UN food agency caught in Trump administration’s crosshairs
11/4/2025: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has been ordered by the Trump administration to halt initiatives that do not align with an “America First” foreign policy. The US cannot accept any focus on climate in FAO’s work and no longer affirms the UN Sustainable Development Goals or any agenda for achieving them by 2030.
Source: Devex
Highest recorded incidence of acute food insecurity in DRC
27/3/2025: UN food agencies report that an alarming 28 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are now facing acute hunger, including 3.9 million experiencing emergency levels of hunger. Conflict, economic instability and surging food prices are contributory factors.
Source: World Food Programme
Trump’s aid freeze shuts down global famine-monitoring system
31/1/2025: The famine early warning systems network (Fews Net) for monitoring global food crises appears to have been suspended after President Donald Trump’s executive order froze US foreign aid. Fews Net helps humanitarian organisations decide how to distribute food aid to tens of millions of people around the world.
Source: The Guardian
Myanmar on the brink as conflict fuels hunger
29/1/2025: Hunger has reached alarming levels in Myanmar with the situation set to worsen in 2025, the World Food Programme has warned. A staggering 15 million people are expected to face hunger in 2025. More than 3.5 million people are displaced due to armed conflict and violence.
Source: World Food Programme
How Trump’s US aid stop-work order affects global food aid
29/1/2025: The Trump administration’s 90-day freeze of nearly all foreign assistance has paralyzed a vast swath of US-funded food aid and agricultural research work.W hile “emergency food aid” is exempt from the order, it remains unclear what counts under that umbrella.
Source: Devex
African countries adopt new 10-year agriculture strategy
15/1/2025: The Kampala Declaration, a 10-year strategy adopted by the African Union, commits to increasing the continent’s agricultural output by 45% and tripling intra-African trade in agrifood products by 2035.
Source: Devex
Laureates call for moonshot innovation to avert hunger catastrophe
14/1/2025: More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates are calling for urgent agricultural research to meet the food needs of nearly 10 billion people by mid-century. They say that neglected indigenous crops, rich in nutrition and resilient to climate change, are key to research focused on tackling global hunger.
Source: Inter Press Service
World Food Programme reports worsening global food security
22/11/2024: According to the Global Outlook 2025 published by the World Food Programme, hunger continues to rise, with 343 million people across 74 countries experiencing acute food insecurity – a 10 per cent increase from last year. Funding shortfalls in 2024 forced the agency to scale back activities, often leaving some of the most vulnerable behind.
Source: UN News
Brazil guides new global agenda against hunger
15/11/2024: One of the main issues under discussion in the G20 Social Territory in Rio de Janeiro is the Global Alliance proposed by Brazil to fight hunger and poverty. The Alliance is founded on the principle that no country can fight hunger on its own. The Brazilian initiative seeks to unite developed and developing nations in coordinated actions.
Source: G20 Social
Experts warn of high risk of famine in northern Gaza
8/11/2024: The head of the World Food Programme has warned that immediate and unimpeded flow of humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza is essential to prevent an all-out catastrophe. This situation is the result of large-scale population displacement and the destruction of infrastructure and health facilities.
Source: UN News