The UN is being forced to cut food rations, cash payments and other aid to millions of people in many countries as donations have fallen by about half, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Karl Skau has said.
According to him, at least 38 of the 86 countries where the WFP works have already cut or are planning to cut aid soon, including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa.
He said the WFP needs $20 billion to provide aid to everyone in need, but its target is $10 to $14 billion, which the agency has received in recent years.
“We’re still working towards that goal, but we’re only about half way there this year, about five billion dollars,” Skau said.
He said that humanitarian needs increased in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine and its global consequences. “These needs continue to grow, these factors are still there,” Skau said. “But funding is running out. 2024 will be even harder.”
“The biggest food and nutrition crisis in history is still going on,” Skau said. “This year, 345 million people are still acutely in need of food, and hundreds of millions are at risk of even greater hunger.”
Skau said conflict and insecurity remain the main causes of acute hunger around the world, along with climate change, unrelenting disasters, persistent food price inflation and rising debt burdens – all at a time of global economic slowdown.
2023-07-29 17:38:36
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