News

The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. Following is a news release jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rome/New York, July 6 – The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United Nations report that provides fresh evidence that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.

The 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report presents updates on the food security and nutrition situation around the world, including the latest estimates of the cost and affordability of a healthy diet. The report also looks at ways in which governments can repurpose their current support to agriculture to reduce the cost of healthy diets, mindful of the limited public resources available in many parts of the world.

The numbers paint a grim picture:

As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – 46 million people more from a year earlier and 150 million more from 2019.

After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, to 9.8 percent of the world population. This compares with 8 percent in 2019 and 9.3 percent in 2020.

·      Around 2.3 billion people in the world (29.3 percent) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021 – 350 million more compared to before the outbreak of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Nearly 924 million people (11.7 percent of the global population) faced food insecurity at severe levels, an increase of 207 million in two years.

·      The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 – 31.9 percent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 27.6 percent of men – a gap of more than 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points in 2020.

·      Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it.

An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, which increases children’s risk of death by up to 12 times. Furthermore, 149 million children under the age of five had stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets, while 39 million were overweight.

Progress is being made on exclusive breastfeeding, with nearly 44 percent of infants under six months of age being exclusively breastfed worldwide in 2020. This is still short of the 50 percent target by 2030. Of great concern, two in three children are not fed the minimum diverse diet they need to grow and develop to their full potential.

Looking forward, projections are that nearly 670 million people (8 percent of the world population) will still be facing hunger in 2030 – even if a global economic recovery is taken into consideration. This is a similar number to 2015, when the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade was launched under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As this report is being published, the ongoing war in Ukraine, involving two of the biggest global producers of staple cereals, oilseeds and fertilizer, is disrupting international supply chains and pushing up the prices of grain, fertilizer, energy, as well as ready-to-use therapeutic food for children with severe malnutrition. This comes as supply chains are already being adversely affected by increasingly frequent extreme climate events, especially in low-income countries, and has potentially sobering implications for global food security and nutrition.

“This report repeatedly highlights the intensification of these major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities,” the heads of the five UN agencies (2) wrote in this year’s Foreword. “The issue at stake is not whether adversities will continue to occur or not, but how we must take bolder action to build resilience against future shocks.”

Repurposing agricultural policies

The report notes as striking that worldwide support for the food and agricultural sector averaged almost USD 630 billion a year between 2013 and 2018. The lion share of it goes to individual farmers, through trade and market policies and fiscal subsidies. However, not only is much of this support market-distorting, but it is not reaching many farmers, hurts the environment and does not promote the production of nutritious foods that make up a healthy diet. That’s in part because subsidies often target the production of staple foods, dairy and other animal source foods, especially in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Rice, sugar and meats of various types are most incentivized food items worldwide, while fruits and vegetables are relatively less supported, particularly in some low-income countries.

With the threats of a global recession looming, and the implications this has on public revenues and expenditures, a way to support economic recovery involves the repurposing of food and agricultural support to target nutritious foods where per capita consumption does not yet match the recommended levels for healthy diets.

The evidence suggests that if governments repurpose the resources they are using to incentivize the production, supply and consumption of nutritious foods, they will contribute to making healthy diets less costly, more affordable and equitably for all.

Finally, the report also points out that governments could do more to reduce trade barriers for nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses.

(1) It is estimated that between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. The estimate is presented as a range to reflect the added uncertainty in data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions. The increases are measured with reference to the middle of the projected range (768 million).

(2) For FAO – QU Dongyu, Director-General; for IFAD – Gilbert F. Houngbo, President; for UNICEF – Catherine Russell, Executive Director; for WFP – David Beasley, Executive Director; for WHO – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General.

What they said:

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu: “Low-income countries, where agriculture is key to the economy, jobs and rural livelihoods, have little public resources to repurpose. FAO is committed to continue working together with these countries to explore opportunities for increasing the provision of public services for all actors across agrifood systems.”

IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo: “These are depressing figures for humanity. We continue to move away from our goal of ending hunger by 2030. The ripple effects of the global food crisis will most likely worsen the outcome again next year. We need a more intense approach to end hunger and IFAD stands ready to do its part by scaling up its operations and impact. We look forward to having everyone’s support.”

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell: “The unprecedented scale of the malnutrition crisis demands an unprecedented response. We must double our efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable children have access to nutritious, safe, and affordable diets — and services for the early prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition. With so many children’s lives and futures at stake, this is the time to step up our ambition for child nutrition – and we have no time to waste.”

WFP Executive Director David Beasley: “There is a real danger these numbers will climb even higher in the months ahead. The global price spikes in food, fuel and fertilizers that we are seeing as a result of the crisis in Ukraine threaten to push countries around the world into famine. The result will be global destabilization, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “Every year, 11 million people die due to unhealthy diets. Rising food prices mean this will only get worse.  WHO supports countries’ efforts to improve food systems through taxing unhealthy foods and subsidising healthy options, protecting children from harmful marketing, and ensuring clear nutrition labels. We must work together to achieve the 2030 global nutrition targets, to fight hunger and malnutrition, and to ensure that food is a source of health for all.”

GLOSSARY

—Acute food insecurity: food insecurity found in a specified area at a specific point in time and of a severity that threatens lives or livelihoods, or both, regardless of the causes, context or duration. Has relevance in providing strategic guidance to actions that focus on short-term objectives to prevent, mitigate or decrease severe food insecurity.

—Hunger: an uncomfortable or painful sensation caused by insufficient energy from diet. Food deprivation. In this report, the term hunger is synonymous with chronic undernourishment and is measured by the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU).

–Malnutrition: an abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive intake of macronutrients and/or micronutrients. Malnutrition includes undernutrition (child stunting and wasting, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies) as well as overweight and obesity.

–Moderate food insecurity: a level of severity of food insecurity at which people face uncertainties about their ability to obtain food and have been forced to reduce, at times during the year, the quality and/or quantity of food they consume due to lack of money or other resources. It refers to a lack of consistent access to food, which diminishes dietary quality and disrupts normal eating patterns. Measured based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

–Severe food insecurity: a level of severity of food insecurity at which, at some time during the year, people have run out of food, experienced hunger and at the most extreme, gone without food for a day or more. Measured based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

–Undernourishment: a condition in which an individual’s habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the amount of dietary energy required to maintain a normal, active, healthy life. The prevalence of undernourishment is used to measure hunger (SDG indicator 2.1.1).
Contacts:

FAO

Nicholas Rigillo, Communication Officer, nicholas.rigillo@fao.org

WHO

Jin Ni, Communications Officer,

+41 (0)79 791 9098,

jinn@who.int

UNICEF

Helen Wylie, Communication Specialist

+1 917 244 2215

hwylie@unicef.org

IFAD

Alberto Trillo Barca, Communication Officer

a.trillobarca@ifad.org
+39 366 576 3706

WFP

Isheeta Sumra, Communications Officer

isheeta.sumra@wfp.org

+39 347 181 4398

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

New York, June 30 – The UN General Assembly has adopted a political declaration committing member states to set up policies that will halve the annual number of 1.3 million people killed and 50 million who suffered critical injuries in road traffic accidents by 2030.

The UN said road traffic accidents have become a major mortality cause for people aged 5 to 29 and developing countries are losing 2 to 5 per cent of GDP every year to those accidents.

The 193-nation assembly adopted by consensus the declaration following a high-level debate on global road safety, calling on countries worldwide to set up “national targets to reduce fatalities and serious injuries for all road users with special attention given to the safety needs of those road users who are the most vulnerable to road-related crashes.”

Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th assembly session, said the global plan is “key to reducing deaths and boosting development” and it makes “the best use of our investments in safe transport systems, and aims to halve preventable deaths by 2030.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an address to the assembly that road fatalities are “closely linked to poor infrastructure, unplanned urbanization, lax social protection and health care systems, limited road safety literacy, and persistent inequalities both within and between countries. At the same time, unsafe roads are a key obstacle to development.”

