Coronavirus Archives - Page 4 of 14 - World Food Program USA

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched this weekend a Ramadan campaign on social media to raise awareness on the suffering of 690 million hungry people around the world.

The campaign kicked off with “empty” posts by celebrities and influencers in the Arab world and beyond. Top UN officials, supporters and staff also started sharing empty posts on Instagram feeds using #EmptyFeed throughout the month.

“This Ramadan, we thought maybe we can FEED more people by hijacking Instagram FEEDs; all you need to do is share an empty post on your Instagram feed. It can be an empty plate, box, wall, plain background,” says U.N. World Food Programme Head of Communications in the MENA region Abeer Etefa. “While each one of us knows their day fast will end at dusk, millions around the world know no end to theirs.”

Goodwill ambassador Hend Sabry and celebrity chef Manal Al Alem were the first to support the campaign. Among the supporters were also Dalia El Beheri, Omar El Saeed, Souhair Al Qaissi, Logina Salah, Enjy Kiwan, Rahaf Sawalha, Chef May Yacoubi and Sham Al Zahabi.

The U.N. World Food Programme is providing food assistance for around 25 million people in 13 countries in the MENA region. The U.N. World Food Programme operates in some of the toughest environments in the world, affected by active conflict as well as mass and protracted displacement.

Two out of the U.N. World Food Programme’s six biggest emergencies are in the Middle East, in Syria and Yemen where close to 18 million people – 13 million of them in Yemen and nearly 5 million in Syria – rely on U.N. World Food Programme food assistance for their survival.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many countries in the region into economic turmoil as it compounded pre-existing problems. The pandemic has increased fragility of economies, jeopardized access to food, diminished purchasing power and lowered economic productivity.

With little to no savings, no unemployment insurance and reduced food subsidies, people who engage in subsistence or informal work to support their families are severely impacted by lockdowns or interruptions to their livelihoods.

U.N. World Food Programme is encouraging social media users to take part in the campaign by sharing empty posts on Instagram along with the caption: Let this EMPTY post be a reminder that 690 million people go to bed hungry every night. Visit @wfp_mena to donate. #EmptyFeed #ZeroHunger

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

ROME – Acute hunger is set to soar in over 20 countries in the coming months without urgent and scaled-up assistance, warn the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in a new report issued today.

Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria top the list and face catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with families in pockets of South Sudan and Yemen already in the grip of – or at risk of starvation and death according to the Hunger Hotspots report.

Although the majority of the affected countries are in Africa, acute hunger is due to rise steeply in most world regions – from Afghanistan in Asia, Syria and Lebanon in the Middle East to Haiti in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Already, over 34 million people are grappling with emergency levels of acute hunger (IPC4) – – meaning they are one step away from starvation – across the world.

“The magnitude of suffering is alarming. It is incumbent upon all of us to act now and to act fast to save lives, safeguard livelihoods and prevent the worst situation,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.

“In many regions, the planting season has just started or is about to start. We must run against the clock and not let this opportunity to protect, stabilize and even possibly increase local food production slip away,” urged Qu.

“We are seeing a catastrophe unfold before our very eyes. Famine – driven by conflict, and fueled by climate shocks and the COVID-19 hunger pandemic – is knocking on the door for millions of families,” said U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley.

“We urgently need three things to stop millions from dying of starvation: the fighting has to stop, we must be allowed access to vulnerable communities to provide life-saving help and above all we need donors to step up with the $ 5.5 billion we are asking for this year,” he added.

Conflict, COVID-19 amongst key drivers of acute food insecurity

One or a mix of the following factors are behind the projected rise in acute food insecurity in the 20 hunger “hotspots” between March and July 2021.

