According to the United Nations, progress has slowed or reversed, and more than 270 million people are expected to be acutely food insecure or at high risk of becoming so by 2021.
Famine, driven by war and exacerbated by climatic shocks and the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19, could soon become a reality for millions of people, according to the World Food Programme’s newest Global Operational Response Plan.
The number of people on the verge of starvation has grown from 34 million at the start of the year to 41 million in June.
They, too, fear hunger unless they receive quick emergency food aid since even the smallest shock will send them over the edge into famine.
The situation in 2021 is not normal, and it is deteriorating. “As global food costs continue to increase, we are deeply worried about the world’s most vulnerable people,” the World Food Programme stated. The UN World Food Programme has issued a warning that the world is no longer on its way to achieving Zero Hunger.WFP is focusing on scaling up life-saving food and nutrition aid to address the critical needs of the world’s poorest people, eliminating access barriers, and extending cash-based transfers, with substantial scale-ups planned in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Syria.
The greatest threat to children and the realization of their rights across borders and generations is the climate catastrophe. Millions of children and families have already been driven into poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also exacerbated hunger and malnutrition. Flooding, storms, and droughts, on the other hand, are creating malnutrition among children,” said Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International.
In 2021, the World Food Programme (WFP) will require $5 billion to prevent famine and address the urgent food and nutrition requirements of the world’s most vulnerable people, but the cost of doing nothing is tenfold greater. The $5 billion for famine mitigation is around a third of WFP’s overall funding needs for 2021, which are $15 billion.
Some key elements for the transformation:
- Particularly for communities suffering frequent and protracted crises, a greater emphasis on preventive and developing resilience is critical. This necessitates both political will and immediate, scaled-up, coherent, and coordinated action across humanitarian, development, peace, and climate actors, as well as investment in long-term, inclusive solutions.
The greatest threat to children and the realization of their rights across borders and generations is the climate catastrophe. Millions of children and families have already been driven into poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also exacerbated hunger and malnutrition. Flooding, storms, and droughts, on the other hand, are creating malnutrition among children,” said Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International.
