UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and a megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars There will be a famine. “
David Beasley said in an interview with the Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is focusing on the agency’s day-to-day work in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, in which feeding millions of hungry people often endangers staff lives – but “to send a message to the world.” That it’s getting worse from there … (and) that we still have a lot of work to do. “
“It was just in time because we’re fighting to move the lyrics forward,” Basel said of last month’s award. “Travesty is what we are facing around the world.”
“So this was truly a gift from above,” Beasley said, recalling the surprise and joy of 20,000 WFP employees worldwide, and his own shock was interrupted during a meeting in Niger in the Sahel region of Africa with this news.
Beasley recalled a warning to the UN Security Council in April that the world was dealing with a coronavirus epidemic, also on the verge of a “famine” that could lead to “several biblical famines” in a few months. No immediate action was taken.
“We can avoid it in 2020 … because world leaders responded with money, stimulus packages, debt deferrals.”
Now, Beasley said, COVID-19 is on the rise again, especially in low- and middle-income countries where economies continue to deteriorate, and there is another wave of lockdowns and shutdowns.
But he said the money that was available in 2020 will not be available in 2021, so he is using the Nobel virtually and face-to-face to meet leaders, speak in parliament and give speeches to empower people. Tragedy that we are facing – crises that will really become extraordinary in the near future, who knows, 12 to 18 months. “
“Now everyone wants to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner,” Basley said, explaining that he now spends 45 minutes with leaders instead of 15 minutes and can go deeper and explain what bad things will be like next year and what leaders will be like. . Programs have to be prioritized. “And the answer has been really good,” he said.
“I tell them you don’t have enough money to fund projects that historically fund.”
“It’s important, but he compared the Titanic to the next crisis,” Beasley said, adding that “right now, we really need to focus on the iceberg, and the iceberg is drought, starvation, instability and migration.” “
Beasley said the WFP needs 15 15 billion next year – 5 5 billion to prevent drought and 10 10 billion to carry out the agency’s global programs, including malnourished children and school meals that often go to young people who only get meals.
“If I can get it with our normal money, then we will avoid worldwide famine” and reduce instability as well as migration. He said.
In addition to raising extra money from governments, Beasley said his other “great hope” is that the billionaires who made billions during the Covid-11 epidemic will move forward on a one-time basis. He plans to take this message forward, perhaps in December or January.
In April, Beasley said 135 million people had “hunger crisis levels or worse.” The WFP analysis showed that COVID = 19 could push an additional 1 million million people “to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.”
He said in a virtual interview in Rome on Wednesday, where the WFP-based, while this year’s drought was averted, the number of people facing hunger crisis levels is rising to 270 million.
“There are about three dozen countries that could enter a state of drought if we don’t have the money we need,” Beasley said.
According to a joint analysis by the WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in October, over the next three to six months, 20 countries are likely to “face potential spikes in high acute food insecurity,” and urgent attention is needed. “
Of these, Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and parts of Burkina Faso are among those that have “reached serious levels of hunger after years of conflict or other shocks,” UN agencies said, and any further deterioration could occur in the coming months. Risk of drought. “
Other countries need immediate attention – Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Beasley said the Covid-19 vaccine “will generate some optimism that will hopefully help economies around the world, especially Western economies, move forward. But the WFP’s executive director said there was already 17 17 billion in economic stimulus this year and we wouldn’t go that global.
“We are very, very concerned, that the deferred debt payments for new low- and middle-income countries, which will resume in January, will lead to new lockdowns and burst economic impact,” Beasley said.
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