Global Policy Forum

Oxfam International has published a paper on how rich countries failed to finance the UN Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF). The US, Belgium, Italy, France, Canada and Australia have failed to pledge money to the fund, which aims at responding to humanitarian disasters like the earthquake in Pakistan and famine in Niger. This paper argues that the lack of funding to UN humanitarian initiatives severely undermines the organization's operations in response to emergencies.

The US is the world's primary food donor. However, by dumping its surplus production on poor countries the US simply supports its own agribusiness sector. To truly tackle hunger, rich countries must allow poor countries to develop their food production. In hunger emergencies, donor countries should buy food in the region to support local agricultural production. (International Relations Center)

Rich countries have the means and resources to feed the whole world's population. Nevertheless, on the World Hunger Day the UN warned that more than 850 million people are suffering from starvation worldwide. The World Food Programme stated that rich governments should help starving people rather than spending billions of dollars on subsidies for their farmers. Special UN rapporteur for the right to food Jean Ziegler, further criticized rich countries for their enormous military expenditures. (Infochange)

Malawi is experiencing a serious food crisis. The UN has received $1.8 million of an appeal for $2.5 million, to provide food aid and increase local agricultural production. According to UNICEF, if the international community fails to mobilize, 42 million people will not have access to food as of next March 2006. Data show that since 1992, Malawian children's nutritional status has not improved. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS worsens the situation.

The UN World Food Programme is the main channel for food aid delivery worldwide. Other UN agencies, NGOs and governments also play an important role in emergency relief by donating money or food. This factsheet from AlertNet provides basic information about the global food aid system, including where food aid comes from, who the largest donors are, and how various agencies function.

According to a report from Action Against Hunger, Sudan faces impending starvation. Although figures describe a situation of emergency similar to that of Niger, little action has been taken in Sudan. This press release calls for the international community "to assume its responsibilities in order to avoid another Niger in the Sudan."

In addition to the crisis in Niger, food shortages are also beginning to hit southern African countries such as Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to figures from Oxfam, several million people will be in serious danger of starvation. This article calls for a prompt response to this forthcoming crisis, and urges that, this time, UN agencies and rich countries should not wait for the arrival of TV crews before giving money and relief. (Scotsman)

As Niger's devastating famine crisis continues some wonder whether international aid is helping. NGO representatives and Nigerians say that the aid system has failed, emphasizing that the emergency response, especially from the UN World Food Programme, came too late and started only after the BBC brought the public's attention to the situation. (Washington Post)

Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali represent some of the poorest countries worldwide. According to UN figures, these nations need at least $45 per person in aid every year to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. However, they receive on average not more than $20 per person annually. This Oxfam press release points out that many times rich countries provide financial aid "on the basis of news headlines and political priorities instead of need."

Following the Asian tsunami disaster in December 2004, Niger - a country with an average income of less than $1 a day - sent $250,000 to the victims. But when millions of Nigeriens are now at risk of starvation, the world's initial response was silence, writes UN Under Secretary General Jan Egeland in this USA Today opinion piece. While people across the world are slowly waking up to the reality in Niger, early action could have saved both lives and money. To avoid deadly delays in responding to future humanitarian crises, governments should invest in a UN emergency fund, Egeland says.

Rich country governments could have acted to prevent the hunger crisis in Niger but donor nations ignored the World Food Programme's first call for funds for Niger in fall 2004, says the Independent. Instead, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union pressed Niger to introduce a 19 percent tax on foodstuffs, making food more expensive and contributing to the hunger crisis.

This Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy research report provides a critical assessment of current food aid programs, particularly those of the US. According to the report, the US practice of providing commodities instead of cash aid is inefficient, expensive and slow, and benefits primarily US shipping and agribusiness companies as well as NGOs that act as food brokers to fund their development work.