Conflict or other forms of violence may protract or is likely to increase in parts of Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Central Sahel, Ethiopia, northern Nigeria, northern Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan and the Sudan.
COVID-19 will continue to impact numerous countries around the world, leaving them highly vulnerable to economic shocks. Latin America is the region hardest hit by economic decline and will be the slowest to recover. In the Middle East, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon are seriously affected by a rapid currency depreciation and skyrocketing inflation.
Climate extremes and la Niña-driven weather will likely continue in April and May, driving hunger in several parts of the world – from Afghanistan, Madagascar to the Horn of Africa.
Desert Locust outbreaks in East Africa and on the Red Sea Coast remain of concern. In Southern Africa, in parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African migratory locusts threaten to ravage the summer crops.
Increasingly constrained access in some countries to help people in need has been making things worse.

Urgent, at-scale action needed to stop rising hunger and risk of famine

The report recommends critical short-term actions in each hunger hotspot to address existing and future needs.

These range from scaling up food and nutrition assistance, distributing drought-tolerant seeds, treating and vaccinating livestock to rolling out cash-for-work schemes, rehabilitating water-harvesting structures and increasing income opportunities for vulnerable communities.

Agricultural production is possible and essential, especially where access is constrained and people are even more reliant on local production.

Earlier this month, FAO and the U.N. World Food Programme called for $ 5.5 billion to swiftly scale up actions and avert famine through a combination of humanitarian food assistance, cash and emergency livelihoods interventions.

Hunger hotspots – up close

People in South Sudan, Yemen and northern Nigeria remain most at risk of rising and dangerously high acute food insecurity. In Burkina Faso, food security has slightly improved since last October, but the situation is still very concerning.

In South Sudan, in parts of Jonglei State, people were likely already grappling with famine last October and November, and will continue to do so through this April-July lean season. FAO and the U.N. World Food Programme call for urgent and at-scale action now to stop likely widespread starvation and death, as well as a complete collapse of livelihoods in these areas.

Over 7 million people across South Sudan are projected to fall into crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, including over 100,000 at catastrophe level (IPC5), during April-July – 700,000 more since the same period last year.

In Yemen, continued violence and economic decline as well as severe disruptions to the humanitarian response are likely to persist over the coming months.

In Al Jawf, Amran and Hajjah governorates, the number of people in catastrophe level of food insecurity is estimated to triple – reaching 47,000 in June 2021, up from 16,000 in October–December 2020.

With already highly vulnerable populations, severe malnutrition, rising displacement and the deteriorating economic situation, the risk of famine in Yemen is increasing.

Overall, over 16 million Yemenis are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity by June 2021, an increase of some 3 million since the end of last year.

In conflict-hit northern Nigeria, projections for the June-August lean season show that the number of people in emergency level of acute food insecurity is likely to almost double – to over 1.2 million – since the same period last year. In the next six months, food and nutrition insecurity is set to rise considerably in northern Nigeria with some 13 million people affected unless food and livelihood assistance is scaled up.

Burkina Faso has seen a slight improvement in food security since June 2020 due to a good agricultural season and people in remote and previously, inaccessible areas reached with food. But the situation remains very worrying and needs close monitoring as violence is likely to continue pushing people into acute food insecurity.

Some 2.7 million Burkinabe are projected to face high acute food insecurity between June and August 2021 – a sharp increase from 700,000 in 2019, before violence escalated in the West African nation.

Other countries identified by the report as amongst the worst hunger hotspots – where life-threatening hunger is on the rise – are Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, the Sudan and Syria.

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Note: This report is part of a series of analytical products produced under the Global Network Against Food Crises initiative. The report’s hunger projections are based on the latest IPC and Cadre Harmonisé analyses. The latest global number of people in acute food insecurity will be revealed in the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises to be issued in April 2021.

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This is a summary of what was said by the United Nations World Food Programme spokesperson Tomson Phiri – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

GENEVA –The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has begun to convene a coalition of stakeholders to support governments to restore and boost access to school feeding for the most vulnerable children.

At the request of the African Union and member states such as Finland and France, the school feeding coalition – composed of stakeholders drawn from governments, development agencies, donors, academia, the private sector, UN agencies and civil society organizations – employs a “big tent” approach where all stakeholders interested in school feeding can converge.

