Global Policy Forum

By Sanjay Suri

The happy new year for some has dawned as a hungry new year for hundreds of millions. For many it looks like it will stay that way. "Crises don't go away with the turn of the calendar," World Food Program (WFP) spokesperson Brenda Barton told IPS Friday. The WFP, a United Nations organization, is the world's largest humanitarian agency. Food aid from the WFP reached 110 million hungry people last year, the highest number in its 40-year history. In 2002 it had fed 72 million people in 82 countries. But all that is still a fraction of the 800 chronically hungry people around the world. They will need to be fed in the new year--unless new crises mean that they are forgotten again.

The WFP is seeing enough of these crises looming up already. "We are keeping a very close eye on places like Zimbabwe and North Korea," Barton says. "A lot of people in Zimbabwe have gone into the new year on empty stomachs, and this is a severe problem for a lot of southern Africa as a whole." A "make or break" harvest season is coming up in southern Africa this month, Barton says. "But there are worrying signs already because there has not been enough rain."

The WFP sees hunger haunting much of Africa this year. "Eritrea just did not capture enough world attention last year," Barton says. "It suffered a combination of drought and the effects of civil war, and the consequences are continuing into the new year." Last year the WFP could reach food only to about 300,000 of the 1.4 million people in Eritrea who needed food aid. Things are looking up in Sudan which is moving towards peace after 30 years of strife, but there is continuing concern over some areas like Darfur region. The WFP is also trying to muster resources to reach aid to Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other needy countries in Africa.

North Korea is seen as a severely under-resourced country. The WFP says 2.2 million people are being deprived of WFP cereal rations this winter, and that number could rise to 3.8 million early in the new year unless fresh pledges are made urgently. The crisis has hit North Korea in extreme cold conditions.

The world produced 4.3 billion dollars for food aid last year, almost twice as much as the 2.2 billion dollars found in 2002. Russia and India have come in as new donors. But aid tends to follow headlines, and much of it went to areas such as Iraq where the need was acute--and in the news.

The WFP sent high energy biscuits to Bam in Iran hit by an earthquake. This kind of aid is vital but it means that what are considered low-key crises remain neglected. Without a political will to address the problem of hunger except when war or a natural calamity briefly focuses global attention and compassion, the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry by 2015 is remote, the WFP says in a note. "It is always difficult to find resources for aid that is not emergency band aid," says Barton. "Our school feeding program in Kenya for instance is under threat because there is simply not enough funding." A million children could be left without a vital school meal in the new year.

The schools program has been launched to counter both hunger and poverty; the food offers nourishment while education offers an opportunity to escape poverty. The Global School Feeding Campaign of the WFP aims to ensure that the world's 300 million undernourished children are educated. The WFP is also short of funds to deal with hunger that feeds HIV and AIDS. "The year 2003 proved conclusively that HIV/AIDS is not only a major cause of hunger but that hunger also accelerates both the spread and lethal impact of the disease," the WFP says in its note. "With the experience of the food crisis in southern Africa, WFP is even more committed to incorporating HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation into all its emergency programs."

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