The director for Emergencies and Resilience of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today that the global situation of food insecurity is “very worrying”, and highlighted the agency’s aid work in Africa and Afghanistan.
“At a global level, the situation of food insecurity is very worrying,” Paulsen warned in an interview with the Europa Press agency.
The FAO official emphasized optimizing the response to cases of severe food insecurity, which already amounts to 222 million worldwide, according to data from last year. In this sense, he remarked that the cases “since 2016 or 2017 increased not only in global terms, but also at the level of severity, as a percentage of the population.”
“The trends are very, very worrying,” he warned, calling for a “global response.”
“One of the most important elements would be to start from the point of view of those affected. Listen to what they ask for, what they want for support, what they say are their most important needs, instead of starting from the point of view of what I can give,” Paulsen said.
Although the cases are different, there are certain features in common in all food crises, according to the manager.
“People ask to have the peace of mind to fend for themselves, they ask for peace and almost always ask for support to be able to take their children to school,” he said, and recalled that “the vast majority of people affected by crises live in rural zones.
Within this framework, he called for strengthening support for agricultural activities, which today represents “only 40% of the humanitarian response in food crisis situations.”
“It would be important to always look not only at how to support families who have needs today, but also accompany them to find how to adapt their way of life to face the climate crisis, which is a reality that affects us all,” he explained. Paulsen regarding how to respond to these situations.
Although he stressed that “every year donors have given more and more resources” so that international organizations can respond to crises, he stressed that this does not prevent the existence of “a gap” between needs and resources.
The FAO official gave as an example the organization’s work in Afghanistan where it provides seeds, fertilizers and technical support so that people “can grow what they need to eat”, covering more than six million people, equivalent to “almost the 50% of the rural population that is in a situation of acute food crisis”.
“It is an intervention that for US$ 220 per family of seven people with these seeds, fertilizers and a bit of technical follow-up, allows them to grow everything they need in terms of calories for a period of 12 months,” he said, and indicated that if they bought said inputs in the local market “would have cost four or five times more.”
Paulsen also referred to the serious food situation in the Horn of Africa area, which has accumulated six consecutive seasons of drought.
“The big challenge we have faced in the Horn of Africa is, frankly, a lack of resources. Not only the amount of resources, but when the donors give us the funds to start the activities”, he explained.
According to the official, “more than 70% of the area’s population is in a humanitarian crisis,” and stressed that the agency works in areas where “there are even difficulties for physical access,” as is the case of Somalia under control of the terrorist group Al Shabaab.
In both Afghanistan and Africa, the FAO works with grains that are refined “drought tolerant,” or that can thrive at lower temperatures.
One pending issue is water access: according to Paulsen, in the Horn of Africa there is water through aquifers and groundwater, but “how to provide better access to that water” still needs to be resolved.
Source: Ambito
