UNITED NATIONS aEUR
David Beasley is the head of U.N. World Food Program. He said that its latest analysis showed “a record 345,000,000 acutely hungry people are marching towards the brink of starvation.” aEUR”, a 25% increase over the 276 million who were in the U.S. at the beginning of 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Before the COVID-19 pandemic of early 2020, it was 135 million.
He said that there is a danger that it will rise even more in the coming months. “Even worse, when this group is destroyed, staggering 50 million people from 45 countries will be one step closer to famine.”
Beasley spoke at the high-level U.N. meeting to release the latest report on global food insecurity by the World Food Program (and four other U.N. agencies) that paints a dire picture.
According to the report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World,” around 2.3 billion people are facing severe or moderate hunger. About 924 million people now face severe food insecurity.
The rate of “undernourishment” (aEUR) is defined as a condition where food intake is not sufficient to sustain a healthy and active life. It has been increasing since 2021. According to the report, between 702 million- 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2017.
Beasley stated in live virtual comments, that the impact of conflict in Ukraine on global food availability & food security “means that the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is likely to be much higher than 828 million.”
Prior to the war, Ukraine was responsible for nearly a third world’s wheat exports and half the world’s sunflower oil. Russia and Belarus are currently the No. Potash is a crucial ingredient in fertilizer and is produced by the number 2 and 3.
Beasley called on the government to find a political solution urgently that would allow Ukrainian wheat to re-enter international markets.
He also called for substantial new funding to humanitarian groups to combat “the skyrocketing level of hunger”, governments to resist protectionism, keep trade flowing, as well as investments to aid the poorest countries to protect themselves from other shocks.
Beasley stated, “If we had succeeded in threading this needle in the past the war in Ukraine would not be having such disastrous global consequences today.”
Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary General, has been working to create a package to allow Ukraine to resume exporting wheat and other commodities to the world market. He also wants Russia to send grain and fertilizer to the world markets. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N., stated Wednesday that talks are ongoing.
The report was issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, U.N. Children’s Fund and International Fund for Agricultural Development. It states that the 2021 statistics show that the world is “moving backwards” in its efforts to eradicate hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all forms.
In the report, the heads of five agencies state that, in addition to disruptions in supply chains caused by the war in Ukraine, which are driving up food costs, more frequent and severe climate events are also causing problems in supply, particularly in low-income countries.
According to the report, hunger in Africa, Asia and Latin America continued to rise last year, but at a slower rate than it did from 2019 to 2020.
It stated that hunger affected 278million people in Africa, 425million in Asia, and 56.5 million in Latin America, and the Caribbean in 2021.
The U.N.’s development goals are to end extreme poverty and eradicate hunger by 2030. However, the report states that projections show that nearly 670 million people will face hunger by the end of this decade. This is the same population as 2015, when the goals were adopted.
According to the report, the gender gap in food security, which was growing during the pandemics, has widened even more in the last year. It says that 31% of world’s women were either moderately or very food insecure, largely due to widening gaps in Latin America and Asia. In 2021, 27.6% of men were insecure.
The report examines the condition of very young children. It estimates that 22% had stunted development and growth (about 149 million aEUR) while 6.7% suffered from wasting, which is the most severe form of malnutrition. It adds that 5.7% of children under 5 years old, or 39 million, were overweight.
According to the five agency heads, the multiplicity of the triple crises climate, conflict, and pandemics combined with increasing inequalities requires “bolder action” for future shocks.
Qu Dongyu, the director-general at the Food and Agricultural Organization, urged countries to increase food production, strengthen supply chain to support small farmers and provide cash for vegetable and cereal production.
He stated that “we are at risk of facing a serious food access crisis now and possibly a food availability crisis in the next season.” “We must stop the escalating trend of acute food insecurity in the next months and years.”
