This discussion at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2022 shared first-hand accounts of hunger, highlighted the innovative solutions being deployed by the United Nations World Food Programme, and challenged everyone to join the movement to reach a Zero Hunger world.

We produce enough food on this planet to feed everyone. And yet, nearly 811 million people worldwide are hungry today, and 45 million people are on the edge of famine across 43 countries. This panel offered an inside look at how the U.N. World Food Programme fights famine and the cutting-edge innovations that its technology incubator — Innovation Accelerator — sources, supports and scales to solve hunger. Since launching in 2015, the Accelerator has supported more than 100 projects across 69 countries, with 16 innovations scaling up to improve life for nearly 9 million people. Mobile technology, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and more are transforming how we combat hunger.

Moderated by international journalist and host Femi Oke, the panel featured Skye Fitzgerald, documentary filmmaker and director of a trilogy of films on the global refugee crisis; Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of Innovation Accelerator at U.N. World Food Programme; and Elizabeth Nyamayaro, Humanitarian and United Nations Special Advisor at U.N. World Food Programme. The 3-part conversation discussed the scope of global hunger, particularly those at risk of famine; what technology and innovative solutions are being deployed to combat hunger; and how we can all do our part to ensure no families go to bed hungry.

In discussing the problem of global hunger, Oke asked the audience if anyone had ever experienced hunger before. Only panelist Elizabeth Nyamayaro and one audience member raised their hands, both of whom graciously shared their experience and why it motivates them today.

Nyamayaro shared her story, which ultimately inspired her dream to work for the United Nations:

“When I turned eight years old, a severe drought devastated my small village and literally left us with nothing to eat or drink. And one day I collapsed to the ground and in my young mind, I thought I was going to die. And in this moment of dire starvation and desperation, the United Nations found me and they gave me a bowl of porridge and saved my life.”

Fitzgerald described a haunting moment in Yemen where a malnourished infant died just hours after birth. “A child in Yemen dies every 75 seconds from hunger.” These stories represent two of major drivers of hunger–climate change and war.

This led the panel to begin discussing solutions, including actions we as individuals can take.

Fitzgerald described a haunting moment in Yemen where a malnourished infant died just hours after birth. “A child in Yemen dies every 75 seconds from hunger.” These stories represent two of major drivers of hunger–climate change and war.

This led the panel to begin discussing solutions, including actions we as individuals can take.

“It’s very easy to ‘other’ hunger,” said Elizabeth. “It’s also important to recognize our individual roles that we are playing in contributing to global hunger.” She challenged the audience to reduce their personal impact on climate change, which creates dangerous conditions for people around the globe, people whose own contributions to climate change are significantly less than our own. Fitzgerald encouraged individuals to pressure politicians to stop supporting wars overseas, a driver of hunger that is within our power to stop.

Kowatsch then dug into the numerous technological innovations being used by the U.N. World Food Programme in the field, such as blockchain technology tied to iris scans to provide cash cards for refugees in camps. Such an innovation helps refugees get access to cash they need without worrying about losing or having their cash card stolen, and ensures funds are being used efficiently. Blockchain also helps keeps the personal data of refugees secure. With any innovation, we always asks, “How can we provide the best service? How can we give people dignity and choice with the aid we’re providing?”

If there is one takeaway from this panel, it’s that global hunger affects all of us one way or another and it is our collective responsibility to solve it. At the end of the panel, Fitzgerald held up a piece of paper. On it, the number 48 – the number of Yemeni children who had died of hunger since the start of the panel. “Pay attention and believe that individual action can have an impact. Your toolbox matters too.”

“Do we have what it takes? Yes, we do. We are the largest humanitarian organization in the world,” said Nyamayaro. “The thing that we don’t have, is all of us. It’s going to take all of us. We are at a crossroads, and we have to make a decision. We can also choose to act now and be part of solving global hunger, or we’re going to have to pay later for the consequences of what happens when we fail to act.”

Watch Part 4 of the 4-Part series “US Against Hunger,” an exploration into the key drivers of hunger as expert panelists discuss how to transform our global food system to deliver to all.  

World Food Program USA’s fourth US Against Hunger panel, The Future of Hunger and Global Food Systems, held on October 14, explored the problems facing our vast, complicated, and interconnected food systems around the world as well as solutions the United Nations World Food Programme pursues to make the path from farm to table more efficient and effective.

The panel, moderated by international journalist Femi Oke, featured: Dr. Martin Frick, Deputy to the Special Envoy for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021, Volli Carucci, Head of Food Systems and Resilience for the U.N. World Food Programme and Chef Andrew Zimmern, award-winning TV personality, author and activist. Barron Segar, World Food Program USA President and CEO, delivered illuminating opening remarks about our food systems and the need to improve them.