The coalition aims to find sustainable and innovative funding sources for school feeding programs, strengthen evidence and guidance to improve said programs and bring together multiple sectors to achieve better outcomes for school children globally.

Why is this important and why now?

One in two schoolchildren, equivalent to 388 million children worldwide, had been receiving school meals when the pandemic struck – the highest number in history, according to the State of School Feeding Worldwide 2020 report. By April 2020, 199 countries had closed schools leaving 370 million children without school meals. Therefore, the intiative comes at a crucial time.

The coalition, which will be built during the course of 2021 and launched at the Food Systems Summit in September, has already gained support from stakeholders. The Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ville Skinnari, is the founding member of a high-level steering committee to support a global scale up of school meal programs.

School feeding is a game changer. It is a game changer for children, parents, smallholder farmers and indeed for the entire community. Activities help stave off hunger, support long-term health and help a child learn and thrive. This is especially true for girls: in places where there is a school meals program, girls attend and stay in school longer, child marriage rates go down and teen pregnancies decrease.

Where they use locally produced food, school feeding activities can enhance a community’s economy. School feeding programs can have an additional effect of helping local economies recover from the impact of COVID-19 with 2,000 jobs created for every 100,000 children fed contributing to stable markets, boosting local agriculture and strengthening local food systems.

While Finland is the first to lend support to the initiative. No one actor can achieve this alone, and the U.N. World Food Programme looks forward to more partners joining the coalition over the coming months before being launched at the Food Systems Summit at the end of the year.

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Rome – Hunger and famine will persist and there will be unequal recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic unless more women in rural and urban areas hold leadership positions with increased decision-making power, say the heads of the three United Nations’ food agencies ahead of their joint International Women’s Day event on March 8.

The event, co-organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), will focus global attention on the vital role that empowered female farmers, entrepreneurs and leaders need to play so that women can contribute on equal terms to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and in creating an environment to eliminate poverty, enhance productivity and improve food security and nutrition.

“The world is home to more than 1.1 billion girls under the age of 18, who have the potential of becoming the largest generation of female leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers ever seen for the better future. Yet, women and girls continue to face persistent structural constraints that prevent them from fully developing their potential and hinder their efforts of improving their lives as well as their households and communities,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “Women and girls can play a crucial role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular in transforming our agri-food systems. We all need to work together to spark the necessary changes to empower women and girls, particularly those in rural areas,” he added.

“It is essential that women are not only in more leadership positions, but that they are consulted and listened to, and integrated in all spheres and stages of pandemic response and recovery,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “Investing in rural women’s leadership and involving them more in creating our post-COVID-19 future is critical to ensure their perspectives and needs are adequately considered, so that we can build back better food systems where there is equal access to nutritious food and decent livelihoods.”

“Women and girls make up half of our global community and it’s time this was reflected in leadership positions at every level,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme. “We know from our work around the world that when women and girls have better access to information, resources and economic opportunities, and are free to make their own decisions, hunger rates fall and nutrition improves not only for themselves but also their families, communities and countries.”

Women’s leadership is particularly important in rural areas of developing countries, where the voices of the 1.7 billion women and girls who live there are often overlooked. 60 percent of women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture – yet they have less access to resources and services than men, including land, finance, training, inputs and equipment. In addition to their agricultural work, women are overburdened with domestic chores and caring for their families – roles that have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, women are more negatively affected by the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including losing livelihoods and experiencing decreases in their personal incomes.

Ensuring that women have a greater voice is not only a matter of gender equality. Women leaders can advocate for women to have better access to and control over assets and productive inputs, thus boosting their productivity and incomes, leading to food security and increasing their employment opportunities and real wages.

Research shows that if women farmers had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields by 20 to 30 percent and total agricultural output by 2.5 to 4 percent, lifting 100 to 150 million people out of hunger.

FAO works to strengthen rural women’s engagement and leadership in agri-food systems. FAO also engages with farmers’ organizations to ensure that rural women’s voices are heard and promotes gender-transformative approaches to challenge unfair socio-cultural norms in rural communities. Moreover, FAO supports governments to adopt policies and strategies addressing the needs and aspirations of rural women and girls, enabling them to participate in decision-making and assume leadership positions. This also implies enhancing women’s leadership skills and self-confidence and raising gender awareness within national and local institutions. Within the Organization, FAO has established a Women’s Committee providing an inclusive, safe space that reflects the diverse and energetic nature of FAO’s female workforce. The Organization also created incentives for career prospects for female staff and for achieving gender parity at all levels and across all job categories.

Since 2009, IFAD has implemented a ‘household methodologies’ approach to reinforce the equal role and decision-making capacity of women within households, groups and communities. Evidence from Uganda, Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan and other countries has shown that women who take part in the program take up leadership roles in their organizations and communities, and have a greater voice in decision-making in their households. This has led to greater agricultural productivity.

Food security and gender inequality are closely linked with disadvantages beginning at a young age. In many countries boys and girls have very different childhoods. Boys eat first, are given more food than their sisters, do less housework and marry later. For girls, marriage and not school work can dominate their childhoods. The U.N. World Food Programme’s work in achieving gender equality begins at school where support or implementation of School Feeding programs in more than 70 countries contributes to increased school attendance of girls. This provides them greater access to education, reduces the risk of child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence, and increases future livelihood and leadership opportunities for girls.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. We believe that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided $23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached an estimated 518 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub.

ROME – The COVID-19 pandemic risks reversing a decade of hard-won gains in global efforts to provide nutritious food to the world’s most vulnerable children through a free daily meal in school, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report released today.

One in two schoolchildren, or 388 million children worldwide, were receiving school meals when the pandemic struck, the highest number in history, according to the State of School Feeding Worldwide report. By April 2020, 199 countries had closed their schools and 370 million children were suddenly deprived of what for many was their only nutritious meal of the day.

For governments, the lockdowns shone a spotlight on the critical role played by school feeding in supporting the most vulnerable children and protecting their futures, the report’s authors said, calling for global action to get coverage back to pre-pandemic levels and to expand further, to reach some 73 million vulnerable children who were missing out on meals even before the pandemic.

“School feeding is a game changer – for children, for communities and for countries,” said U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley, “That one meal a day is often the reason hungry children go to school in the first place. It’s also a powerful incentive to make sure they’ll come back after lockdown ends. We need to get these programs running again – even better than before – to stop COVID destroying the futures of millions of the world’s most vulnerable children.“

In 2021, the U.N. World Food Programme will build a coalition to support governments in the scale up of school meals programs, working with development agencies, donors, the private sector and civil society organizations, the report said.

Between 2013 and 2020, the number of children receiving school meals grew by 9 percent globally and 36 percent in low-income countries, as governments expanded their programs and made school feeding the world’s most extensive social safety net.

Studies have shown that in the life of a child from a poor family, school meals can have major impact. They stave off hunger, support long-term health and help a child learn and thrive. This is especially true for girls: in places where there is a school meals program, girls stay in school longer, child marriage rates go down and teen pregnancies decrease.

When they use locally produced food, school meals programs can also boost a community’s economy. They create demand for more diverse, nutritious food, and create stable markets, supporting local agriculture, and strengthening local food systems.

In a post-COVID-19 world, school feeding programs are even more of a priority investment, the State of School Feeding Worldwide report said, because they help countries to build a healthy and educated population, while supporting national growth and promoting economic development.

Efficient school meals programs yield returns of up to $9 for every $1 invested. They also create jobs; according to U.N. World Food Programme calculations, some 1,668 new jobs are created for every 100,000 children fed.

“The U.N. World Food Programme is fully committed to working with our partners to ensure that no child, regardless of where they live, goes to school hungry – or worse, doesn’t go to school at all. After the turmoil of recent months, we must seize the opportunity to start building the better world we all want to see,” Executive Director Beasley said in the foreword to the report.

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The U.N. World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):

Shada Moghraby, WFP/New York, Mob. + 1 929 289 9867
Steve Taravella, WFP/ Washington, Mob. +1 202 770 5993

ROME – Hunger in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has increased almost fourfold over the past two years – from 2.2 million people in 2018 to close to 8 million people in 2021 – a result of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and years of extreme climate events. Of this figure, 1.7 million people are in the ‘Emergency’ category of food insecurity and require urgent food assistance.

“Considering the level of destruction and setbacks faced by those affected, we expect this to be a long and slow recovery,” said Miguel Barreto, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “2020 was a year to forget across the world, and even more so for communities in Central America that were dealt a series of blows.”

With homes and farms destroyed, food stocks running low and job opportunities shrinking, nearly 15 percent of people surveyed by the U.N. World Food Programme in January 2021 said that they were making concrete plans to migrate. In a 2018 post-drought assessment only eight percent of respondents indicated they were planning to migrate.

The record 2020 Atlantic hurricane season dealt a severe blow to millions who were previously relatively untouched by hunger, among them people dependent on the service economy, tourism and informal jobs. Hurricanes Eta and Iota that struck Central America in November 2020 upended the lives of 6.8 million people who lost their homes and livelihoods.

The hurricanes destroyed about 500,000 acres of staple food and cash crops in the four countries and around 25,000 acres of coffee farmland in Honduras and Nicaragua. The hurricanes struck as these communities were already dealing with job losses and a shrinking economy, a fallout of COVID-19.

The U.N. World Food Programme surveys estimate that food security in Central America nosedived as a result of COVID-19. The number of households that did not have enough to eat during COVID-19 nearly doubled in Guatemala compared to pre-pandemic numbers. In Honduras, it increased by more than 50 percent. An overwhelming majority of households in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador reported income losses or unemployment during the pandemic.

“Urban and rural communities in Central America have hit rock bottom. The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” said Barreto. “Many now have nowhere to live and are staying in temporary shelters, surviving on next to nothing.”

Communities in Central America have borne the brunt of a climate emergency, where consecutive years of drought and erratic weather have disrupted food production – especially staples like maize and beans, which depend heavily on regular rainfall.

The U.N. World Food Programme calls on the international community to support its efforts in Central America to provide urgent humanitarian assistance and to invest in long-term development projects and national social protection programs that help vulnerable communities withstand recurrent weather extremes and economic shocks.

The U.N. World Food Programme plans to assist 2.6 million people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in 2021 and requires $47.3 million over the next six months.

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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Shaza Moghraby, WFP/New York, Mob. + 1 929 289 9867
Steve Taravella, WFP/ Washington, Mob. +1 202 770 5993

ROME – The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), a critical lifeline transporting humanitarian workers and lifesaving cargo to some of the most challenging and hard-to-reach locations, urgently requires $204 million to continue existing operations beyond February 2021.

Disruptions in UNHAS operations have the potential to impact major humanitarian operations including those in Yemen, the Syrian Arab Republic and Haiti, where conditions continue to worsen due to ongoing conflict and the impact of COVID-19.

“UNHAS is, in most cases, the only way that humanitarian organizations can reach people in need, particularly in countries with ongoing conflict and where access by road or sea is not feasible,” says Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, which manages the service. “The disruption of UNHAS operations would cripple the ability of the entire humanitarian community to reach some of the most in need people on the planet.”

UNHAS has not only ensured humanitarian workers and cargo were able to safely reach people in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has also played an important role in national responses to the pandemic, transporting test samples and critical medical supplies on behalf of governments in many of the countries in which the service operates.

UNHAS, was established in 2004 to serve the humanitarian community where safe and reliable commercial air transport is not available. The service currently runs 21 operations and carries up to 400,000 passengers every year to over 400 destinations via a fleet of aircraft and helicopters. UNHAS, on top of regular passenger and light cargo transport, also performs crucial medical and security evacuations.

