Five months ago, I warned the Council the
world stood on the brink of a hunger pandemic. A toxic combination of conflict,
climate change and COVID-19, threatened to push 270 million people to the brink
of starvation. Famine was real. It’s a terrifying possibility in up to three
dozen countries if we don’t continue to act like we’ve been acting.
Fortunately, since we talked about this
back in April the world really listened. Donors, leaders all over the world
responded, they acted. Countries large and small took extraordinary measures to
save the lives of their citizens and support their economies, spending $17
trillion on fiscal stimulus and central bank support. The IMF and the G20
nations threw a lifeline to the poorest nations by suspending debt repayments.
That made a huge impact.? Donors stepped
up with advanced funding so we could pre-position food and move cargo earlier,
as well as supporting with additional life-saving dollars. With our donors’
help, the global humanitarian community launched a huge and unprecedented
global fightback against the Coronavirus.
Along with our partners, WFP is going
all-out to reach as many as 138 million people this year ? the biggest scale-up
in our history. Already, in the first six months of 2020, we’ve reached 85
million people.
WFP is doing what we do best - adapting and
innovating to meet the unique demands of the pandemic. Launching new food and
cash programmes to support the hungry in urban areas. Supporting over 50
governments to scale up their safety nets and social protection programmes for
the most vulnerable. Getting nutritious food to millions of school children
shut out of the classroom during lockdown.
Every day, we are succeeding ? because of
you -- in keeping people alive and avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe. But
we’re not out of the woods. This fight is far, far, far from over ? the 270
million people marching toward the brink of starvation need our help today more
than ever.
We’re doing just about all we can do to
stop the dam from bursting. But, without the resources we need, a wave of
hunger and famine still threatens to sweep across the globe. And if it does, it
will overwhelm nations and communities already weakened by years of conflict
and instability.
This Council made a historic decision when
it endorsed Resolution 2417 and condemned the human cost of conflict paid in
suffering and hunger. The resolution called for effective early warning systems
and, once more, I am here with my colleagues to sound the alarm.
Excellencies, the global hunger crisis
caused by conflict, and now compounded by COVID-19, is moving into a new and
dangerous phase ? especially in nations already scarred by violence. The threat
of famine is looming again, so we have to step up, not step back. Quite
frankly, 2021 will be a make-or-break year.
Financially, 2020 was a record year for
WFP. We hit $8 billion for the first time ever - but our budget was set before
the pandemic hit. Economies were strong. Reserve/emergency funds were
available. But now, I am truly worried about what will happen next year. I know
your governments are spending billions on domestic stimulus packages. National
budgets are tight, and reserves are running low if not out. And, economies are
shrinking. But I urge you ? don’t walk away from our commitment to humanitarian
assistance. Don’t turn your backs on the world’s hungriest people.
As COVID-19 pushed countries everywhere to
lock down, the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs have been destroyed,
and remittances have collapsed. The impact has been felt hardest by the 2
billion people who work in the informal economy around the world - mainly in
middle and low-income countries. Already only one day’s work away from going
hungry, in other words living hand to mouth. You and I have food in the pantry
in a lockdown. We have enough food for two or three weeks. These people don’t
have that luxury. If they miss a day’s wages, they miss a day’s worth of food
and their children suffer.? They don’t
have the money to buy their daily bread in those circumstances. This inevitably
creates a risk of rising social tensions and instability.
It is critically important we balance
sensible measures to contain the spread of the virus, with the need to keep
borders open and supply chains going and trade flows moving. We also have to be
vigilant and guard against unintended consequences, which could hit the poorest
people the hardest.? In fact, in the
80-odd countries that we’re in, we’re working with the presidents, the prime
ministers, the ministers of government, literally on an hourly basis, dealing
with issues that are popping up because of quarantines and lockdowns,
distribution points. We’re all learning from this and making headway.
But let me just give you a couple of
examples, because a lot of people thought that the virus would be even more
deadly in Africa. But it is definitely impacting Africa. We’re not out of the
woods yet. And the good news is it hasn’t been as deadly but it has been
devastating in other ways. For example, the London School of Health and
Tropical Medicine has analyzed the closure of vaccination clinics in Africa during
lockdown. It calculated that, for every COVID-19 death prevented, as many as 80
children may die due to a lack of routine immunizations.
There is a grave danger that many more
people will die from the broader economic and social consequences of COVID-19
than from the virus itself, especially in Africa. And the last thing we need is
to have the cure be worse than the disease itself.
Your continued support for humanitarian
programmes is critical right now. It’s a matter of life and death - literally.
For millions of people in the countries being discussed today. And for many
millions more in the other countries edging closer to the brink of starvation.
We know that, already, there are 30 million people who rely solely on WFP for
their survival. That’s the only food they get. If they don’t get the food we
provide, the die.