More and more, governments tie food aid "to countries where they have political interests or to high-profile emergencies." The World Food Programme says that seventy to eighty percent of the aid that governments pledge to the organization "comes with instructions as to where it must be spent." (Reuters)

The food crisis raging in Niger and Mali, two of the poorest nations on earth, ranks among Africa's "forgotten emergencies." Severe drought combined with a persistent swarm of desert locusts has devastated crops in the region. In Niger, 3.6 million people face possible famine. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) appealed six months ago for $11 million in aid for Niger and Mali, but so far international donors have given only 35 percent of that sum. Although the amount needed is petty change compared to most operations, rich nations have not been forthcoming with aid for this food crisis. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

A plague of locusts followed by a terrible drought has brought Niger into a severe food crisis. Three million people, a quarter of the population, will go hungry before the new harvest begins in September. With barely any grain available, most people cannot afford to buy millet to eat. Mothers have resorted to feeding their children grass while the United Nations struggles to raise the $16 million needed to alleviate the famine. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

In southern Sudan, mothers have resorted to feeding leaves to their children as the area faces the worst food shortages in seven years. The UN food relief agency reports that "donors have only given a fraction of the aid that Sudan needs this year." A separate crisis in the Darfur region in Sudan is further stretching the agency's resources. (Reuters)

As tensions rise over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, President George W. Bush has halted all food-aid shipments to the country. Washington defends the move, citing concern over adequate monitoring and delivery of the food-aid program. Critics argue that the US is using food "as a weapon," to deter the country from developing nuclear arms. North Korea has depended on food-aid from the US ever since famines in the mid-1990s killed around two million. (Wall Street Journal)

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has voiced concern over the rules on food aid that are currently under discussion in the World Trade Organization (WTO) agricultural negotiations. The European Union and several other food-exporting countries argue that the United States uses food aid to get rid of its agricultural surplus - a result of its trade-distorting subsidies - and call for an agreement that food aid should only be delivered in cash. "The simple truth is that food aid commitments and deliveries are nose-diving, while the WTO is discussing their discipline. Please remember that simple fact and that the world's hungry children are paying the price," WFP said. (Reuters)

According to figures from the World Food Programme (WFP), global food aid decreased from 10.3 million tons in 2003 to 7.5 million in 2004. While the number of chronically hungry people in the world has increased by eight percent since 1999, the total amount of food aid has halved over the same period. WFP calls for a "Food First policy" that prioritizes ending hunger and malnutrition before using development aid to infrastructure that cannot provide sustenance for the hungry.

Facing a severe funding shortage, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has announced it will cut food rations of more than one million people in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Thus far, WFP has received only 58 percent of the US$468 million that it needs in order to feed 2.3 million people every month in Darfur. A WFP spokesman admitted the organization is "very concerned" about the measure's impact on people who are already suffering from hunger and war, but added that WFP is "left with no alternative." (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

Providing food to people in need seems like a noble cause, but the current forms of food aid hurt farmers in poor countries by depressing agricultural commodity prices, displacing trade and capturing markets from local producers. This Oxfam International report calls for the establishment of "strong disciplines" on food aid in the ongoing World Trade Organization development talks. The disciplines should aim at creating economic opportunities for poor states by requiring that all aid be provided in cash instead of in-kind contributions, eliminating agricultural dumping and protecting vulnerable farm sectors in poor countries.

A group of Central American NGOs accuses the World Food Programme (WFP) of distributing genetically modified food as part of its aid efforts in the region. An independent laboratory also found small amounts of genetically modified corn unauthorized for human consumption in the food aid. WFP denies allegations of handing out any unapproved foodstuffs, saying "all the products meet the health standards of the donor countries." (Inter Press Service)

With new crises around the world, donors' attention is shifting away from Liberia. Thus far, the World Food Programme has only received 10 % of the funds it needs for its current West Africa operations. The whole region could slide back into chaos if the international donor community continues to fall short of its pledges and the Liberian government fails to engage in reforms, warns this Global Witness press release.

