UNITED NATIONS, Feb 09 (APP):As millions worldwide continue to go hungry, leaders of five international humanitarian, banking and trade organizations Wednesday appealed for further urgent action to prevent the global food and nutrition crisis from worsening. <\/p>\n
The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) called for rescuing \u201chunger hotspots\u201d and facilitating trade, among other measures. <\/p>\n
In a joint statement, they advised countries to balance short-term urgent interventions with longer-term resilience efforts.? <\/p>\n
“Food inflation remains high in the wake of shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates,” they said in a statement \u2013 their third since July. <\/p>\n
Nearly 350 million people across 79 countries are acutely food insecure, and undernourishment is on the rise. The situation is expected to worsen, with global food supplies projected to drop to a three-year low. <\/p>\n
The need is especially dire in 24 countries identified as hunger hotspots, 16 of which are in Africa. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on governments and donors to support country-level efforts to address the needs in hotspots, share information and strengthen crisis preparedness,\u201d the leaders said. <\/p>\n
They stressed that WFP and FAO required funds urgently to serve the most vulnerable immediately. <\/p>\n
WFP and partners reached a record number of people last year, the UN said in a press release. The agency delivered food and nutrition assistance to more than 140 million thanks to a record-breaking $14 billion in contributions. <\/p>\n
FAO also invested $1 billion to support more than 40 million people in rural areas with agricultural interventions, while the World Bank provided a $30 billion food and security package covering a 15-month period ending this July. <\/p>\n
Funding must also be mobilized so that the IMF\u2019s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) can provide concessional financing to poorer countries, while its new Food Shock Window has so far supported Ukraine, Malawi, Guinea and Haiti. <\/p>\n
Donors and governments should also support the Global Alliance for Food Security, which promotes greater crisis preparedness. <\/p>\n
The organization heads called for facilitating trade, improving the functioning of markets and enhancing the role of the private sector. <\/p>\n
\u201cCountries should minimize trade distortions, strengthen the provision of public goods, and enable the private sector to contribute meaningfully to improved food security outcomes,\u201d they advised. <\/p>\n
Furthermore, they urged governments to avoid policies such as export restrictions, which can impact poor people in low-income nations that import food, while advocating for support for trade facilitation measures that improve the availability of food and fertilizer. <\/p>\n
Although countries have lifted some export bans on wheat and rice, they warned that new restrictions and bans, particularly on vegetables, are hampering availability worldwide. <\/p>\n
\u201cGlobal food security can be strengthened if governments support both food producers and consumers in a smart and targeted manner, such as by strengthening the provision of public goods in ways that improve farm productivity sustainably,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
The World Bank has a $6 billion platform that supports farmers to access fertilizers and other critical supplies, while at the same time helping private companies make longer-term investments, according to the statement. <\/p>\n
Countries should also reform and repurpose harmful subsidies for more targeted and efficient programmes towards global food security and sustainable food systems, they said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the global social protection response to inflation is in the form of subsidies, half of which are untargeted, inefficient, and costly to already constrained governments,\u201d the leaders said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSupport should be scaled up for countries to strengthen and deploy comprehensive, actionable and shock responsive social protection strategies.\u201d <\/p>\n
They also highlighted the need to re-examine and reform support to agriculture. While this amounted to roughly $639 billion per year between 2016 and 2018, and has been rising since then, farmers received only 35 cents for every dollar spent. <\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of this support incentivizes inefficient use of resources, distorts global markets, or undermines environmental sustainability, public health, and agricultural productivity,\u201d they stated. <\/p>\n
Instead, funding should be used to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of the agri-food system, including through the adoption of good agricultural practices, research and innovation, and improved infrastructure. <\/p>\n
\u201cAction is already underway to address underlying structural challenges in social protection and in the food and fertilizer markets, but more concerted action across these three key areas is needed to prevent a prolonged crisis,\u201d they noted. <\/p>\n
The leaders began their statement by offering their deepest sympathies to the people of T\u00fcrkiye and Syria in the wake of the deadly and devastating earthquakes this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur organizations are closely monitoring the situation, assessing the magnitude of the disaster, and working to mobilize necessary support in accordance with each organization\u2019s mandates and procedures,\u201d the leaders added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 09 (APP):As millions worldwide continue to go hungry, leaders of five international humanitarian, banking and trade organizations Wednesday appealed for further urgent action to prevent the global food and nutrition crisis from worsening. The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), […]<\/p>\n
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