Let me turn to the countries on today’s
agenda. In the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, conflict and instability had
already forced 15.5 million people into crisis levels of food insecurity. These
are people on the brink of starvation. The latest assessment indicates that the
upsurge in violence, coupled with COVID-19, has sent this total sky-rocketing
to nearly 22 million people, an increase of 6.5 million people. And I should
warn you these numbers assume WFP is able to maintain current levels of food
assistance. If we are forced to scale back operations, the outlook is even
worse.
In YEMEN, the world’s worst catastrophe,
worst human disaster, it continues… years of conflict-induced hunger and now
the COVID-19 pandemic. 20 million people are already in crisis due to war, a
collapsed economy and currency devaluation, crippling food prices and the
destruction of public infrastructure. We believe a further 3 million may now
face starvation due to the virus.
Because of lack of funding, 8.5 million of
our beneficiaries in Yemen only receive assistance now every other month. We
will be forced to cut rations for the remaining 4.5 million by December if
funds do not increase. You can only imagine the impact that will have on the
Yemeni people.
The decision by the Ansar Allah authorities
to close Sana’a International Airport last week has made an already impossible
situation worse. As the only airport in northern Yemen, it is a critical access
point for humanitarian staff.? The
inability to move people in and out will hamper our efforts to stave off
famine.
The alarm bells in Yemen are ringing loud
and clear, and the world needs to open its eyes to the Yemeni people’s
desperate plight before famine takes hold. And that famine is knocking on the
door right before our eyes.
NIGERIA: COVID-19 is also forcing more
people into food insecurity. Analysis shows measures imposed to contain the
virus reduced incomes in 80 percent of households. You can imagine the
devastation with that alone.
In the northeast of the country, 4.3
million people are food insecure, up by 600,000 largely due to COVID-19. While
in the large urban area of Kano, the number of food insecure people during that
lockdown period from March to June went from 568,000 to 1.5 million people ? an
increase of 1 million people. Very troubling.
SOUTH SUDAN: The outlook there is similarly
worrying, where even before the pandemic, 6.5 million people were expected to
face severe food insecurity at the height of the lean season, made worse by the
violence in Jonglei State in recent months. This has resulted in the
displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, a large number of abducted
women and children, and widespread loss of livestock and livelihoods. In
addition, virus outbreaks in urban areas such as Juba could put as many as
another 1.6 million people at risk of starvation.
Finally, even though it is not on today’s
agenda, I also want to highlight the disaster unfolding in Burkina Faso, driven
by the upsurge in violence. The number of people facing crisis levels of hunger
has tripled to 3.3 million people, as COVID compounds the
situation…displacement, security and access problems. For 11,000 of these
people living in the northern provinces, famine is knocking on the door as we
speak.
Excellencies, we know what we need to do.
We have made huge strides forward in spotting the early warning signs of
famine, in understanding its causes and consequences. But, tragically, we have
seen this story play out too many times before. The world stands by until it is
too late, while hunger kills, it stokes community tensions, fuels conflict and
instability, and forces families from their homes.
I recently learned that, in Latin America,
hungry families have started hanging white flags outside their houses to show
they need help. And there are a lot of them: 17.1 million severely food
insecure people today, compared with 4.5 million only six or seven months ago.
A white flag is the sign of surrender - of
giving up. Well, we CANNOT and we MUST NOT surrender, or tell ourselves there
is nothing we can do, because millions of people around the world desperately
need our help.
Truth is, we are all out of excuses for
failing to act - swiftly and decisively - while children, women and men starve
to death. Today, as humanitarians, we are here to warn you of the pressures
caused by conflict and COVID-19. We must act and we must act before the dam
bursts.
But there is hope amid the turmoil. We’ve
seen some bright light in the last few weeks. The peace agreement signed in
Sudan and in the Middle East in the last couple of weeks gives us some hope,
because peace is the key to all of this. And this is what the Resolution 2417
is all about.
And so we need everyone on board. And so, Mr
President, the governments are strapped, people are strapped financially. It’s
time for the private sector to step up.
Quite frankly, you may wonder why I am
bringing this up at the Security Council. But I will take every opportunity I
get to sound the alarm before it is too late.
We need $4.9 billion to feed, for one year,
all 30 million people who will die without WFP’s assistance.
Worldwide, there are over 2,000
billionaires with a net worth of $8 trillion. In my home country, the USA,
there are 12 individuals alone worth $1 trillion. In fact, reports state that
three of them made billions upon billions during COVID! I am not opposed to
people making money, but humanity is facing the greatest crisis any of us have
seen in our lifetimes.
It’s time for those who have the most to
step up, to help those who have the least in this extraordinary time in world
history. To show you truly love your neighbour. The world needs you right now
and it’s time to do the right thing.
Source: World Food Programme
Date: 2020-09-17