“Traffic accidents can push entire families into poverty through either the loss of a breadwinner or the costs associated with lost income and prolonged medical care.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) called the political declaration a milestone in efforts to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.

“Road safety affects everyone. We step from our homes every day onto roads that take us to our jobs, schools and to meet our vital daily needs. Yet our transport systems remain far too dangerous. No death should be acceptable on our roads. The future of mobility should promote health and well-being, protect the environment and benefit all,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It will require transformative leadership from the highest levels of government to act on the Political Declaration to make that vision a reality.”

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

Schloss Elmau, Germany/New York, June 24 – Despite the Ukraine war, an effective solution to the current world’s food crisis requires the reintegration into world markets of food produced by Ukraine as well as Russia’s food and fertilizers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a summit meeting of the world’s most industrialized nations (G7) in Germany.

Guterres said he has been in “intense contact” with governments in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States, the European Union and other countries to reopen Black Sea ports so wheat produced in Ukraine and Russia, and Russian fertilizers, can be shipped to countries that need those products.

“This is not just a food crisis,” Guterres said in a video link to the G7 summit The Uniting For Global Food Security Conference.“It goes beyond food and requires a coordinated multilateral approach, with multi-dimensional solutions.”

The G7 is composed of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada.

Guterres said hundreds of millions of people on the poverty line have been crushed by the crisis as a result of the pandemic, climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine and warned of a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022 and “2023 could be even worse.”

“Developed countries and international financial institutions need to make resources available to help governments support and invest in their people, leaving no one behind,” he said. “Developing countries that face debt default must have access to effective debt relief to keep their economies afloat and their people thriving. Financial institutions must find the flexibility and understanding to get resources where they are needed most.”

US supports UN-led efforts in Ukraine

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the summit that more countries should step up with new substantial contributions to meet urgent humanitarian needs. 

“The work of critical organizations like the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization – their cost of doing business has gone up dramatically.  We need to help them fill some of these gaps,”  Blinken said.

He said since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year the United States has committed nearly $2.8 billion in emergency food assistance, including increasing our aid to countries and regions that were the hardest hit – in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, Lebanon, Haiti. 

“We have $5.5 billion in new funding for global food security and humanitarian assistance approved last month by the United States Congress,” Blinken said.  “We’ll be able to do even more in the weeks and months ahead, and you can expect further announcements of our additional support soon, including from the President at the G7 meeting.”

“We have to accelerate efforts led by the United Nations to end Russia’s blocking of Ukrainian food exports through the Black Sea,” he said.

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

New York, June 23 – The group of seven most industrialized countries in the world has been asked to take swift and decisive action to avert a global food and nutrition crisis as severe floodings and heatwaves, the pandemic and Russia’s destructive war in Ukraine are worsening living conditions for millions of people.

A coalition of organizations and individuals, #HungryForAction #GoodFood4AllNOW, has sent an open letter to G7, which is composed of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada, demanding that it must act now to prevent a global food crisis and secure a sustainable future for people and the planet.

The coalition said the open letter has been coordinated by the UN’s SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which brings together NGOs, agricultural networks, nutritionists, campaigners, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to co-ordinate advocacy efforts and achieve Good Food For All by 2030.

 For more information: https://sdg2advocacyhub.org/actions/urgent-action-needed-prevent-global-food-nutrition

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, said: “Low and lower-middle-income countries’ resources, especially in Africa, are being depleted by crisis upon crisis. We need swift and decisive leadership to tackle their increasing vulnerability to climate shocks and to invest in agricultural adaptation. G7 leaders must act now to help smallholder farmers become climate-resilient, build sustainable food systems, and fund a secure future for people, planet and prosperity.”

Catherine Bertini, Executive Director (1992-2002) of the UN’s World Food Program and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate, said: “The worsening of the global hunger and malnutrition crisis is not inevitable. It can be averted with swift, decisive and visionary leadership. My expectation is that the G7 leaders will act with urgency to address the cost of living crisis, strengthen global food systems and finance safety nets for the most vulnerable

Open letter

G7 must act now to prevent a global food & nutrition crisis and secure a sustainable future for people and the planet

Without action, hundreds of millions will be pushed into poverty and are at risk of being malnourished. But a global hunger and malnutrition crisis is not inevitable. It can be averted with swift, decisive and visionary leadership. In tackling today’s emergency, we must also reduce the likelihood of future crises, making food systems more resilient by investing in a safe climate and healthy natural systems and resources, upon which future food security depends. The G7 must act with urgency on immediate, near- and long-term solutions that save lives and prevent future crises.

Save Lives Now: 276 million people face acute food insecurity. COVID-19 could result in 13.6 million more children wasted by 2022, up 30 percent compared to three years ago. The G7 should mount an urgent response to the humanitarian crisis including investing in social protection interventions to prevent vulnerable households from being pushed further into extreme poverty.

 This response should include:

1. Support WFP’s $21.5 billion requirement to reach 147 million people in 2022, which includes $1.6 billion to provide additional services to 30 million of the most vulnerable children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in need of malnutrition prevention and treatment services, and the UN’s $4.4 billion appeal for the Horn of Africa.

2. Provide an immediate package of support to relevant UN agencies and civil society actors so they can scale-up essential nutrition services in countries with the highest burden of malnutrition, including lifesaving nutrition products like ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) used to prevent and treat child malnutrition. This should allocate at least $1.2 billion to UNICEF, including dedicated funding for The Nutrition Fund.

3. Secure the release of grain and fertilizer from the port of Odessa, commit to resisting export bans and ensure in-donor refugee costs associated with the Ukraine crisis are additional to ODA.

Build Resilience Now: A 1% rise in global food prices tips another 10 million people into extreme poverty. As food prices spiral upwards, low income households cut back on nutritious foods, forgo meals, reduce essential spending and sell off assets. Averting these impossible decisions will be much cheaper in the long run, whilst significantly improving outcomes for people and the planet in the medium term by investing in programmes to reduce food waste and tackle unhealthy, unsustainable diets.

The G7 should invest in a resilience package that includes:

1. Provide $10 million to FAO to assess the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food insecurity and access to food in 50 countries in 2022/2023, using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) measurement system.

2. Commit $1.5 billion to GAFSP to help smallholder farmers boost production and support nutritious food production.

3. Contribute $500 million to IFAD’s Crisis Response Initiative to protect and boost sustainable agricultural production.

4. Invest at least $360 million in nutrition through the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents.

5. Stop using food for fuel: roll back biofuel mandates, with a commitment to cut mandates now by 50%.

6. Ensure access to and affordability of fertilizer now to ensure sustained production in Africa and South Asia while increasing investment in greener fertilizer and more efficient fertilizer use.

7. Provide $39 million to FAO to support 52 countries vulnerable to the current crisis to identify policies and interventions to address food loss and waste over 3 years (2022-2024).

8. Invest $200 million in the African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers.

Fund the Future Now: Low and lower-middle income countries’ resilience is being depleted by these recurrent crises and are increasingly vulnerable to debt defaults and climate shocks. A G7 Marshall Plan is needed to mobilize trillions in sustainable investments to narrow the gap to a 1.5-degree pathway. A seven-fold increase in investment for renewables is needed by 2030 in developing economies.

The G7 should commit to:

1. Double climate adaptation finance, including support for smallholder producers through IFAD’s ASAP+, whilst meeting the promise of $100 billion in climate finance each year; and support the establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance facility.

2. Reallocate at least $100 billion in SDRs to the IMF and through MDBs and IFAD; direct the World Bank to go beyond the additional commitment of $12 billion over 15 months to respond to the food security crisis; and lead on debt relief.

3. Invest $2.3 billion annually to scale up evidence-based nutrition interventions as outlined in the Nutrition Investment Framework.

The Global Alliance for Food & Nutrition Security (GAFNS; “nutrition” should to be added to the Alliance’s title to emphasis the comprehensiveness of the package) should provide a platform to meaningfully engage governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America, smallholder farmers, academics and civil society to work together on agricultural development, health and nutrition, and climate. It should mobilize financing for small-scale producers’ and civil society organizations with a proven track record of delivering efficient and targeted programs and interventions.

Following are organizations and individuals

#HungryForAction

Alliance to End Hunger; Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizens; Bread For The World; Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; EAT Foundation; Eleanor Crook Foundation; Global Citizen; International Fertilizer Development Center; Micronutrient Forum; ONE Campaign; ONE Campaign Germany; ONE Camapign USA; One Acre Fund; Open Society Foundations; Power of Nutrition; Sanku – Project Healthy Children; Save the Children; Standing Together for Nutrition; Tailored Food; World Business Council for Sustainable Development; World Vision Network; Gerda Verburg, UN Assistant Secretary General and Coordinator of the SUN Movement; Jamie Drummond, Co-Founder of Sharing Strategies & the ONE Campaign; Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director of WFP and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate

Media contact:

Donna Bowater

Marchmont Communications

donna@marchmontcomms.com

+61 434 635 099

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

Guangzhou/New York, May 28 – Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called on the Chinese government to review its widely criticized policies applied in the Xinjiang region inhabited by Uyghur minorities and to comply with international human rights standards.

“During my visit, the Government assured me that the VETC system (Vocational Education and Training Centre) has been dismantled,” Bachelet said in a lengthy statement issued during a virtual press conference in Guangzhou as she concluded a six-day visit to China’s western region.

“I encouraged the Government to undertake a review of all counter terrorism and de-radicalization policies to ensure they fully comply with international human rights standards, and in particular that they are not applied in an arbitrary and discriminatory way,” she said.

Bachelet said her visit to Xinjiang was not an investigation of the treatment of the Uyghur people and it was an opportunity to hold direct discussions with China’s most senior leaders “on human rights, to listen to each other, raise concerns, explore and pave the way for more regular, meaningful interactions in the future, with a view to supporting China in fulfilling its obligations under international human rights law.”

“In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, I have raised questions and concerns about the application of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures and their broad application – particularly their impact on the rights of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities,” she said.

Bachelet, a former president of Chile, said she spent two days in Kashgar and Urumqi and met with government officials, including the Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the Governor and the Vice-Governor in charge of public security among others. She also visited Kashgar prison and the Kashgar Experimental School, the training center for VETC.

“I raised with the government the lack of independent judicial oversight of the operation of the program, the reliance by law enforcement officials on 15 indicators to determine tendencies towards violent extremism, allegations of the use of force and ill treatment in institutions, and reports of unduly severe restrictions on legitimate religious practices,“ she said, adding however that she had not been able to assess the full scale of the VETCs.

Bachelet said some Uyghur families had told her before her trip to China that they had lost contact with family members and she had appealed to Chinese officials “to take measures to provide information to families as a matter of priority.”

“I also share the concerns of UN human rights mechanisms about legitimate activities by lawyers, human rights defenders and others being penalized under the national security framework. UN human rights bodies have found the system of Residential Surveillance constitutes arbitrary detention and have called for its repeal.”

Tibet Autonomous Region

Turning to the Tibet Autonomous Region, Bachelet said Tibetan linguistic, religious and cultural identity “be protected, and that Tibetan people are allowed to participate fully and freely in decisions about their religious life and for dialogue to take place. I discussed education policies in the Tibet Autonomous Region and stressed the importance of children learning in their own language and culture in the setting of their families or communities.”

 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)

 Bachelet said HKSAR has long been respected as a center for human rights and independent media.

“It is important that the government there do all it can to nurture – and not stifle – the tremendous potential for civil society and academics in Hong Kong to contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights in the HKSAR and beyond. The arrests of lawyers, activists, journalists and others under the National Security Law are deeply worrying. Hong Kong is due to be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee in July, as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

Weissenhaus, Germany/New York, May 14 – The world’s seven leading economies (G7) and the European Union said in a statement concluding their three-day meeting in Weissenhaus that the Russia’s war in Ukraine is responsible for spiked food and commodity prices that are threatening millions of people, particularly in poor countries in Africa and the Middle East. The UN Security Council in New York has scheduled an open debate on May 19 on the war’s impacts on the global economy.

