Putting food on the table is a challenge for millions worldwide, especially those who have to deal with the aftermath of climate disasters. Last year, the assisted more than 15 million people in 42 countries, helping them withstand droughts, floods, storms, and other climate shocks. However, as climate impacts drove nearly 57 million people into hunger last year alone, many more people require protection. At , world leaders must increase support for those affected by the worst climate disasters worldwide. This can be achieved through funding to strengthen local systems and capacities in conflict or fragile settings, enhancing loss-and-damage support, and transforming the systems that bring food to our tables.
WFP
The mud structures housing some of Nepal's poorest people never stood a chance against the earthquake that afflicted Nepal on November 4. The survivors of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake, which killed 157 people in the country, are sleeping rough after their homes were destroyed. The is supporting the Government of the Asian country in mobilizing relief supplies for families who find themselves suddenly without their homes and belongings.
The latest , elaborated jointly by two UN agencies, highlights urgent humanitarian emergencies in 18 countries at risk of food insecurity and starvation. The conflict in Israel and Palestine has drawn attention away from other countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan, and Sudan, which are at risk of serious deterioration in food security. The report also warns of acute food insecurity in Palestine due to the escalation in conflict and recommends a ceasefire and access to aid delivery. Conflict remains a major driver of hunger globally, with the Sahel region experiencing instability and violence, resulting in a surge of fatalities.
Three weeks of near-constant bombardment in Gaza have left its entire population in desperate and catastrophic conditions. The is striving to reach over one million people for whom water and food are running out. One employee of the humanitarian organization describes the horror, the personal grief of losing at least seven family members and friends, her dreams for a better future, and why her work must go on in the face of it all.
After the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan, WFP has already reached nearly 34,000 survivors with emergency food assistance, which they began distributing within hours after the first quakes struck. The UN agency plans to deliver food and cash assistance to more than 100,000 people over the next three to seven months - and roll out longer-term resilience programmes to help them rebuild their livelihoods. WFP urgently needs US$18.8 million so that Afghanistan’s earthquake survivors can eat and rebuild from the country’s latest disaster, and US$400 million to help the most vulnerable survive harsh weather.
Hunger is on the rise, affecting more people than ever before. data shows that each 1% reduction in WFP's assistance could push an additional 400,000 people closer to famine.
Food-insecurity levels were already alarmingly high, with one third of people in Palestine – 1.8 million – experiencing food insecurity. In the immediate aftermath of the spike in conflict, the UN World Food Programme's emergency operation aims to provide a critical food lifeline to over 800,000 people.
A funding crunch has sharply curtailed ’s response to two top hunger crises: Somalia and Haiti. WFP spoke with Hibo Ahmed, who has survived on WFP cash assistance programmes at a dusty camp for internally displaced people, and Herman Petitfrere who, after fleeing gang violence in the neighborhood where he lived, in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, now lives in a makeshift shelter built from wood and iron sheeting, located in a camp, where hundreds of other people have also taken refuge. Both are surviving day-to-day in homelands roiled by violence and climate change — which together help to drive some of the world’s highest hunger rates.
The Afghan community is being pushed to the brink as the is forced to cut food assistance driving people into a freefall where they do not know where their next meal is coming from. Children are earning 50 Afghan Afghanis (US$0.60) a day from garbage and plastic collection. In a country reeling from protracted conflict, a decimated economy, and a climate crisis that is worsening by the day, 15 million people are going to bed hungry every night. WFP to pull Afghans back from the brink.
There are 734 million people going hungry around the world, 122 million more than in 2019, according to (SOFI). Launched by UN agencies including the FAO and , the report estimates 29.6 percent of the world’s population, around 2.4 billion people, had restricted access to food last year. This includes around 900 million people facing severe food insecurity amid worsening and intersecting crises. WFP needs US$25.1 billion to reach 171.5 million people around the world this year.
The meals offered by Shree Kakani Ganesh Primary School, in Nepal are part of a broader effort to give young school children a healthy start. With more than one-fourth of Nepal’s children under 5 suffering from malnutrition, the school meals are a game changer. Under ’s Home-Grown School Feeding initiative, children are fed with different nutritious hot meals daily resulting in fewer children missing school. Food is sourced from local smallholder farmers which in turn has seen an increase in the local communities income and strengthened economy while improving family dynamics in Nepal.
Climate extremes are a key driver of food insecurity. are providing solutions to help communities predict and prepare for climate disasters for a sustainable future.
Haiti’s hunger crisis is unseen, unheard, and unaddressed leaving more than 4.9 million Haitians struggling to eat day-to-day. Pervasive insecurity and extreme weather conditions are inhibiting access to the rich food productive areas in the region. is optimistic that despite these challenges, empowering the local community will build long-term capacities in bridging the food crisis. There needs to be a multi-sector response and investments in the local grassroot organizations to stabilize in Haiti.
In the words of rice farmer Deur Sok, the difference the 2.3km canal built in 2022 as part of a -backed project is making in Sambour, a commune in central Cambodia’s Kampong Thom province is tremendous. Changing weather patterns in the past few years have caused an unpredictable succession of drought and flooding, which spelled disaster for farmers relying on so-called wet season – or rainfed – rice cultivation. Farmers in the region had seen their plants wilt when there was not enough water – or washed away when there was too much. The canal has broken their dependence on erratic weather events and as a result, their yields have more than doubled.
Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Mocha, a grim certainty looms as the coastal areas of and enters monsoon season. The cyclone has sent food prices soaring and wiped-out people’s slender food stocks. But now Mocha’s devastation has only deepened hunger already sharpened by the country’s conflict and political and economic crises. has distributed hot meals and emergency food assistance to thousands of people in the immediate aftermath of the storm. A funding shortfall is threatening WFP's response in both countries.