The World Food Programme fears that the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the crisis in Darfur have diverted donor attention from the situation in West Africa. Disruption of humanitarian aid would endanger peace and stability in the region and severely hurt countries that are recovering from a long cycle of civil wars. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

As a means of reducing the deficit in the federal budget, the Bush administration announces that the US will reduce its contributions to global food aid programmes. The cutback of funds will hit hard mainly on projects aimed at creating self-sufficiency and at helping people to climb out of poverty. Aid organizations warn that the US withdrawal of aid pledges will affect up to seven million people in poor countries. (New York Times)

The World Food Programme asks donor countries to pledge more funds to war-torn Afghanistan, where deforestation, lack of rain and failed crops have led to a lack of food for 6.4 million Afghan people this winter. Three decades of war and the high level of poverty have left the country badly prepared for any shock, such as the seven-year drought that has continued through 2004. (New York Times)

Rich countries still have time to fulfill their pledge to halve the proportion of starving people worldwide by 2015, says a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Every dollar that rich countries invest in reducing hunger can yield from five to over twenty times as much in benefits. The report stresses the acute importance of addressing hunger and malnutrition, which cause the death of over 5 million children each year and decrease poor countries' productivity. (UN News)

Although the US Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act (PL480) has delivered more than 340 million metric tons of food aid over the past fifty years, donor self-interest has rendered it largely ineffective at addressing the root causes of global hunger. This Choices article argues that several "significant and overdue" operational changes, such as decreasing bureaucracy and providing a more flexible response in crisis situations, could allow PL480 "to help more people, in a more timely fashion, at lower cost."

Signed by 113 countries, the New York Declaration urges the international community "to give further attention to innovative mechanisms of financing," including taxes on currency transactions and arms trade, to raise funds for the Millennium Development Goals. (Action Against Hunger and Poverty)

The World Food Program announced a shortage of food and resources available to serve refugees from the Central African Republic. The organization expresses concern that this program in Chad, as well as others throughout the continent, is being overlooked as all regional attention is focused on the crisis in Darfur.

Ken Davies, World Food Programme Uganda Country Director, explains that the people of Northern Uganda "are suffering on a massive, shameful scale," threatened by both continuing attacks and the exhaustion of food supplies. Aid workers in the country are struggling to get food to the most vulnerable people and convoys need armed escorts.

Tens of thousands of Angolan refugees, returning home after ten years of exile, are set to endure more suffering due to a severe funding shortage faced by the World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP estimates that it will need US$136 million to feed nearly 1.4 million Angolans who have already returned to their homes or are ready to return from Zambia and Namibia this year. (World Food Programme)

Executive Director of UN World Food Programme (WFP) James Morris demands that donors come forward with US$8 million to support the emergency operations in Haiti, worth US$11.2 million. Morris argues that the shortfall, representing 72 per cent of the total amount requested, undermines the WFP's ability to operate in the country. (World Food Programme)

Bread for the World's 14th annual report on the state of world hunger, argues that more people in the US and poor countries are going to bed hungry each night due to a lack of leadership and political will to "stem the tide of this growing problem." The organization suggests that an international agenda that is focused on reducing hunger must include sending girls to school, supplying families with mosquito nets to ward off malaria, and providing medicines to those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warns that emergency food aid to almost two million Angolans is in jeopardy. Governments have contributed less than a quarter of the food aid requested for 2004 by WFP. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

Three Rome-based UN food agencies have "welcomed the renewed vigour" of the French, Brazilian and Chilean governments' to address poverty and hunger. In January 2004, these countries and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan supported a Joint Declaration that proposed new financing to eradicate poverty and hunger. (FAO)

This article contends that the lack of food aid donors to North Korea has resulted in millions of hungry and malnourished people and has aggravated the already brutal humanitarian crisis. (World Food Programme)

Lesotho has declared a state of emergency as food shortages threaten more than six million people. Officials are concerned that the situation could worsen as "rains fail, cattle die, stockpiles empty and aid falls short of expectations." (Reuters)

