published United Nations A report on Friday on World Food Day highlights the unprecedented threats facing global food security.
World Food Day 2022 comes amid a deepening food security crisis that is casting its shadow on the world and unprecedented numbers of people at risk of suffering from severe hunger in Asia and Africa.
In addition to the 970,000 people at risk of starvation in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, the number of people suffering from hunger in the world is on the rise, according to the latest FAO report on the state of food security and nutrition in the World.
In a message on the occasion of World Food Day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that World Food Day 2022 comes at a critical time from a global food security perspective.
He warned that the number of people affected by hunger has more than doubled in the past three years. About one million people live in famine conditions, where they are at risk of death and starve to death.
There are as many as 3 billion (billions) of people who cannot afford a healthy diet.
“In the face of the global hunger crisis, we must harness the power of solidarity and collective action to build a sustainable world where everyone has regular access to enough nutritious food.”
what not @FAODG During the celebration of #World Food Day :https://t.co/xxa0wmnIGq pic.twitter.com/KHdGvoQbmp
– FAO in Arabic (@FAOarabic) October 14, 2022
Guterres said the most vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of the Corona pandemic, the climate crisis, environmental degradation, conflict and growing inequality, noting that the war in Ukraine has led to a rapid rise in food prices and fertilizers.
He stressed that “we can reverse all these trends if we put our hands in our hands. The quantities of food available this year are sufficient to meet the needs of all the people in the world. But farmers urgently need to get fertilizer at a reasonable cost to ensure sufficient food next year. ” “.
The Secretary General stressed that governments, scientists, the private sector and civil society must work together to make nutrient-rich diets accessible and affordable.
Financial institutions need to increase their support for developing countries so they can help their people and invest in food systems.
He stressed the need to “work together to move from the anguish of despair to the breadth of hope and action, inviting everyone to be on World Food Day and every day an active element in the process of change”.
In turn, World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley said there could be a “crisis in food availability as the aftermath of the conflict in Ukraine and climate change threaten to disrupt global food production in the coming months. therefore it is imperative that the world open its eyes to this global food crisis. “It is unprecedented and act now to prevent it from getting out of control.”
