The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars \u201cwe are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was looking at the work the agency does every day in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often putting staffers\u2019 lives at risk to feed millions of hungry people \u2014 but also to send \u201ca message to the world that it\u2019s getting worse out there … (and) that our hardest work is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so timely because we\u2019ve been fighting to get above the choir,\u201d Beasley said of last month\u2019s award, pointing to the news being dominated by the US elections and the Covid-19 pandemic, and the difficulty of getting global attention focused on \u201cthe travesty that we\u2019re facing around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this was really a gift from above,\u201d Beasley said, recalling the surprise and delight of WFP\u2019s 20,000 staffers worldwide, and his own shock at being interrupted during a meeting in Niger in Africa\u2019s Sahel region with the news.<\/p>\n
Beasley recalled his warning to the UN Security Council in April that as the world was dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it was also \u201con the brink of a hunger pandemic\u201d that could lead to \u201cmultiple famines of biblical proportions\u201d within a few months if immediate action wasn\u2019t taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to avert it in 2020 … because the world leaders responded with money, stimulus packages, deferral of debt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Now, Beasley said, Covid-19 is surging again, economies are continuing to deteriorate particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and there is another wave of lockdowns and shutdowns.<\/p>\n
But he said the money that was available in 2020 isn\u2019t going to be available in 2021, so he has been using the Nobel to meet leaders virtually and in person, talk to parliaments, and give speeches to sensitize those with power to \u201cthis tragedy that we are facing \u2014 crises that really are going to be extraordinary over the next, who knows, 12 to 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody now wants to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner,\u201d he said, explaining he now gets 45 minutes instead o 15 minutes with leaders and is able to go into depth and explain how bad things are going to be next year and how leaders are going to have to prioritize programs, Beasley said. \u201cAnd the response has really been good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling them you\u2019re not going to have enough money to fund all the projects you historically fund,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are important things,\u201d Beasley said, but he likened the upcoming crisis to the Titanic saying \u201cright now, we really need to focus on icebergs, and icebergs are famine, starvation, destabilization and migration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beasley said WFP needs $15 billion next year \u2014 $5 billion just to avert famine and $10 billion to carry out the agency\u2019s global programs including for malnourished children and school lunches which are often the only meal youngsters get.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could get that coupled with our normal money, then we avert famine around the world\u201d and minimise destabilisation as well as migration. he said.<\/p>\n
In addition to raising extra money from governments, Beasley said, his other \u201cgreat hope\u201d is that billionaires that have made billions during the Covid-19 pandemic will step up on a one-time basis. He plans to start pushing this message probably in December or January.<\/p>\n
In April, Beasley said 135 million people faced \u201ccrisis levels of hunger or worse.\u201d A WFP analysis then showed that Covid-19 could push an additional 130 million people \u201cto the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said in Wednesday\u2019s virtual interview from Rome, where WFP is based, that while famine was averted this year, the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger is increasing toward 270 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s about three dozen countries that could possibly enter the famine conditions if we don\u2019t have the money we need,\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n
According to a joint analysis by WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in October, 20 countries \u201care likely to face potential spikes in high acute food insecurity\u201d in the next three to six months, \u201cand require urgent attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of those, Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Burkina Faso have some areas that \u201chave reached a critical hunger situation following years of conflict or other shocks,\u201d the UN agencies said, and any further deterioration in coming months \u201ccould lead to a risk of famine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other countries requiring \u201curgent attention\u201d are Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, they said.<\/p>\n
Beasley said a Covid-19 vaccine \u201cwill create some optimism that hopefully will help jump the economies around the world, particularly the Western economies. But he said there\u2019s already been $17 billion of economic stimulus this year \u201cand we\u2019re not going to have that globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very, very, very concerned\u201d that with deferred debt payments for low- and middle-income countries resuming in January, new lockdowns and the rippling economic impact, \u201c2021\u2019s going to be a very bad year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source-AP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars \u201cwe are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.\u201d David Beasley said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,21],"tags":[3355,204,4218],"class_list":["post-60474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world-news","tag-food-security","tag-un","tag-unfp"],"yoast_head":"\n