Joint Monitoring Report: Faster, Smarter Food and Nutrition Security Monitoring

Why food and nutrition security risk monitoring needs to evolve

When a food and nutrition crisis hits, timely data can make all the difference. Data sets face important limitations because they rely on infrequent and costly surveys that fail to reflect rapidly evolving risks on the ground. In turn, these constraints can delay crisis response efforts.

Today’s increasingly frequent and severe food and nutrition crises are driven by overlapping shocks such as conflict, displacement, climate change, and economic volatility. This shifting landscape demands a faster, more agile, data-driven approach to risk monitoring that delivers more reliable evidence. 

Tools such as the Joint Monitoring Reports (JMRs), are central to this improved reporting and risk monitoring approach. As part of national Preparedness Plans for Food and Nutrition Security Crises, the reports help ensure evidence is consistently available to trigger rapid action. They also help build bridges between humanitarian and development efforts. By connecting immediate life-saving interventions with longer-term resilience building, these plans reduce the risk of recurrence and help guide sustained investments that strengthen institutions, reduce vulnerabilities, and prevent future crises.

What is the Joint Monitoring Report?

JMRs provide bi-monthly snapshots of risks in highly food-insecure countries. Originally developed by the World Bank together with national institutions and partners including FAO, WFP, UNICEF, WHO, and ACAPS, the reports are now predominantly led by national statistical offices. The “joint” aspect reflects the collaborative process in which governments and international partners contribute data and analysis, as demonstrated in Somalia and Yemen.

The JMR approach combines high-frequency data on:

• Food and fuel prices

• Exchange rates 

• Rainfall and drought indices

• Conflict event data

• Displacement statistics

Data is accessed through open data platforms such as the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) and the World Bank Microdata Library (MDL) , and is then analyzed using an open modeling process to produce clear, country-level alerts. These results are then uploaded to the MDL and visualized through the Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard, enabling analysts and practitioners at country, regional, and global levels to effectively interpret the findings.  

By identifying risks early, JMRs offer a standardized, cost-effective and easily replicable tool for anticipating crises, empowering governments and partners to respond with greater success. 

How the JMR approach works

JMRs combine monitoring with early detection. Their core datasets extract data automatically through APIs and are capable of incorporating near real-time data. At present, JMRs focus primarily on nowcasting, assessing the population at risk in near real time. To reinforce the resilience perspective, JMRs also model population at risk covering several past years. This historical view is essential for understanding how risks evolve and for identifying structural drivers that require longer-term solutions.

For example, JMR models in Yemen from 2014 to 2025 capture several key events including the escalation of conflict in 2015, global supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which drove up global wheat prices. These alerts can also be used to estimate the population living in at-risk areas.

The reports are also designed to complement existing systems like the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which plays a key role in classifying the severity of food crises but relies on time- and resource-intensive surveys. 
 

A flexible framework for evolving needs

JMRs offer flexible and scalable design: 

• New data streams, including national or context-specific sources, can be seamlessly integrated as they become available. 

• Frequency and spatial resolution can be adapted to the specific needs of each country or region.

• The model’s complexity is variable, ranging from a lightweight tracking tool to a comprehensive analytical platform.

From monitoring to action: Joint Monitoring Reports and Preparedness Plans

JMRs serve as a first-line monitoring tool that naturally feed into national Preparedness Plans for Food and Nutrition Security Crises. These plans aim not only to anticipate and mitigate the immediate impacts of worsening food and nutrition insecurity by strengthening early warning systems and response, but also to reduce the risk of recurrence by building resilience over time.

Such Preparedness Plan early warnings are only impactful if they translate into timely financing and action on the ground. This is where financial instruments play a critical role. The World Bank’s Crisis Response Window (CRW) offers rapid and targeted financial support to low-income countries facing severe shocks, including food security crises. By bridging funding gaps and enabling the swift scale-up of assistance, the CRW addresses the limitations of traditional financing mechanisms.

Together, these tools form a coordinated early warning and response ecosystem: long-range models flag emerging risks, near-term monitors track evolving conditions, and financial instruments like the CRW enable rapid resource mobilization. This alignment enhances the overall food and nutrition security architecture, making it more anticipatory, targeted, and effective.

This work was carried out with the generous support from FoodSystems 2030.