Masood Hyder, the World Food Programme's representative to North Korea, blames the country's shortfall in hunger relief funds ‘on a precarious political environment and donor fatigue'. (Channel News Asia)

Angola faces a severe famine with 100,000 people receiving food rations at the start of 2004 – out of 1.7 million World Food Programme beneficiaries. Breaks in the food aid pipeline and limited access to parts of the country exacerbate Angola's hunger crisis. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

Because of a lack of foreign donations, the World Food Program (WFP) has been forced to cut off food aid to 2.7 million North Korean women and children during the height of the country's harsh winter. In recent years donors have supplied only 60 percent of the food the WFP needs to distribute in North Korea. (Associated Press)

In 2003, the World Food Programme's food aid reached 110 million hungry people - more than ever before. Yet, this number only represents a small fraction of the world's 800 million hungry people. The WFP laments that governments only address hunger when war or a natural catastrophe briefly focuses global attention and compassion to the problem. (Inter Press Service)

Zimbabwe starts the year 2004 facing a serious food security problem. Donors did not pledge sufficient hunger relief funds to the World Food Programme, and poor rainfall and inflation on staple foods further amplify the crisis. (Integrated Regional Information Network)

The World Food Programme warns that an unprecedented funding cut in its school feeding program could negatively impact the Kenyan government's policy of free universal primary education. One million school children in Kenya's most food-insecure regions might drop out if schools fail to provide them with their only daily meal. (Integrated Regional Information Network)

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed for $3 billion dollars to alleviate humanitarian crises. Annan lamented that political and media attention, not the needs of the people, determine donors' willingness to fund global humanitarian assistance. While donors raised 91 percent of the total amount requested for Iraq, the humanitarian crisis in Burundi only generated 28 percent of the appealed funds. (Inter Press Service)

The World Food Programme has a funding crisis. Unless donor nations commit more funds to combating hunger, the organization expects the entire southern African region to experience food pipeline breaks, which will presumably coincide with the lean season, when the general food deficit is the greatest.

The prevailing insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo impedes humanitarian agencies from distributing food. In addition, international donors ignore the repeated alerts of the World Food Program, leaving the organization with only five percent of the required funding.

Poor Brazilian children often spend their day trying to earn enough money to eat, rather than attending school. A government program offers families a stipend for their child's school attendance. (The Washington Post)

In Evian, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared hunger a security problem and a root cause of terrorism. He proposed creating an international hunger fund financed by a tax on the global arms trade and the interest payments made by indebted countries. (Interhemispheric Resource Center)

While the media and decision makers focused on the Iraq crisis, the incipient famine in the Horn of Africa drastically worsened. Unless the West mobilizes further assistance immediately to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, the result will be catastrophic. (New York Times)

In a statement to the UN Security Council, World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris asks how the international community can "routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa" above that tolerated in the rest of the world. Morris exhorts G8 members to take several concrete actions to relieve hunger in Africa.

The World Food Program received no response to its desperate appeal for funds to alleviate the famine in the Central African Republic. "This can be considered the world's most silent crisis/" a spokesperson for the WFP said. (Guardian)

The UN still needs $US 90 million from the world's richest governments to cope with humanitarian aid in the event of war against Iraq. The ‘Oil for Food' program feeds 60% of Iraq's population and will be halted during the war. (Guardian)

UN contingency plans to feed starving Iraqis during the impending war are severely hampered by lack of funds. The UN has appealed to donors for a further $US 90 million which would at least feed hapless Iraqi civilians under siege. (Alertnet)

The prime minister of Ethiopia says unfair farm subsidies, unsustainable debt, plummeting coffee prices, and complacency in the international aid community have all contributed to the country's current hunger crisis. Aid donors have pledged only half of the 1.4 million tons of food the UN says the country's people will need to survive. (Guardian)

