New Global Coalition Calls for Action as Funding for Critical Food and Nutrition Security Data Systems Declines

• With a historic El Niño intensifying and global fertilizer supplies disrupted by conflict in the Middle East, the new Intentional Data Community for Food and Nutrition Security aims to help the world anticipate and prevent food and nutrition crises. The initiative responds to a 31% drop in funding for 41 priority data systems, including FEWS NET and the IPC, in 2025

ROME, ITALY | October 22, 2026 — Today, during the Committee on World Food Security, leaders from governments, UN agencies, technology companies, NGOs, philanthropies, and financial institutions announced the Intentional Data Community for Food and Nutrition Security (IDC), a new multi-stakeholder initiative to strengthen and connect the data systems used to anticipate, prevent, and respond to food and nutrition crises. The IDC will work to protect and strengthen critical data systems, increase investment in locally owned data collection and analysis, and better connect data to decisions and financing so governments and communities can act before crises hit.

The effort comes as funding for food and nutrition security data systems is declining even as conflict, climate, and economic shocks increase pressure on vulnerable communities. A powerful El Niño and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are adding to risks facing food, fuel, and fertilizer markets — underscoring the need for reliable early warning and risk monitoring and the ability to act on them.

New analysis undertaken by IFPRI as part of the VITAL Data initiative shows that funding to priority data systems was cut by an average of 31% in 2025. This includes cuts to FEWS NET, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), and, crucially, the household surveys on which they rely. During the launch event, leaders highlighted the consequences: a reduced ability to reliably understand rising risks; track the severity of malnutrition, famine and hunger; target food, nutrition, and other needed assistance; and help farmers, communities and governments take anticipatory action ahead of shocks, including floods and drought.

“The world has extraordinary tools to anticipate food crises, but those tools only work if we invest in the data and put it in the hands of people who can act,” said Simon Winter, Vice President of the Reimagining Humanitarian and Nutrition Security team at The Rockefeller Foundation’s public charity, RF Catalytic Capital. “As funding declines and El Niño threatens communities around the world, we need to protect and improve needed early warning and data systems and help local and national leaders use better information to act earlier, save lives, and protect livelihoods.”

“The cost of good data is small compared to the cost of responding too late. By strengthening food security information systems, the IDC can help governments and partners act earlier, target assistance better, and protect more lives. As the leading source of information on acute food insecurity, we know that timely and accurate data can be lifesaving for vulnerable communities everywhere” – Jean-Martin Bauer, Director, Food Security and Nutrition Analysis, World Food Programme.

“The Intentional Data Community is an opportunity to put together a practical mechanism for advancing the CFS recommendations, connecting existing initiatives and helping translate national priorities into coordinated action,” said José Rosero Moncayo, Chief Statistician and Director of the Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, speaking at the launch event in Rome. “The purpose is not to create another layer of coordination, but to make the existing ecosystem work better on behalf of countries.”

Connecting Efforts Across the Data Ecosystem

Rather than creating another standalone platform, the IDC is designed to connect and strengthen work already underway across the global food and nutrition data ecosystem. It aims to work across silos including: early warning, nutrition surveillance, agricultural monitoring, climate services, household survey infrastructure, development planning, crisis financing, and resilience investing — fields that often operate through separate institutions, funding streams, and standards.

The IDC is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation through its independent charitable affiliate RFCC, with participation from the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, UNICEF, Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN) Secretariat, European Commission Joint Research Center, International Food Policy Research Institute, Global Network Against Food Crisis, Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction, Insurance Development Forum, AKADEMIYA2063, as well as Google.org, Microsoft AI for Good and Planet. Together, participants will work to identify gaps in data, action, and financing; strengthen local systems; and better connect information to both near-term anticipatory action and longer-term food and nutrition resilience.

Today, the IDC shared its founding principles and priorities, including local ownership and benefit, responsible technology integration, unified data architecture, and long-term resilience and sustainability. Leaders called for moving beyond small-scale, siloed projects toward collective action that strengthens systems at scale; reduces fragmentation at the country level, supports local leadership, puts information and analytical capacity in the hands of local stakeholders; and better connects data to resilience investments, social protection, and risk financing.

The IDC roadmap is available here.

The IFPRI analysis conducted as part of the VITAL Data initiative is available here.

Statements of Support:

• “This IDC arrives at the moment it is most needed. Shocks are compounding — drought, flood and the hunger that follows are arriving closer together — while official development assistance is falling, and the data systems that tell us where to act are being cut alongside it,” said Abdihakim Ainte, Senior Advisor, and founder of iRise Hub. “Without reliable information, even the resources that remain cannot be directed to where they will save the most lives. Somalia is proud to be among the members of this community. Through the Odoros Dashboard, the first Public-Private Partnership on Early-Warning, and with the support of the IDC, we are working to see a shock before it arrives and to put that warning in the hands of the households and vulnerable communities. We look forward to seeing this community move into full action.”
• “Behind every food and nutrition crisis are children whose lives depend on whether we act in time. Data that stays inside one sector cannot protect a child who needs help from several,” said Regina De Dominicis, Director of the UNICEF Office of Strategy and Evidence. “We work with governments to strengthen data systems that connect humanitarian response with long-term development, linking nutrition services, social protection and other essential services. By working together to make data more connected, comparable and shareable, we can turn early warnings into timely decisions and action. Sustained investment will help countries build and own these systems and withstand the next shock.”
• “These data collection systems are the key suppliers for everything downstream — every line on this map is a path a funding shock can travel,” said Roosmarijn Verstraeten, Scientific Project Officer, Nutrition, European Commission Joint Research Centre, at the IDC launch event in Rome. “Knowing what these essential functions cost is key, and the basis for financing them in the future.”
• “Collaboration doesn’t just happen. It needs to be intentional,” said Alessandra Roversi, Senior Policy Advisor, Health and Food Section, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, at the IDC launch event in Rome. “Lack of data should not stop us from acting — but even with data, we don’t always do the right thing. This is about more than data: it’s about investing in the most vulnerable parts of these systems and in intentional collaboration between people, not just systems.”
• “The absence of information is not the absence of needs,” said Lavinia Antonacci, Technical Coordinator of the Global Network Against Food Crises, FAO, at the IDC launch event in Rome. “As resources shrink, we need good evidence more than ever, yet the systems that produce this evidence are under threat.”

About The Rockefeller Foundation

Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world, including in association with its public charity RF Catalytic Capital Inc (RFCC). We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation, X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and YouTube @rockefellerfound, and sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe.