ROME
\nMore than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday.
\nThe Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organizations founded by the UN and European Union, said people faced starvation and death in seven of those countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
\nThe report found that that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food aid \u2014 258 million \u2014 had increased for the fourth consecutive year, a \u201cstinging indictment of humanity\u2019s failure\u201d to implement UN goals to end world hunger, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said.
\nWhile the increase last year was due in part to more populations being analyzed, the report also found that the severity of the problem increased as well, \u201chighlighting a concerning trend of a deterioration.\u201d
\nRein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said an interplay of causes was driving hunger. They include conflicts, climate shocks, the impact of the pandemic and consequences of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine that has had an impact on the global trade in fertilizers, wheat, maize and sunflower oil.
\nThe impact has been most acute on the poorest countries that are dependent on food imports. \u201cPrices have increased (and) those countries have been adversely affected,\u201d Paulsen said.
\nHe called for a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d so that more funding is spent investing in agricultural interventions that anticipate food crises and aim to prevent them.
\n\u201cThe challenge that we have is the disequilibrium, the mismatch that exists between the amount of funding money that\u2019s given, what that funding is spent on, and the types of interventions that are required to make a change,\u201d he said.
\nThe UN World Food Program\u2019s new chief issued a warning that the Rome-based agency\u2019s resources to provide food aid amid the surging needs are \u201crunning dangerously low.\u201d Executive Director Cindy McCain told panelists at an event to present the report that the agency could be forced to make \u201cheart-breaking decisions to slash\u201d assistance if substantial new funding doesn\u2019t materialize quickly.
\nMcCain noted that she had just returned from Somalia, where, she said, \u201cmillions are teetering on the edge of hunger and catastrophe.\u201d She sounded a poignant note: \u201cWe all know it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.\u201d
\nAcute food insecurity is when a person\u2019s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.
\nThe EU\u2019s commissioner for international partnership, Jutta Urpilainen, said that the bloc\u2019s strategy to fight hunger includes supporting initiatives aimed to \u201cboost local production and reduce dependence on unsustainable imports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME More than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday. The Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organizations founded by the UN and European Union, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-329394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n