwide? Which countries and regions require urgent attention? And what are the underlying factors that contribute to food security needs?