800 Million Undernourished People Worldwide

World Food Day October 16th:

800 Million Undernourished People Worldwide

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa and cuts in the food aid provided by the United Nations may increase the number of people affected by hunger dramatically. “We must not end up in a situation where people who have survived Ebola end up dying of hunger instead,” says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of Norwegian Refugee Council.

In Liberia, one million people are threatened by potential food shortages and according to the United Nations 85% of the households in Sierra Leona do not have enough food. In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone the UN now distributes food to one million people.

“Our fear is that that food shortage can cause people to flee their homes, gather in larger groups and thus expose themselves to Ebola infection. We must avoid that at all cost,” Egeland says.

Several reports have documented that food production in the Ebola-hit areas are paralyzed as a result of the epidemic. Because of the Ebola outbreak many farmers have not been able to harvest the year’s last crop. The UN is now planning food distribution to larger parts of the Ebola-affected areas. However, a large-scale food distribution can affect the local markets negatively. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) fears that local food production can be brought to a halt.

“We must act now in order to forestall a famine. It is essential that we try to keep local food production going to avoid that Ebola survivors in the Months to come will be facing the threat of starvation,” Egeland states.

UN cuts food aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) is cutting the food aid it provides to 4.2 million Syrians ravaged by war because of a shortfall in funding. As a result food baskets to Syrian beneficiaries are expected to be significantly reduced to just 825 kilocalories per person per day from the beginning of November, compared to the 2,100 kilocalories which is recommended in emergency contexts.

In Jordan, which is housing more than 619,000 registered Syrian refugees, WFP also indicates that they will have to cut the value of its food voucher by half in November and December for Syrian refugees in host communities. A recent NRC informal assessment found that faced with decreasing assistance 34% of Syrian refugees in Jordan indicated that they would be forced to return to Syria.

“This documents the desperate situation many Syrian Refugees find themselves in. Many Syrian refugees in Jordan are totally dependent on help from the international community. Our fear is that they are about to lose all hope, Egeland says.

In Afghanistan WFP is also facing cuts. The US$40 million deficit has already decreased the size of food packages for hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries. The shortfall is further making it difficult for WFP to pre-position food for life-saving activities in districts difficult to access before the onset of winter. The WFP has stated that one million food insecure people will be negatively affected during the cuts in October and November.

Norwegian Refugee Council is extremely concerned about the effect the cuts will have on hundreds of thousands of food-aid dependent Afghans. If the WFP is unable to pre-position enough live-saving food rations prior to winter setting in hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Afghans will be at serious risk.

“Winter is coming and Afghanistan remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis. Cutting food rations due to lack of donor funding is a devastating blow for Afghan people already pushed to the brink,” Egeland says.

The World’s most serious food crisis

After the conflict broke out in December last year, South Sudan is facing the World’s most severe food crisis. 1.7 million people have fled their homes because of the fighting between the military forces of President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar. In some of the hardest hit areas one in two children is malnourished. More than two million South Sudanese are facing severe food insecurity and 30% of the population is dependent on aid to survive.

Famine has so far been narrowly avoided, but as the dry season begins the disaster is about to get worse.
In a report by 36 charities - including the NRC, it is estimated that the number of severely hungry people will rise by 1 million between January and March 2015.

-We have no time to lose in order to prevent a famine. If we fail to act, millions of people could starve within Months. The international community has an obligation to prevent that people die of hunger, but money alone will not solve the problem. This is a man made disaster - the parties to the conflict have to stop the violence, Egeland ends.

ENDS

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