LONDON: Food aid is at a 20-year low despite the number of critically hungry people soaring this year to its highest level ever, the UN relief agency said on Wednesday.
The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year for the first time, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said, adding that it is facing a serious budget shortfall. To date the WFP has confirmed $2.6 billion in funding for its 2009 budget of $6.7 billion.
“This comes at a time of great vulnerability for the hungry,” the WFP said.
“Millions have been buffeted by the global financial downturn, their ability to buy food is limited by stubbornly high prices. In addition, unpredictable weather patterns are causing more weather-related hunger,” it said.
An earlier report said that most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a ranking of 148 nations. The US is least at risk followed by France, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to the Food Security Risk Index, calculated from dozens of variables that determine a country’s capacity to feed its people.
Food stress jumped toward the top of the global agenda after soaring commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots in 30 countries, including many tottering on the brink of severe shortages or widespread hunger.
The World Bank estimates that food inflation during that period pushed an additional 100 million people into deep poverty, on top of a billion that were already scraping by on less than $1 a day. The three most populous countries in South Asia also face food precariousness: Pakistan, ranked 11th, is at “extreme risk,” while Bangladesh and India are both at “high risk”, ranked 20th and 25th respectively.
“India may be one of the world’s key emerging economies, but it is finding itself under increasing pressure from food security issues,” the report concluded. China, Russia and Brazil — the other three BRIC emerging economies — face medium risk.
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