UN food agency chief urges stronger effort to combat hunger
Feb 17, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — It is “a terrible indictment of the world in 2007” that 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition, and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, the head of the U.N. food agency said Friday.
James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate and eliminate hunger – especially among children.
“Addressing the hunger issue is the most powerful way to break the poverty cycle,” he said in an interview. “We all simply have to do more.”
“The little girl in Malawi who’s fed, and goes to school: 50% less likely to be HIV-positive, 50% less likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby. Everything about her life changes for the better and it’s the most important, significant, humanitarian, political, or economic investment the world can make in its future,” he said.
Morris, a U.S. businessman and former foundation president, is stepping down as the Rome-based World Food Program’s executive director in April after five years in the forefront of helping victims of conflicts, natural disasters and poverty. WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, reaching close to 100 million people in more than 80 countries every year with life-sustaining food and other assistance.
As he prepares to leave, Morris said the two issues of greatest concern are the increasing number of impoverished people and the “very significant, growing number of natural disasters around the world.”
According to the World Bank, he said, natural disasters have increased fourfold over the last 30 years, meaning several billion people need instant help over the course of a decade because of disasters like the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake or drought in southern Africa.
The response to these disasters and conflicts like Darfur and Lebanon has meant that most development aid has been used to save lives – not to help communities prevent disasters and promote development through agricultural programs, education for children and water conservation, Morris said.
As for hunger, he said, that although the percentage of people who are hungry and malnourished has decreased from a fifth of the world’s population to a sixth of the population, the actual number of hungry people is growing by about 5 million people a year because of the rising population.
“Today, 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children. 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition,” Morris said.
“This is a shameful fact – a terrible indictment of the world in 2007, and it’s an issue that needs to be solved,” he said.
Morris said the largest number of malnourished children are in India – more than 100 million – followed by nearly 40 million in China.
“I’m very optimistic that India and China are very focused on this issue,” he said. “They’re making great progress – (but) need to do more. (It) needs to be a top priority.”
Elsewhere, there are probably 100 million hungry children in the rest of Asia, another 100 million in Africa where countries have fewer resources to help, and 30 million in Latin America, he said.
Morris called for a sustained effort to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, starting with reducing hunger and extreme poverty by half by 2015. He expressed hope that Rotary International, which has led the campaign to eradicate polio, and Kiwanis International would make the fight against child hunger their next priority.
“The fact of the matter is the issue is huge and we all have to do more,” Morris said. “Those who aren’t doing very much need to begin to become significant players.”
The U.S. does more each year as do the European Community, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, the Nordic countries and Australia, he said.
Morris singled out the “remarkably growing generosity from places like Ireland, and Luxembourg, and Belgium and Iceland,” which feeds 175,000 students at home and has decided to feed an equal number in Africa.
India and Russia have also become important WFP partners, Saudi Arabia has increased its support tenfold, and Dubai has given the agency “extraordinary support,” he said.
“We need China to become an important partner. We need Mexico to become an important partner,” Morris said, and Muslim nations needs to step up their support.
Half of WFP’s work is now in Islamic countries including Sudan, Somalia and Indonesia, he said.
The agency’s biggest operation today is in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region where violence and security are major problems and 2.5 million people have fled their homes and now live in camps.
“Our convoys are attacked almost daily. We had a truck driver killed there at the end of last year. Our convoys coming through Chad from Libya are always at risk. When the African Union troops were there, that was very helpful. The U.N. troops will be even more helpful,” Morris said.
He was referring to a plan for an AU-U.N. force to be deployed in Darfur which is awaiting approval from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
(AP)