Millions around world pushed into hunger by spread of Covid
● Appeal for funds as UN agency bids to tackle rising tide of global hunger
Millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFO) said as it appealed for £4 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
“The frontline in the battle against the coronavirus is shifting from the rich world to the poor world,” said WFP executive director David Beasley. “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.”
He warned that without access to enough food, the world could see “increased social unrest and protests, a rise in migration, deepening conflict and widespread under-nutrition among populations that were previously immune from hunger.”
To tackle the rising tide of hunger, WFP is undertaking the biggest humanitarian response in its history, aiming to assist 138 million people, up from a previous record of 97 million in 2019.
The agency says sustained funding is needed to support its work in 83 countries, to provide food to the most vulnerable and to support governments working to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The number of hungry people in the countries where it operates could increase to 270 million before the end of 2020 – an 82 per cent increase from before the pandemic took hold, said WFP.
The fallout from the pandemic is being felt hardest in Latin America, which has seen an almost three-fold rise in the number of people requiring food assistance, and among urban communities in lowand middle-income countries, which are being dragged into destitution by job losses and a precipitous drop in remittances.
Spikes in hunger are also evident in west and central Africa,which has seen a 135% jump in the number of food insecure as well as in southern Africa where there has been a 90 per cent rise.
Coronavirus infection levels are climbing when food stocks in some parts of the world are already low.
At this time of year, many farmers are awaiting crops from new harvests. Hurricane and monsoon seasons are getting underway, while record locust invasions in east Africa and outbreaks of conflict add to an already challenging outlook for the world’s hungry.
“This unprecedented crisis requires an unprecedented response. If we do not respond rapidly and effectively to this viral threat, the outcome will be measured in an unconscionable loss of life, and efforts to roll back the tide of hunger will be undone,” said Beasley.
Thenewchallengerequiresa big increase in the use of cashbased transfers. Over half of WFP’S new response plan will be delivered in cash and vouchers – allowing urban communities to purchase their food needs in local markets, which boosts local economies.
For months, experts have warned about the implications of coronavirus gaining a foothold in poor or war-torn countries. Those fears are now being realised.
In southern Yemen, health workers are leaving their posts en masse because of a lack of protective equipment, and some hospitals are turning away patients struggling to breathe.
In Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, where there is little testing capacity, a mysterious illness resembling Covid-19 is spreading through camps for the internally displaced.
The first reports of disarray are also emerging from hospitals in South Africa, which has its continent’s most developed economy. Sick patients are lying on beds in corridors as one hospital runs out of space. At another, an emergency morgue was needed to hold more than 700 bodies.
Francois Venter, a South African health expert, said: “We are reaping the whirlwind now.”