“For sixty years, the U.N. World Food Programme has worked to repair, sustain and improve food systems for the world’s most at risk people” including through training smallholder farmers and other local programs,” Segar said. “It’s essential that we transform our food systems to become sustainable while also maintaining a strong global food supply chain.”

At the outset of the conversation, the panelists described the problems facing many of the smaller, local food systems around the world in countries in Africa and South America as well as the systemic issues that become apparent at a global scale. Frick expanded the perspective of the issues of food systems to highlight that many if not all of the issues facing the way people access are interrelated.

“You don’t have the choice what crisis you want to address,” Frick said. “There’s a soil crisis, we are losing arable land at a breathtaking speed. There’s a biodiversity crisis in which we are killing more animals more species every day that can possibly be sustained. We have a climate crisis all over, and we have inequality, hunger and poverty. We need to fix all of these things together and that is absolutely doable.”

The panelists agreed that in order to fix the global food system, steps need to be taken at the local, community level. That includes tactics that many consumers in the U.S. and other developed countries can take upon themselves to prevent waste, including opting for produce they might otherwise not consider.

“I am all for ugly food,” Zimmern said. “I don’t believe we need to be buying pristine food from western markets. I believe in the power of eating ugly food — often it tastes better, and most of the food grown in the world is ugly.”

Zimmern later added that people in western countries could require a fundamental shift in the way they approach their meals, especially with proteins – using meat to accent their plate rather than eating “half a chicken.”

Oke added that the U.N. World Food Programme has launched a new campaign, #StopTheWaste, that can help people better approach their food waste responses. For every dollar saved acting as a conscientious grocery shopper and home cook, Oke said, supporters can donate that money to the U.N. World Food Programme to turn their savings into a quantifiable impact on hunger programs around the world.

But those kinds of solutions alone cannot solve the systemic issues facing families around the developing world. Zimmern said that in a country like Ethiopia, it’s a commonly held “myth” that the people there can’t grow their own food. What they need help with, he said, is developing the infrastructure and distribution capabilities.

Frick added that those issues are underlined by the fact that 80 percent of the food insecure people of this planet are actually food producers, a sad irony. Zimmern agreed, adding that there needs to be greater appreciation for farmers around the world.

“Like teachers and first responders, our farmers globally are our livelihood. We need to be supporting them. That’s where the money needs to go. We shouldn’t be taking from them and pushing them down. We need to be elevating them and listening to what they have to say.”

While the panelists agreed that there are many tech-focused solutions – like optimized distribution routes and data analytics – that offer helpful insight on creating more efficient food systems, Carucci said sometimes the best approaches are well-worn, like half-moon planting in Africa that creates natural reservoirs.

“It’s a beautiful technology,” Carucci said. “It’s very ancient; it goes back two thousand years. But it has been adopted, fixed and refixed. We’re trying to combine with indigenous knowledge because often we don’t ask local people about their innovations.”

In closing, the Zimmern called broadly for the political will to enact the changes needed to drastically improve our food systems, which require immediate attention, or else we will face the “petrifying” circumstance of being in the same position two or three years from now. Carucci echoed those sentiments and added that people need to support areas of the world in need and view them as powerful investments.

“Invest in those places where people may think it’s not worth investing,” he said. “Investing demands our collective support. We have hundreds of millions of people waiting for a partnership, a relationship, and learnings. We need to learn from them as much as the other way around.”

Discussion examined the impact of climate change on hunger, and how the United Nations World Food Programme builds resilience among vulnerable communities.

World Food Program USA’s Climate Starves panel on April 21 explored the far-reaching impacts of climate change in driving hunger, degrading land and crops, and driving migration. During this live event, panelists gave a behind-the-scenes look at how climate change is affecting the world’s most vulnerable communities and how the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides food assistance and works to build resilience to climate shocks.

The panel, moderated by international journalist Femi Oke, featured: Gernot Laganda, U.N. World Food Programme Chief of Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction; Laura Melo, U.N. World Food Programme Country Director in Guatemala; and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, acclaimed environmental and indigenous activist and President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad. Barron Segar, World Food Program USA President and CEO, delivered powerful opening remarks about climate change.

“Climate change is creating challenges for the U.N. World Food Programme that we never envisioned, and it’s only getting worse,” Segar said. “But there are solutions… you can be part of that solution to climate change, and we need your help.”

To frame the conversation, Gernot Laganda discussed the two ways that climate change drives hunger. Most prominent are extreme weather events like droughts, monsoons and floods that damage food systems all over the world.

The second way that climate drives hunger is less visible  but can be just as insidious, Laganda said. These more subtle instances include variations such as irregular rainfall, shifting patterns for pests and disease, growing heat stress in livestock and more.

“These stresses do not cause big humanitarian disasters, but they put households into a much more vulnerable place,” he said. “So that even when a smaller shock happens, no matter where it comes from – it could be COVID, it could be an economic shock, it could be some smaller, seasonal climate shock – that can lead to a food crisis.”

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim said her nomadic, pastoralist culture are so attuned to their home environments that they’ve developed techniques to adapt to the challenges of changing climate patterns. She said she was heartened by  the video of people in  the Sahel region working on WFP resilience projects. “They are the engineers of that ecological system,” Ibrahim said. “So to just push them a little bit with financial support, with training, with the materials or with the weather forecasts that add to their own traditional knowledge, they can turn this land into a dream for their children.”

Laura Melo discussed the on-the-ground realities of the climate crisis in Central America.

“When there isn’t enough to eat, as any of us would do, we would be ready to take desperate measures to feed our children,” Melo said. “If any of us see that we don’t have enough to feed our small child, we’ll do anything to find an alternative.”

She added that many of the families in Guatemala and throughout Central America rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. When  shocks like Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit, for some families “everything vanished.”

The effect of the destabilization of communities in such a way, Melo said, is part of the reason people are forced into drastic decisions such as attempting to migrate to the United States.

That sentiment was echoed by U.N. World Food Programme’s Latin America and Caribbean Regional Director Miguel Barreto in a featured video, who reported that 15 percent of people in Latin America are seeking to migrate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Melo later highlighted resilience initiatives the U.N. World Food Programme pursues in Guatemala and around the world to help people create long-term stability and prosperity. She described a  region of Guatemala that habitually faces climate shocks where the U.N. World Food Programme provided seed capital to women – with a focus on indigenous groups – to start businesses, diversify their families’ incomes and establish credit and savings. Incidentally, when COVID-19 struck the community and many of their husbands lost jobs, —the women were able to keep their families afloat because of their critical savings.

“This made the difference for them between starving or being able to cope with the shock,” Melo said.

In closing, Laganda challenged the audience to celebrate Earth Day every single day and presented some immediately actionable improvements to better our effect on climate and hunger.

“We can become more aware about the environmental and carbon footprint of our food choices,” he said.

Ibrahim called on young people to stand up for what they believe in and to embrace activism, a role she was thrust into at an early age.

“When you’re born an indigenous person, you’re already born an activist because you already struggle for your people to access land, to access territories, to get respect, to access clean water,” Ibrahim said. “I can’t fight for human rights without also fighting for environmental rights.”

Event Highlights

Full Discussion

About US Against Hunger

The US Against Hunger discussion series explores key drivers of hunger and food insecurity, including conflict, gender inequality, climate change and food waste. Each panel convenes high-profile thought leaders, experts, influencers and business leaders across sectors to examine these issues and what must be done to make a Zero Hunger world a reality.

Learn more about US Against Hunger and future events.

On March 5, 2021, World Food Program USA convened an expert panel to explore how and why food insecurity disproportionately impacts women and girls in the world’s worst crisis zones. In this live conversation, our panelists showed how the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is tackling the disparity head on by delivering lifesaving support, food assistance and skills training to empower women.

No Woman Left Behind: The Future of Gender Inequity and Hunger  featured a panel discussion with:

• The U.N. World Food Programme’s Director for the Gender office, Kawinzi Muiu,
• U.N. World Food Programme Special Adviser for Mother & Child Nutrition, Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan, and
• Celebrity chef and advocate, Tyler Florence, with
• Journalist Femi Oke moderating

The panel covered a wide range of topics, including:

• What challenges women and girls face globally,
• How gender inequality drives hunger, and
• How the U.N. World Food Programme and its supporters around the world are helping

Our President and CEO Barron Segar delivered moving opening remarks, and several high-profile guests addressed the event by video, including Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and actress Jaime King.

“Where food is scarce, women eat least and eat last,” said Segar. “Nearly 90 million women and girls around the world are hungry. But there is good news and cause for hope. It is that women are also the solution. Because while women are hungrier, women are also powerful. They hold the key to ending hunger, a problem that is 100 percent solvable.”

Ms. Kawinzi Muiu, the U.N. World Food Programme’s Director for the Gender office, put into stark terms the realities women face.

“Just as the sun rises tomorrow, a woman is going to bed tonight without food. A woman is going to die without food,” Muiu said. “As the sun rises tomorrow, the U.N. World Food Programme saves lives and changes lives in so many areas around the world…If we got the financial resources, not only would we save more lives, but we would take those lives, lift them from famine and put them toward the path of self-reliance.”

Muiu didn’t shy away from the fact that the many millionaires and billionaires around the world could pitch in to provide the resources needed to improve the lives of women.

Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan, a U.N. World Food Programme Special Adviser for Mother & Child Nutrition, acknowledged how many of us know about the “glass ceiling,” yet she sees another related phenomenon that similarly affects women in all walks of life: the “sticky floor.” Whether a woman doesn’t receive prenatal care, or she’s hurt disproportionately by the ongoing pandemic, there are forces at work preventing women from reaching their full potential.

