Along with Russia’s war in Ukraine which has impacted wheat production, increased fuel prices, distorted global supply chains and driven up global inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-related natural disasters have contributed to the dire situation.
“The crisis carries the potential for driving and deepening conflicts within states and between them and for destabilizing parts of the world which are already struggling and are already very fragile,” Grande warned.
Pointing out that conflict too often is a driver of food insecurity, Ambassador Isobel Coleman, deputy administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said that the organization is “evaluating, developing and implementing responses that will protect the world’s most vulnerable population from catastrophic levels of food insecurity, exacerbated by the Russian Federation’s actions as well as severe drought in the Horn of Africa.”
The goal of USAID, Coleman said, is to make communities more resilient so that ultimately the need for the assistance diminishes over time. More than 80 percent of the countries receiving USAID assistance are conflict-affected or insecure, she added.
Dr Arif Husain, chief economist for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and director of its research, assessments and monitoring division, has dedicated his life to fighting hunger throughout the world. Due in great part to Husain’s work, in 2018 the UN Security Council unanimously approved UN Resolution 2417 making starvation a war crime.
In his 25 years of working on the food insecurity issue, the Pakistani-American economist stated he had never seen a food crisis as severe as the present one.
While Ukrainians are suffering, “millions upon millions of more people outside of Ukraine far, far away are also suffering,” Husain said. According to the WFP, in 2019, there were about 135 million people who were in hunger crisis. “Today the number is 345 million in 82 countries,” he said. Some 50 million people in 45 countries are in hunger emergencies, meaning “one step away from famine,” he lamented.
The vast majority of these 45 countries most effected by lack of food, fuel, fertilizer and rising prices are poor countries, Husain continued, which is half of Africa and several countries in Central America and the Middle East.
The most important issue for Husain is to save lives and for that the WFP needs resources. Presently, the group plans to assist 152 million people which will cost $22 billion, which is presently only half funded.
In order to bring down prices for food, fuel and agricultural imports, the Black Sea needs to be opened, Husain continued. “The agricultural season is now; crops have to be planted, fertilized, etc. for next year’s need.” Additionally, he pointed out, too few countries provide the world’s necessary food and capacity needs to be expanded.
“Right now, we only focus on Ukraine, but it doesn’t mean all other crises stopped,” Husain explained. “About 70 percent of what we do is in places affected by conflict. We need to start rethinking war and its consequences. It’s no longer someone else’s problem in some part of the world that you are not worried about. Ukraine is a classic example.”
But since wars may not always be prevented, “maybe we can deal better with their consequences for the people with very little hope,” Hussain said. “People who don’t get fed today don’t reach their potential tomorrow. That is a very big problem in Africa…and in many parts of Asia and Central America. I think we need to take this seriously.”
Haneen Sayed, lead human development specialist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, noted that, while MENA is only six percent of the world’s population, it is 20 percent of the world’s acutely food insecure people and imports much of its food.
“There is a global response that needs to come together in the international community to try to find an end to this [Russia-Ukraine] war, but there are regional as well as country level approaches that need to be pursued,” she said.
Abdi Aynte, managing director of Lassfort Consulting Group and former minister of planning and economic promotion for Somalia, spoke about the situation in the Horn of Africa, which is suffering its worst drought in the last four decades along with armed conflict.
The region was importing significant amounts of food from Ukraine which the war has significantly impacted causing food insecurity in the region to double. According to the WFP, about one-third of Somalis are on the brink of famine.
“We need to think about building resilient sustainable systems,” Aynte said. “Unfortunately, the whole issue of climate change and environmental issues is not at the top of the agenda of all of the governments as it should be.”
USIP senior advisor Ambassador Johnnie Carson emphasized the need for the global community to “recognize the enormous challenge that is before us in ending unnecessary conflict and building up food security and food resilience in areas where it is lacking today.”
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