The statement said the “war of aggression against Ukraine” and unilateral actions preventing Ukraine’s exports of agricultural products have led to “steep price rises in commodity markets and the threats we are now seeing to global food security.”

“As global markets suffer from Russia’s war of choice by rising food and commodity prices, thus affecting the lives of people around the world and exacerbating existing humanitarian and protection needs, we are determined to contribute additional resources to and support all relevant efforts that aim to ensure availability and accessibility of food, energy and financial resources as well as basic commodities for all.”

The G7, composed of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. called on Russia to immediately cease its attacks on key transport infrastructure in Ukraine, including ports, so that they can be used for exporting Ukrainian agricultural products.

The G7 said it will discuss the causes and consequences of the global food crisis through a Global Alliance for Food Security and will closely cooperate with international partners and organizations beyond the G7 “with the aim of transforming political commitments into concrete actions as planned by various international initiatives such as the Food and Agricultural Resilience Mission (FARM) and key regional outreach initiatives, including towards African and Mediterranean countries.”

The G7 said Russia’s war in Ukraine “violated the UN Charter, undermined the fundamental principles of the European security architecture as enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris and will have to face consequences for its actions.” It also “condemns and will systematically expose Russia’s policy of information manipulation and interference, including disinformation which it employs to justify and support its war of aggression against Ukraine and which deliberately aims at manipulating public opinions domestically and worldwide with a view to covering its responsibilities in the ongoing war.”

UN Security Council to discuss war’s impacts on food security on May 19
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to preside a meeting of the 15-nation council on May 19 at which food security issues and the war in Ukraine will be debated with the participation of UN member nations. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, whose country holds the council’s presidency for the month of May, said the meeting will debate war’s impacts on food security.

The World Food Program (WFP), the UN agency that feeds the world’s hungry, has called for the re-opening of ports in Odesa in the Black Sea in order to allow exports of grains and other commodities to the rest of the world. Ukraine and Russia, known as major food baskets, provide up to 30 per cent of global wheat that are needed in developing countries.

WFP Executive Director David Beasley has said that Ukraine’s grain silos are full but the war has stopped all exports. He said 44 million people around the world are facing starvation because of severe shortages and high food prices.

“We have to open up these ports so that food can move in and out of Ukraine. The world demands it because hundreds of millions of people globally depend on these supplies,” he said. “We’re running out of time and the cost of inaction will be higher than anyone can imagine. I urge all parties involved to allow this food to get out of Ukraine to where it’s desperately needed so we can avert the looming threat of famine”.

WFP’s studies showed that 276 million people worldwide were already facing acute hunger at the start of 2022 and that number is expected to rise by 47 million people if the conflict in Ukraine continues, with the steepest rises in sub-Saharan Africa. WFP said most of Ukraine’s food productions before the war could feed some 400 million people and they were shipped through the Black Sea ports.

The World Bank in Washington said in its Commodity Markets Outlook report published on April 25 that Russia’s February 24 war in Ukraine has dealt a “major shock” to commodity markets and has altered global patterns of trade, production, and consumption in ways that will keep prices at historically high levels through the end of 2024.

The report said the increase in energy prices in the past two years has been the largest since the 1973 oil crisis. Price increases for food commodities—of which Russia and Ukraine are large producers—and fertilizers, which rely on natural gas as a production input, have been the largest since 2008.

Download the report

“Overall, this amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s. As was the case then, the shock is being aggravated by a surge in restrictions in trade of food, fuel and fertilizers,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions. “These developments have started to raise the specter of stagflation. Policymakers should take every opportunity to increase economic growth at home and avoid actions that will bring harm to the global economy.”

