The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) established the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) in 1985 in response to devastating famines in East and West Africa and a critical need for better and earlier warning of potential food security crises.
FEWS NET is a leading global provider of timely, accurate, evidence-based, and transparent early warning information and analysis of current and future acute food insecurity. FEWS NET informs decisions on humanitarian planning and responses in the world’s most food-insecure countries.
For four decades, FEWS NET and its partners have continued to monitor the increasingly complex factors influencing food insecurity, such as weather and climate, conflict, agricultural production, markets and trade, and nutrition. Considered together within the context of local livelihoods, FEWS NET provides integrated food security analysis that forecasts outcomes six to twelve months in advance.
In 2025, FEWS NET celebrates 40 years of monitoring and forecasting acute food insecurity. Throughout the year, FEWS NET will reflect on decades worth of technological and analytical innovations that have contributed to earlier, more reliable forecasts of acute food insecurity.
To support governments, relief agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, and journalists planning for, responding to, and reporting on humanitarian food crises, FEWS NET publishes and shares:
Country-specific integrated food security analysis products that report on current and forecasted levels of acute food insecurity
Alerts on emerging or likely acute food insecurity crises
Specialized reports on factors that contribute to or mitigate food insecurity, including weather and climate, markets and trade, agricultural production, conflict, livelihoods, nutrition, and humanitarian food assistance
FEWS NET’s network development strategy involves the development of enhanced, durable, effective, and sustainable information networks in food-insecure countries and regions. This approach is implemented through localized, context-specific national and regional strategies that are developed alongside food security partners involved in the targeted network.
FEWS NET's work is implemented by a team of partners, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Center (UCSB-CHC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Chemonics International Inc., the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and Tetra Tech.
The FEWS NET Brand Center houses essential guidelines for the use of FEWS NET's logo, colors, and typography. For additional support, submit an inquiry.