No time to lose as famine stalks millions in Sudan amid intense fighting
31/5/2024: A statement by Principals of the UN's Inter-Agency Standing Committee warns that more than 800,000 civilians are bracing for an imminent large-scale attack in the city of Al Fasher. They fear a nightmare scenario in which famine will take hold in large parts of Sudan and more people will flee to neighbouring countries.
Source: World Health Organization
Congress stalls US Farm Bill that governs international food aid
16/4/2024: The five-year US Farm Bill expired in 2023 and was extended into September 2024. As lawmakers struggle to agree the next round, numerous programs governing international food aid hang in the balance. As many as 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger, according to the World Food Programme, and that number is on the rise.
Source: Devex
“I’m more optimistic than before regarding the goal of ending hunger in Latin America”
2/4/2024: There are about 43 million people suffering from hunger, and more than 130 million have difficulty putting food on the table, in Latin America and the Caribbean. The regional representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is optimistic that the 2030 goal of ending hunger can be achieved as more countries in the region are rethinking their plans in a forceful and clear manner.
Source: Inter Press Service
Malawi shifts perspective on land reforms in a bid to retain investors
1/4/2024: Land laws introduced in 2022 were meant to solve challenges faced by thousands of landless subsistence farmers and make it impossible for foreigners to own land in Malawi. Now the government appears inclined to create a land policy that restores incentives for large farmers. Restructuring land laws has proven to be tricky for many African countries.
Source: Devex
Ethiopia’s social safety net programme faces a funding gap
28/3/2024: Ethiopia’s flagship social protection programme has cut food and cash transfers to the country’s poorest households, due to rising prices and cutbacks from some international donors. The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) was launched in 2005 as a resilience-building social safety net, now recognised as one of the most ambitious social protection programmes in Africa.
Source: The New Humanitarian
African Development Bank food initiative will transform agriculture but for whom?
20/3/2024: The African Development Bank’s ambitious $61 billion Dakar II initiative aims to industrialise the continent’s food systems. The General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa is worried about consolidating land for industrial agriculture, potentially displacing millions of smallholder farmers.
Source: African Arguments
GAZA STRIP: Famine is imminent as 1.1 million people experience catastrophic food insecurity
18/3/2024: Between mid-March and mid-July, in the most likely scenario, half of the population of the Gaza Strip (1.11 million people) is expected to face catastrophic Phase 5 conditions, the most severe level in the The Integrated Food Security Phase Classication. The latest evidence confirms that famine is imminent in the northern governorates.
Source: The Integrated Food Security Phase Classication
Sudan’s war risks creating the world’s largest hunger crisis
6/3/2024: Following her visit to South Sudan, the World Food Programme's Executive Director, Cindy McCain, has compared the crisis in the region with the Darfur emergency 20 years ago. Right now, 90 per cent of people facing emergency levels of hunger in Sudan are stuck in areas that are largely inaccessible to food aid because of the relentless violence and interference by the warring parties.
Source: World Food Programme
Rethink the way we grow food
22/2/2024: There is something fundamentally broken in the world’s agricultural system when you see images of rich European farmers and their poorer counterparts in India straddling tractors to block highways to make their anger heard. Producing cheap food without damaging the environment and without generous subsidies is proving too challenging.
Source: DownToEarth
Warning that that hunger catastrophe looms in conflict-hit Sudan
13/12/2023: Nearly 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger, more than double the number at the same time a year ago. Many of these people are cornered in areas where humanitarian access has been intermittent or impossible due to ongoing fighting.
Source: World Food Programme