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles

Kabul/New York, May 9 – An estimated 19.7 million Afghan people, or nearly half of the country’s population, are facing acute hunger because of a series of setbacks, including drought, years of conflict and the on-going war in Ukraine which is causing a global shortage in wheat and other commodities, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP), two major UN agencies specialized in food, said in a joint report.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, conducted in January and February 2022 warned of “catastrophic levels” of food insecurity know as IPC Phase 5 that has been detected in the north-eastern province of Ghor, with a population of 20,000 people. It said the catastrophic levels of hunger are caused by a long period of harsh winter and disastrous agricultural conditions.

Read report: Afghanistan IPC Report,

(NOTE: Definitions provided by the UN: Acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger. Chronic hunger is when a person is unable to consume enough food over an extended period to maintain a normal, active lifestyle.)

“Unprecedented levels of humanitarian assistance focused on bolstering food security have made a difference. But the food security situation is dire. Humanitarian assistance remains desperately important, as do the needs to rebuild shattered agricultural livelihoods and re-connect farmers and rural communities to struggling rural and urban markets across the country. Unless these happen, there will be no way out of this crisis,” said Richard Trenchard, FAO Representative in Afghanistan.

Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP’s Country Director and Representative in Afghanistan, said, “Food assistance and emergency livelihood support are the lifeline for the people of Afghanistan. We mounted the world’s largest humanitarian food operation in a matter of months, reaching more than 16 million people since August 2021.”

“We are working with farmers, millers, and bakeries, training women and creating jobs to support the local economy. Because the people of Afghanistan would much prefer jobs; women want to be able to work; and all girls deserve to go to school. Allowing the economy to function normally is the surest way out of the crisis, otherwise suffering will grow where crops cannot,” she added.

The report predicted that the food security outlook for June-November 2022 may see a slight improvement, including a reduction in the acute food insecurity cases to 18.9 million people due in part to the coming wheat harvest during the May-August period and this year’s “well-coordinated scale-up of humanitarian food assistance – alongside increased agricultural livelihood support.”

But the report said the slight improvement may be limited because of lingering drought and the country’s economic crisis, which means that hunger will remain a threat to millions of people in Afghanistan.

The war in Ukraine will continue to put pressure on Afghanistan’s wheat supply, food commodities, agricultural inputs and fuel prices, the report said. It said access to seeds, fertilizer and water for irrigation is limited, labour opportunities are scarce and enormous debts have been incurred to buy food over the last few months.

FAO and WFP said they will continue to scale up programs across Afghanistan while WFP has reached more than 16 million people so far in 2022 with emergency food assistance, and is supporting local markets, working with retailers and local suppliers. WFP continues to invest in people’s livelihoods through skills training and climate adaption projects so that families can cultivate their land and grow their own food. FAO said it will continue to scale up its assistance to farmers and herders in rural areas and will assist more than 9 million people in 2022 through a range of interventions supporting crop, livestock and vegetable production, cash transfers and the rehabilitation of vital irrigation infrastructure and systems.

“Supporting agriculture is a cost-effective and strategic intervention that delivers great short-term impact as lifesaving support, while it paves the way for longer-term recovery and sustainable development,” the two agencies said.

UN protests Taliban’s order forcing Afghan women to wear hijab and stay home

The UN assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued the following statement on May 7 to protest  the order:

“UNAMA is deeply concerned with today’s announcement by the Taliban de facto authorities that all women must cover their faces in public, that women should only leave their homes in cases of necessity, and that violations of this directive will lead to the punishment of their male relatives. Information that UNAMA has received suggests this is a formal directive rather than a recommendation, and that it will be implemented and enforced.

This decision contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans’ human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade. These assurances were repeated following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, that women would be afforded their rights, whether in work, education, or society at large.

The international community has been eager for signals that the Taliban are ready for positive relations with the wider world. The decision six weeks ago to postpone secondary schooling for Afghan girls was widely condemned internationally, regionally, and locally. Today’s decision by the Taliban might further strain engagement with the international community.

UNAMA will immediately request meetings with the Taliban de facto authorities to seek clarification on the status of this decision. UNAMA will also engage in consultations with members of the international community regarding its implications.”

Read more News here

United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists

United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles