Geneva - Today I am presenting the findings of a new UN Women analysis on the impact of the escalation in the Middle East on food security among women and girls in 28 countries.
Disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are raising energy, fertilizer, and transport costs, and they are pushing up food prices and straining humanitarian operations, labour markets and remittances far beyond the region.
UN Women estimates that, under a moderate scenario, 11.7 million additional women and girls across 28 countries analyzed could become food insecure by the end of December 2026. This is on top of an estimated 208 million women and girls across the 28 countries who were food insecure or undernourished prior to the escalation. These are scenario-based estimates, not forecasts.
Women and girls are estimated to make up 53 per cent of the projected 22 million additional people affected in the countries analyzed. But in some countries, women and girls are estimated to make up an even larger share. In Afghanistan, women and girls make up 60 per cent of people who could face food insecurity; in Yemen, more than 57 per cent; in Sudan, nearly 56 per cent.
More populous countries were found to have the largest numbers of women and girls who could face food insecurity. However, countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, and Palestine face more concentrated risks, as multiple sources of vulnerability facing women and girls overlap.
In South Sudan, the additional number of women and girls who could face food insecurity represents around 14 per cent of the South Sudanese female population, or about one in seven women and girls - the highest proportion. In Lebanon, the additional number of women and girls who could face food insecurity represents nearly four per cent of the Lebanese female population, the second-highest proportion.
We know from previous crises that when food becomes scarce, women eat less and eat last. They often shift their diet to food that is less nutritious or skip meals altogether to prioritize the needs of others. Gender inequalities dictate who has access to food and who has the resources to obtain it.
When women and girls do not have adequate, nutritious food to eat, they are at risk of a multitude of health problems, including malnutrition.
Higher food prices are one way the disruption is worsening food insecurity. Pressure on income and livelihoods could make food even harder to afford. For many women, existing inequalities in employment and access to financial services leave them with fewer resources to absorb these shocks.
In Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Sudan and Syria, more than 80 per cent of women are outside the labour force. In Afghanistan and Yemen, this rises to around 95 per cent. Among women who are employed, many are in vulnerable employment. This is the case for more than 80 per cent of women in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali, and South Sudan.
Access to financial services could provide a buffer, but in Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Yemen, fewer than one in five women owns a bank or mobile-money account. Without an account, women may have fewer options to save, receive remittances or cash assistance, or borrow safely when prices rise or income falls. This can increase their reliance on informal lenders, relatives, or other household members, and may put their safety and protection at risk.
We are also seeing these links in countries beyond the 28 covered in this analysis. The recent floods in Nepal, for example, damaged crops, livestock and agricultural infrastructure, leaving families without food and livelihoods - and showing us just how fragile food and economic security is during shocks.
The available evidence helps us identify where risks may be more concentrated, but it does not consistently tell us within a household who eats less or last, whose diet is becoming less diverse, or who is taking on more unpaid work to secure and prepare food.
If we cannot see who is going hungry inside the home, we cannot design a response that reaches them.
This brings me to what needs to happen. First, we need to protect women's access to food and protect the resources they need to withstand and recover from shocks. We can do this by combining food and cash assistance with nutrition, protection, livelihoods and agricultural support, and ensuring women can access land, credit, services, and assets.
This is particularly significant this year in 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer, which recognizes the essential contributions of women across agrifood systems - far too often overlooked. Women farmers need the resources to continue producing food and sustaining their livelihoods.
Second, we need to target resources where women and girls face multiple risks such as conflict, internal displacement, climate vulnerability, humanitarian funding gaps, and structural inequalities. And we need to make sure that support reaches them at the right time, including ahead of agricultural seasons.
Third, we need to make women's and girls' experiences visible in our food-security data - and understanding where food insecurity is worsening, and who is eating less, losing livelihoods, taking on more unpaid care work, or facing nutrition and protection risks.
This is the response, but crucially, to end the suffering of women and girls, we need peace and security. UN Women calls for de-escalation and respect for international law. We echo the call of the Secretary-General to all concerned parties to work towards diplomatic solutions that advance regional and international peace and security.
