The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called for $1.9 billion in contributions by 2025, to be used for agricultural and food assistance in critical areas, a statement said today.
Rome.- A note released by the press office of that international organization indicates that, with these funds, “almost 49 million people could produce their food and get out of acute food insecurity.”
The call indicates that the number of people in catastrophic hunger conditions, in phase five of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), rose from 705,000 people in five countries/territories in 2023, to 1.9 million in mid-2024, in Gaza, Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan.
On the other hand, according to the document, the immediate future at a global level is deeply worrying, and there are no signs that the main factors that cause acute hunger, such as conflicts, climatic extremes, and economic crises, will diminish in 2025.
In this regard, Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General, said “Emergency agricultural assistance is a lifeline and offers a way out of hunger, even during violence and climate crises.”
"This aid has life-saving effects on vulnerable populations, allowing them to continue producing food locally to feed themselves, their families, and their communities," she said.
“However, we are seeing significant gaps in the financing of this type of intervention;” while “too often, only a fraction of humanitarian aid for crises is allocated to protecting agricultural livelihoods,” Bechdol lamented.
In 2024, FAO requested 1.8 billion dollars within the framework of its humanitarian response plans, to reach 43 million people with a range of agricultural assistance.
However, only 22 percent of these funds were received, despite which by mid-year they had reached approximately 20 million people in countries in crisis, with combinations of emergency and resilience assistance, the report said.
There has been a steady decline in available funds since the peak of humanitarian allocations in 2022, with those for the food sector experiencing a 30 percent reduction.
“Unless the necessary resources are made available, FAO warns that lives will be lost hard-won development gains will be reversed, and more people will fall into acute hunger. a price too high to pay,” the source added. (PL)