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

For more information please contact:

Eleonora Ponti, WFP/Rome, Tel.+39 342 993 2998, eleonora.ponti@wfp.org
Alicia Stafford, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 342 771 9577, alicia.stafford@wfp.org

CAIRO – A record 12.4 million Syrians – nearly 60 percent of the population – are now food insecure, according to alarming new national data from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). In just over one year, an additional 4.5 million Syrians have become food insecure.

An economic crisis, job losses as a result of COVID-19 and soaring food prices have added to the plight of Syrians who have been displaced and worn down by a decade of conflict.

“The situation has never been worse. After ten years of conflict, Syrian families have exhausted their savings as they face a spiraling economic crisis,” said U. N. World Food Programme Representative and Country Director in Syria Sean O’Brien.

Basic foods to feed a family for a month – bread, rice, lentils and oil and sugar – now cost more than $250, which far exceeds the average salaries.

“It is alarming that a simple meal is beyond the reach of families across Syria, and this new data shows humanitarian assistance is the difference between putting a meal on the table and going to bed hungry. Lifesaving support has never been so crucial,” said O’Brien.

The 2020 Food Security and Livelihoods Assessment carried out by the U. N. World Food Programme and partners, also estimates the number of people who are severely food insecure – meaning they cannot survive without food assistance – has doubled in just one year to stand at 1.3 million people. Unless urgent action is taken, an additional 1.8 million people are at risk of falling into severe food insecurity.

Over the last year food prices across Syria have soared, and the price of basic items has increased by 236 percent, just as the value of the Syrian Pound has plummeted. On average, the price of oil has increased from $2.15 in Jan 2020, to $10.75 in Jan 2021.

Parents now report making desperate decisions to survive, eating less food so they can feed their children, going into debt, and selling assets and livestock to generate an income. In addition, close to 50 percent of the Syrian population report having lost one or more sources of income because of the economic downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each month the U. N. World Food Programme provides lifesaving food assistance to almost 5 million of Syria’s most vulnerable people. For many, this is the only food they eat each month.

The U. N. World Food Programme requires an additional $375.3 million until July 2021 to ensure continued assistance throughout Syria.

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JOINT PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, 12 February 2021 – Nearly 2.3 million children under the age of five in Yemen are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, four United Nations agencies warned today. Of these, 400,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and could die if they do not receive urgent treatment.

The new figures, from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Malnutrition report released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, mark an increase of 16 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, from 2020.

The agencies also warned that these were among the highest levels of severe acute malnutrition recorded in Yemen since the escalation of conflict in 2015.

Malnutrition damages a child’s physical and cognitive development, especially during the first two years of a child’s life. It is largely irreversible, perpetuating illness, poverty and inequality.

Preventing malnutrition and addressing its devastating impact starts with good maternal health, yet around 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding women in Yemen are projected to be acutely malnourished in 2021.

Years of armed conflict and economic decline, the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe funding shortfall for the humanitarian response are pushing exhausted communities to the brink, with rising levels of food insecurity. Many families are having to resort to reducing the quantity or quality of the food they eat, and in some cases, families are forced to do both.

“The increasing number of children going hungry in Yemen should shock us all into action,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “More children will die with every day that passes without action. Humanitarian organizations need urgent predictable resources and unhindered access to communities on the ground to be able to save lives.”

“Families in Yemen have been in the grip of conflict for too long, and more recent threats such as COVID-19 have only been adding to their relentless plight,” said FAO Director- General QU Dongyu. “Without security and stability across the country, and improved access to farmers so that they are provided with the means to resume growing enough and nutritious food, Yemen’s children and their families will continue to slip deeper into hunger and malnutrition.”

“These numbers are yet another cry for help from Yemen where each malnourished child also means a family struggling to survive” said U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley. “The crisis in Yemen is a toxic mix of conflict, economic collapse and a severe shortage of funding to provide the life-saving help that’s desperately needed. But there is a solution to hunger, and that’s food and an end to the violence. If we act now, then there is still time to end the suffering of Yemen’s children.”

