Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict - Security Council Open VTC

The world is not only facing “a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe”, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley tells the Security Council via video link.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 02:17:43
• Production Date: 21 April 2020
• Asset Language: Original; English
• Personal Subject: DAVID BEASLEY; JAN EGELAND
• Corporate Name: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION - FAO; WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: EPIDEMICS; FOOD SECURITY; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; HUNGER
• Geographic Subject: BURKINA FASO
• MAMS Id: 2543462
• Parent Id: 2543462

Description

Noting that the global spread of COVID-19 this year has sparked “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two”, David Beasley pointed to deepening crises, more frequent natural disasters and changing weather patterns, saying “we’re already facing a perfect storm”.

As millions of civilians in conflict-scarred nations teeter on the brink of starvation, he said, “famine is a very real and dangerous possibility”.

Mr. Beasley painted a grim picture of 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus, noting that WFP currently offers a lifeline to nearly 100 million people – up from about 80 million just a few years ago.

Noting that WFP is the “logistics backbone” for humanitarians and “even more so now for the global effort to beat the COVID-19 pandemic”, the WFP chief urged the Council to “lead the way”.

Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu highlighted how the newly released 2020 Global Report on Food Crises report, clearly links conflict and rising levels of acute food insecurity.

Against the backdrop that 135 million people in 55 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2019, nearly 60 per cent of whom lived in conflict or instability, he cited Yemen as the world’s worst food and malnutrition crisis this year, saying that the number of acutely food-insecure people there is “expected to exceed 17 million”.

The FAO chief also drew a connection between livelihood interventions and peace processes, spelling out that “coherent actions are needed among humanitarian, development and peace actors to address the root causes of acute food insecurity”.

While conflicts, extreme weather, desert locusts, economic shocks and now COVID-19, are likely to “push more people into acute food insecurity”, Mr. Qu saw a ray of hope, saying that “by closely monitoring the evolution of these shocks, we can rapidly intervene to mitigate their impacts”.

Noting that widespread conflict and instability lead to food insecurity, and that reducing or preventing conflict reduces and prevents hunger, the FAO chief closed by saying: “We have mobilized our organizations in ways not seen since the foundation of the UN”.

Former top UN humanitarian affairs official, Jan Egeland, now Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, appealed to the Security Council for help with field-based obstacles in reaching hungry people living in a wartime setting.

“In my 40 years as a humanitarian worker, I have never seen as many people displaced by conflict as now”, he said.

“We see more longer, crueler conflicts cause mounting hunger, as families flee their homes, their farms their fields and their livelihoods and they become dependent on the generosity on the hosts communities that themselves are in the precarious situation”.

To mitigate the humanitarian situation, Mr. Egeland made five “concrete asks”, beginning with “safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to everyone everywhere”.

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