UN calls for emergency aid and resilience funding

More than half a million people in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen are currently suffering from catastrophic food insecurity, and more than 41 million are on the brink of famine, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu, said.

The warning of the head of the FAO that the situation is deteriorating more and more because the food aid allocated and disbursed is far less than the $ 6.6 billion requested by humanitarian organizations to meet the most urgent needs.

He further noted that of the funds provided, very little has been allocated to emergency livelihoods provision, a key component of any effective famine prevention strategy.

He stressed that since the announcement by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, last March, under which a high-level working group on famine was implemented, the organization has helped more than 5.5 million people in the six countries classified as high priority by that group.

However, Donoghue cautioned that the agency received less than a quarter of the resources needed for emergency aid to those states.

The FAO has also expressed concerns about the current conditions in Haiti, where livelihoods are threatened by Covid-19, instability and the consequences of the recent earthquake.

Also alarming is the situation in Afghanistan, where one in three people suffers from acute food insecurity, and in East Africa is threatened for the third consecutive season of reduced rainfall on crops and livestock.

In this regard, Qu called for an urgent increase in preventive measures, such as the one activated last year due to the Desert Locust plague in Africa, which prevented massive losses in staple crops and livestock worth more than $1.5 billion, and protected more than 36 million. Persons.

“We must work together to transform our agricultural food systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable,” said the FAO Director-General.

msm / crc