Diseases and a poor health environment are key drivers of childhood malnutrition,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “At the same time, malnourished children are more vulnerable to diseases including diarrhea, respiratory infections and malaria, which are of great concern in Yemen, among others. It is a vicious and often deadly cycle, but with relatively cheap and simple interventions, many lives can be saved.”

Acute malnutrition among young children and mothers in Yemen has increased with each year of conflict with a significant deterioration during 2020 driven by high rates of disease, such as diarrhea, respiratory tract infections and cholera, and rising rates of food insecurity. Among the worst hit regions are Aden, Al Dhale, Hajjah, Hodeida, Lahj, Taiz and Sana’a City, which account for over half of expected acute malnutrition cases in 2021.

Today, Yemen is one of the most dangerous places in the world for children to grow up. The country has high rates of communicable diseases, limited access to routine immunization and health services for children and families, poor infant and young child feeding practices, and inadequate sanitation and hygiene systems.

Meanwhile, the already fragile health care system is facing the collateral impact of COVID-19, which has drained meagre resources and resulted in fewer people seeking medical care. The dire situation for Yemen’s youngest children and mothers means any disruptions to humanitarian services – from health to water, sanitation and hygiene, to nutrition, food assistance and livelihoods support – risk causing a deterioration in their nutrition status. The humanitarian response remains critically underfunded. In 2020, the Humanitarian. Response plan received $1.9 billion of the $3.4 billion required.

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Notes for editors:
Full IPC Report available here. | Analysis here.
Multimedia materials available here.

About WFP | The U.N. World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

About FAO | The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 members, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.

About UNICEF | UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.

About WHO | The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.

For more information, please contact;

Bismarck Swangin, UNICEF Yemen; Email: bswangin@unicef.org; Tel: +967 712223161
Annabel Symington, WFP Yemen; Email: Annabel.symington@wfp.org; Tel: +44 7746397099
Adel Sarkozi, FAO Media Relations, adel.sarkozi@fao.org, (+39) 06 570 52537
Ahmed Ben Lassoued, WHO Yemen, benlassoueda@who.int; Tel: +216 20 444 998

WASHINGTON, DC (February 8, 2021) — Given a shared commitment to making sure children have enough to eat, World Food Program USA has granted $100,000 to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign in support of its national efforts to feed children in the United States who are impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. New estimates show that due to the pandemic 1 in 4 American children could be living in hunger. That’s nearly double the pre-pandemic rate.

“World Food Program USA firmly believes that no child, no matter where they live, should go hungry. We are facing unprecedented times, which require all of us to work together to support those most in need,” said Barron Segar, president and CEO, World Food Program USA. “The U.N. World Food Programme has long provided school meals and nutrition support to children in many of the world’s most fragile countries, where people are making less than $2 a day. We recognize that there are many people suffering from food insecurity here in the United States as well, and we support the efforts of U.S. charities to help the most vulnerable in our own communities. We are proud to support No Kid Hungry’s mission to ensure children get the daily meals and nutrition they need at this critical time.”

Outside of the United States, 370 million school children globally – including 12 million that rely on the U.N. World Food Programme – have missed out on school meals due to school closures during the pandemic. To date, we have provided take home rations to nearly 7 million children in 45 countries during the pandemic. In some countries, we are also providing cash or vouchers to school children’s families. In the world’s most fragile countries, school meals are often the only meal children eat each day.

“With record numbers of jobs and wages lost, millions more kids in America are struggling with hunger now than before the pandemic began,” said Share Our Strength President and CEO Tom Nelson. “World Food Program USA and Share Our Strength have a shared commitment to helping kids and families rise out of hunger, and we’re honored to partner with them to help more kids get the food they need to thrive.”

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About World Food Program USA
The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

World Food Program USA, a 501©(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA’s mission, please visit wfpusa.org/about-us.

About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, 1 in 4 kids could face hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.

Media Contact: Toula Athas, World Food Program USA, 202-627-3940, tathas@wfpusa.org

HAITI IN CRISIS

HAITI IN CRISIS