UNITED NATIONS, May 30 :Some 22 countries, including Pakistan, will see an increase in acute food insecurity over the next six months, according to a new early warning report issued by two Rome-based U.N. agencies.<\/p>\n
The report by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calls for urgent attention to save both lives and livelihoods. It covers the period from June to November 2023.<\/p>\n
Called \u2018Hunger Hotspots \u2013 WFP-FAO early warnings on acute food insecurity\u2019, the report identified 18 hotspots with Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen placed at the highest alert level and Haiti, the Sahel (Burkina Faso and Mali) and Sudan elevated to the highest concern levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness-as-usual pathways are no longer an option in today\u2019s risk landscape if we want to achieve global food security for all, ensuring that no one is left behind,\u201d QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to provide immediate time-sensitive agricultural interventions to pull people from the brink of hunger, help them rebuild their lives, and provide long-term solutions to address the root causes of food insecurity. Investing in disaster risk reduction in the agriculture sector can unlock significant resilience dividends and must be scaled up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted the risk of a spill-over of the Sudan crisis raising the risk of neighboring countries to negative impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are more people in more places around the world going hungry, but the severity of the hunger they face is worse than ever,\u201d Cindy McCain, WFP\u2019s Executive Director., said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis report makes it clear: we must act now to save lives, help people adapt to a changing climate, and ultimately prevent famine. If we don\u2019t, the results will be catastrophic,\u201d McCain warned.<\/p>\n
In addition, global economic shocks and stressors continue to drive \u201cacute hunger\u201d across almost all hotspots, the report said.<\/p>\n
With unusually high global food prices, low to middle-income countries will likely be driven further into a deep crisis, it added.<\/p>\n
Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Myanmar, which has been included in the latest report for the first time, were described as hotspots of very high concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these hotspots have a large number of people facing critical acute food insecurity, coupled with worsening drivers that are expected to further intensify life-threatening conditions in the coming months,\u201d the report warned.<\/p>\n
Lebanon, El Salvador and Nicaragua have all been added to the list of hotspots since the last edition was published and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have been included in the report again.<\/p>\n
To avert a further deterioration of acute hunger and malnutrition, the report provides concrete country-specific recommendations on priorities for an immediate emergency response to save lives, prevent famine and protect livelihoods, as well as anticipatory action.<\/p>\n
Humanitarian action will be critical in preventing starvation and death \u2013 particularly in the highest alert hotspots, but the report notes how humanitarian access is constrained by insecurity, bureaucratic barriers, and movement restrictions \u2013 posing a major challenge to humanitarian responders around the globe.<\/p>\n
The report also stresses the importance of strengthening anticipatory action in humanitarian and development assistance \u2013 ensuring predictable hazards do not become full-blown humanitarian disasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, May 30 :Some 22 countries, including Pakistan, will see an increase in acute food insecurity over the next six months, according to a new early warning report issued by two Rome-based U.N. agencies. The report by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calls for urgent attention to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-334276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n