In Summary:
- The program Officer of the National Food Assistance Agency claims that 47% of Liberians are experiencing food insecurity
- We fact checked this statement by consulting relevant data from authoritative sources including the FAO.
- Our fact check shows that the claim is mostly correct.
On May 13, Annie Flomo, Program Officer at the National Food Assistance Agency, claimed during an interview on Spoon FM/TV that 47 percent of Liberia’s population is food insecure. She further stated that, out of this 47 percent, 37 percent are moderately affected, while 8 percent do not know where their next meal will come from before the end of the day.
Madam Flomo was making a case about the government’s move to ensure that “hunger is eradicated from Liberia.” She cited a World Food Programme (WFP) report from 2018 as the source of her data.
The Claim
Madam Flomo stated: “We have 47 percent of our population who live in food insecurity, and of the 47 percent, we have up to 37 percent who are moderately abnormal, and we have 8 percent who don’t have any idea where they will get food from before the day ends.”
Rating Justification
To verify Madam Flomo’s claim, we first defined food insecurity. According to an FAO definition, “a person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. This may be due to unavailability of food and/or lack of resources to obtain food. Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of severity.”
FAO measures food insecurity using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) shown below:
We then contacted Madam Flomo for clarity. In response, she shared a link to an article by The Conversation Africa – a global network of non-profit media outlets that publish research-based news and analysis written by academic experts.
Madam Flomo acknowledged that the article was published in 2024 and not 2018 after we informed her.
The article, titled “Food scarcity in Liberia: how women who run households cope,” cites a WFP report stating that “about 47 percent of the Liberian population is food insecure.” However, the article did not support the specific breakdown that 37 percent are moderately food insecure and 8 percent are severely affected to the point of not knowing where their next meal will come from.
We than found and reviewed the 2022 Rapid Food Security, Livelihoods, Nutrition and Markets Assessment (RFSLNMA), a comprehensive evaluation conducted in August 2022. This assessment was led by the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UNICEF. It provides data to inform national policies and programs addressing food insecurity and malnutrition.
The RFSLNMA 2022 report revealed that: 47 percent of households were food insecure, 39 percent were moderately food insecure while 8 percent were severely food insecure.
These findings align with the general percentage cited by Madam Flomo (47 percent) and the 8 percent who are severely food insecure but differ slightly in the breakdown.
The report cites 39 percent as moderately food insecure, not 37 percent as she claimed.
Additionally, the WFP’s 2022 Liberia Annual Country Report also cited these RFSLNMA findings.
Further search found the latest WFP 2024 Annual Country Report for Liberia, which also confirms that: “More than 2 million people, approximately 47 percent of the country’s population, are food insecure, with 8 percent facing severe food insecurity.”
This 2024 report also referenced the 2022 RFSLNMA’s report as the most recent national food security and nutrition survey.
Note: The WFP, alongside organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), defines moderate and severe food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Moderate food insecurity involves uncertainty about food access and reduced food quality or quantity due to lack of resources. Severe food insecurity, on the other hand, means running out of food, experiencing hunger, and potentially going for days without eating.
Conclusion
Based on these findings, we conclude that Annie Flomo’s claim that 47 percent of Liberians are food insecure, with 8 percent severely affected, is mostly correct.
However, her figure for moderate food insecurity (37 percent) is slightly off; the actual figure is 39 percent, according to the 2022 RFSLNMA’s report.
