Historic crisis: UN forced to cut food aid due to lack of funds

(Patria) - The United Nations has been forced to reduce food deliveries, cash payments, and aid to millions of people in many countries due to a "funding crisis" and donations that have fallen by approximately half as acute hunger reaches record levels, a senior official said.

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said at least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already experienced cuts or plan to reduce aid soon, including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and West Africa, AP reports.

He said WFP's operational requirement is $20 billion to deliver aid to everyone in need, but the target is between $10 billion and $14 billion, which is what the agency has received in recent years.

"We are still aiming for that, but we have only reached about half of that so far this year, around five billion dollars," Skau said.

He said that humanitarian needs grew in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

"Those needs continue to grow, those drivers are still there," he said, "but funding is drying up. So, we are looking at 2024 being even more dire."

"The biggest food and nutrition crisis in history is ongoing today," he said.

"This year, 345 million people remain acutely food insecure, while hundreds of millions of people are at risk of worsening hunger," says Skau. Conflicts and insecurity continue to be the main drivers of acute hunger worldwide, along with climate change, relentless disasters, persistent food price inflation, and growing debt stress, all while the global economy slows, Skau said.

WFP is working to diversify its funding base. He called on the agency's traditional donors to "step up and support us through this very difficult time." When asked why funding is drying up, Skau said that donors should be asked.

"But it is clear that aid budgets, humanitarian budgets, both in Europe and in the United States, are not where they were in 2021-2022."

Skau said that in March, WFP was forced to reduce rations from 75% to 50% for communities in Afghanistan facing emergency levels of hunger, and in May, it was forced to reduce food for eight million people it was helping. It now helps only five million people. In Syria, 5.5 million people who relied on WFP for food are already on 50% rations, Skau said, and in July, the agency reduced all rations for 2.5 million of them.

In the Palestinian territories, WFP reduced its cash assistance by 20% in May and June. It reduced the number of cases by 60%, or 200,000 people. And in Yemen, he said, a huge funding shortfall will force WFP to reduce aid to seven million people as early as August. In West Africa, where acute hunger is on the rise, Skau said, most countries are facing extensive meal cuts, especially with WFP's seven largest crisis operations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon.

"Reducing rations is clearly not the way forward," Skau said.

He called on world leaders to prioritize humanitarian funding and invest in long-term solutions for conflicts, poverty, development, and other root causes of the current crisis.