UN and partners meet to address ‘critical’ state of global food crisis
UNITED NATIONS. KAZINFORM Scaling up climate resilience across food systems is among the actions needed to counter rising hunger and malnutrition, UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid said on Monday, at a special meeting to address the global food crisis, the UN News Centre informs.
Factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and ongoing conflicts resulted in nearly a billion people going hungry last year, he said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has warned that the conflict in Ukraine will plunge an additional 95 million people into extreme poverty, and 50 million into severe hunger, this year.
Already falling short
«Frankly, we were already falling short of meeting our food security targets, prior to 2020. However, the situation is now critical,» said Mr. Shahid.
«The shocks of multiple global crises have weakened our institutions, our economies, and challenged our ability to effectively respond.»
He stressed that despite this bleak picture, countries cannot lose hope. They must collectively mobilize to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition, and also address the factors that cause them.
Mr. Shahid also highlighted the need to prioritize food security in the world’s least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and small island developing states, whose citizens «are typically forced to spend a larger share of their income on basic necessities, including food, and are thus disproportionately affected by rising food prices.»