The UN has launched a consolidated inter-agency appeal for US $89 million to avert the humanitarian disaster in Uganda. Fighting between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Government forces has caused a dire food shortage which the UN is unable to prevent with its meager funds. (Integrated Regional Information Networks)

The United Nations' emergency food arm, the World Food Program, welcomed a $20 million donation from the South African government to alleviate the famine in southern Africa. The donation comes at a crucial time with the UN struggling to feed the millions suffering from the crisis. (UN News)

The UN has cut rations to 220,000 refugees in northern Kenya by a quarter due to the dire need to alleviate famine in Southern Africa and Ethiopia. The UN's emergency food arm, the WFP, has made a desperate appeal for 10 million dollars in donations to supplement its dwindling funds. (MSNBC News)

Columnist Larry Elliott details UK chancellor Gordon Brown's proposal to raise 50 billion extra dollars in foreign aid by issuing 15 year bonds, meant to "kick-start" developing economies. Elliott argues aid agencies should support the plan, recognizing the urgency of poverty, debt, famine, and disease in developing countries. (Guardian)

Leaders of humanitarian aid organizations, the UN World Food Program and the US Agency for International Development came together to launch a global campaign to assist 34 million Africans at risk of starvation. They called on governments, NGOs and citizens' groups "to join in a massive and urgent response." (Catholic Relief Services)

The World Food Programme is launching an urgent appeal for emergency food aid for Burundi, where a two month delay in annual rains and last year's bad harvest have resulted in famine conditions.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reports that "the failure of the peace process and the destruction of the Palestinian economy by Israel's closures policy have had the effect of a terrible natural disaster." The UNRWA has increased its food aid to address worsening malnutrition among Palestinian children.

Ethiopia is bracing for a food crisis more severe than the 1984 famine that left one million people dead. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations have begun to respond, but they warn that their resources will not meet the enormous need without an influx of donations. (Times)

The most severe drought in Eritrea's history may cause severe food shortages. Now that officials have detected the threat early, "if in four or five months we begin to see grossly emaciated children, it will be a failure of the international community." (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks)

Rich nations produce enough food to feed the entire world, but global famine has reached an unprecedented scale. Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights Jean Siegler argues that wealthy countries, by failing to alleviate hunger, violate the international human right to food for millions of people. (Inter Press Service)

A decrease in donations to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) will force the Program to cut its cereal distributions to three million people in North Korea. The director of the WFP warns that "such across-the-board cutbacks would cause acute suffering on a massive scale."

Local aid workers are warning international donors not to forget Ethiopians in the midst of southern Africa's crisis. The World Food Program has warned that up to 4 million people are at risk of food shortages. (OneWorld)

The WFP is asking for $507 million to feed 10.2 million people in six African countries where an already severe famine crisis is worsening. (allAfrica)

Due to severe lack of funding, the UN World Food Program's Emergency Operation in Afghanistan is facing a shortfall of around $123 million worth of food. (UN News)

While the FAO pushes for more financial aid, NGOs argue that "governments and the international community have failed to comply with one of their fundamental obligations to protect human rights" to food sovereignty and development. (Inter Press Service)

"Proposed cuts in US contributions to the WFP" may put Africa into a dire position as the "organization may have to cut food aid for three million people a year." (Herald, Glasgow)

WFP has commenced emergency food distributions to famine-endangered Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Speaking to agriculture experts, Nigeria's President Obesanjo solicited more resources for development at the Monterrey conference. (Agence France Press)

According to UN field workers in Afghanistan, the UN lacks coordination and resolute efforts. UN aid workers criticize the aid for Afghan children for being nothing but a "publicity stunt".(Herald)

The World Food Program's report revealed that at the time of high prosperity in some areas, millions of people still suffer from chronic hunger. (Inter Press Service )

"World Food Program estimates that 90 percent of North Korean institutions that receive food aid, including hospitals, orphanages and schools, have rarely been allowed to observe the actual distribution of food to beneficiaries." (New York Times)