Thanks to the Nobel Peace Prize, the UN agency has been given a megaphone to warn world leaders that next year will be worse than this year, and without additional investment, “we will have famines of Biblical proportions in 2021.” Also in April, David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, warned that the world was on the brink of a “hunger pandemic” during the corona crisis.
“We were able to avert it in 2020 as world leaders responded with extra money, stimulus packages and debt repayment,” he now says in an interview with The Associated Press. “Now the number of infections is on the rise again, the economies continue to deteriorate – especially in low and middle-income countries – and there is another wave of lockdowns.” Beasley fears that the money available in 2020 to help vulnerable strategic regions will not be available in 2021.
The World Food Program has been awarded the Nobel Prize for its extensive work in conflict areas and refugee camps, as well as “sending a message to the world that things are getting worse out there … (and) that our hardest work is yet to come.”
The UN agency has already donated $ 8 billion (more than € 6.7 billion) in humanitarian aid this year, but Beasley estimates that double this amount will be needed in 2021. He appeals to the international community for this. “2021 will be a very, very difficult year,” he explains. “Let me be clear: if we don’t find the money we need to invest in some strategic regions, hunger and unrest will erupt and the result will be migration. It’s as simple as that. ”
Titanic
He compares the imminent crisis to the Titanic: “Right now we really need to focus on icebergs, and the big icebergs are famine, destabilization and migration.”
He explains that while the famine was largely averted this year, the number of people facing crisis will increase to 270 million.
Twenty countries
“There are about 20 countries that could potentially face starvation if we don’t have the money needed to provide relief,” said Beasley. Of these, a number of areas in Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Burkina Faso have already reached “a critical hunger situation after years of conflict and disaster” and any further deterioration in the situation in the coming months could lead to food insecurity and famine.
Other countries in need of “urgent attention” are: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Beasley explains that a corona vaccine will “create some optimism that will hopefully boost economies around the world.” “But we remain very concerned about the lockdowns and their impact on the economy and the fact that developing countries will have to start paying off their debts again next year. We fear that 2021 will be a very bad year, ”Beasley concludes.
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