“As a woman or a girl…it’s the same in Sub-Saharan Africa as it is in the United States as it is in Asia…There’s just always something that keeps pulling you back and preventing you from being able to move forward in life,” Zeid said. “And because women and girls are at the heart of all of the other elements that create success, survival, good health, prosperity – whether it be for a family or for a community – if we don’t do better for women and girls and enable them to get off the sticky floor, then generations are going to be impacted by this.”

Muiu talked about how important it is to support women around the world with cash assistance. In many countries, women aren’t allowed to have bank accounts and are forced to rely on others, almost always men, for purchases.

“Can you imagine the indignity of having to ask a male relative to give you money to buy something? When we give women cash, they can make these dignified choices. So, cash empowers women,” Muiu said.

These kinds of cash programs are already in operation around the world including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Guatemala, where women reinvest in themselves and their communities.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s special remarks noted the compounding benefits of supporting women who are the most vulnerable to poverty and hunger.

“When you help feed and empower a woman, you save an entire family and you transform a community,” Sandberg said. “The United Nations World Food Programme knows that gender equality is a requirement to end hunger, and that’s why it’s embedded in everything they do.”

About US Against Hunger

The US Against Hunger discussion series explores key drivers of hunger and food insecurity, including conflict, gender inequality, climate change and food waste. Each panel convenes high-profile thought leaders, experts, influencers and business leaders across sectors to examine these issues and what must be done to make a Zero Hunger world a reality.

Learn more about US Against Hunger and future events.

Hunger & conflict are on the rise

Nearly a quarter of a billion people are now at risk of starvation. Families are finding it harder to put food on the table, child malnutrition is threatening millions and famine is looming. Now, a toxic mix of conflict, climate extremes and the socio-economic fallout from the pandemic are driving people into a deepening phase of extreme hunger.

On December 2, 2020, World Food Program USA launched a series of livestreamed events, US Against Hunger, with it’s inaugural Behind the Frontlines: Hunger and the Confluence of Conflict and COVID-19. It was a timely focus on the dangerous confluence of hunger, war and the coronavirus pandemic. Humanitarian advocate Rima Fakih and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof joined United Nations World Food Programme’s Assistant Executive Director Valerie Guarnieri and moderator Femi Oke for a lively exchange of firsthand stories and observations on how this triple threat has upended the health and security of billions of people around the world.

“Across the world, hunger is top of mind more so today than at any other time since World War II,” said Barron Segar, President and CEO, World Food Program USA, introducing the event. “We have the power to help people avert starvation and to help them thrive. To me, this is the greatest calling of my life and of our generation,” he said.

Fighting hunger on the frontlines of conflict and COVID-19

To set the scene for the conversation, Oke introduced compelling U.N. World Food Programme video footage highlighting the link between conflict and hunger and showcasing its work to feed people in conflict zones. The video made a succinct point: food is more than survival; food provides stability and the strength to rebuild a better tomorrow after a crisis.

There is misperception that there is some silver bullet that can address hunger, and it’s just a matter of handing somebody food,” said Kristof, a New York Times columnist who has traveled extensively in South Sudan and other war zones. “It’s infinitely more complicated than that. It’s about equitable distribution, it’s about reaching young people, it’s a matter of anticipating where famine will arise.

Kristof added that the pandemic is disrupting food delivery, income, and remittances and in ways that will affect people indirectly, especially children and girls.

Fakih, former Miss USA 2010 and Ambassador for Children’s Cancer Center Lebanon, survived war and hunger as a child in Lebanon.

“I’m 35 years old and I went through something like this. And today, millions of people are still stuck in the cycle of man-made conflict,” said Fakih.

In a plainspoken appeal for support, Guarnieri emphasized that famine is preventable, but the U.N. World Food Programme urgently needs support to do it.

“We are benefiting from the generosity of the U.S. and other donor countries, but we see the needs growing and the resources shrinking,” she said, adding that the organization needs greater resources to do the increasingly difficult work of delivering food to people during the pandemic, with the ultimate goal of reaching zero hunger.

Oke closed the one-hour discussion with a video recognizing the U.N. World Food Programme staff who risk their lives to help save lives. These courageous men and women, who work in the world’s most dangerous places, have been honored with the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel underscores U.N. World Food Programme’s value as a best-in-class humanitarian organization enabled by generous support from businesses, governments and individuals. And, now, the organization will need greater levels of funding to meet the unprecedented challenge posed by conflict and the pandemic.

About US Against Hunger

The US Against Hunger discussion series explores key drivers of hunger and food insecurity, including conflict, gender inequality, climate change and food waste. Each panel convenes high-profile thought leaders, experts, influencers and business leaders across sectors to examine these issues and what must be done to make a Zero Hunger world a reality.

Learn more about US Against Hunger and future events.