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WFP / COVID-19 HUNGER
STORY: WFP / COVID-19 HUNGER
TRT: 04:46
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 JUNE 20, ROME, ITALY / 25 JUNE 2020, BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
/ 19 NOVEMBER 2018, BATANGAFO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / 16 JUNE 2020, CAP HAITIEN, HAITI / 17-18 JUNE 2020, GRAND RIVIERE DU NORD, HAITI / 22 – 25 MAY 2020, LAGOS, NIGERIA
25 JUNE 2020, BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
1. Various shots, children being tested for malnourishment at Begoua District Hospital
19 NOVEMBER 2018, BATANGAFO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
2. Various shots, burnt down IDP camp
16 JUNE 2020, CAP HAITIEN, HAITI
3. Various shots, aerial views
4. Various shots, people salvaging scraps in a dump
5. Various shots, cars and motorbikes queuing at the gas station as fuel supplies
17-18 JUNE 2020, GRAND RIVIERE DU NORD, HAITI
6. Various shots of, WFP cash distribution with COVID-19 preventative measures in place
7. Various shots, market place
26 JUNE 20, ROME, ITALY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The COVID pandemic has created a hunger pandemic. In fact, we’ve gone from now 135 million people on the brink of starvation. To 270 million people and while we’ve got to have a vaccine for COVID
We DO have a vaccine for hunger and starvation and that’s the WFP. So, we need support right now and if we don’t, if we don’t get that support, you can imagine, death rates, starvation, mass migration by necessity, and exploitation by extremist groups. We’ve got the vaccine; we need the food we need to move it now.”
22 – 25 MAY 2020, LAGOS, NIGERIA
9. Various shots, Makoko floating slum
10. Various shots, empty classroom in Adekunle Primary School
11. Various shots, David, an 8-year-old student with his grandmother
12. Various shots, Alice Teshome collecting take-home school meals provided and returning home with her grandson, David
13. SOUNDBITE (Yoruba) Alice Tinsheme, Makoko Resident:
“Our children are not in school because of corona, but as they are at home, we don’t even know what to do with them. If they are in school, they are learning and getting food. It gives me joy that I have received some food items.”
14. Various shots, Tinsheme at home preparing food and eating with her grandson David
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced a massive rise in the number of hungry people it plans to assist around the world, as the devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic push millions more people into food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries.
To tackle the rising tide of hunger, WFP is undertaking the biggest humanitarian response in its history, ramping up the number of people it assists to up to 138 million from a record 97 million in 2019. But sustained funding is urgently required to respond to the immediate consequences of the pandemic on the most vulnerable, and support governments and partners as they curb the spread of the disease and deal with the fallout from the pandemic. WFP is appealing for a US$ 4.9 billion over the next six months for its life-saving work in 83 countries.
Earlier WFP projections on the number of people who would be pushed into food insecurity by COVID-19 have now been refined with real-time monitoring and assessments. WFP’s new estimates show that the number of hungry in the countries where it operates could increase to 270 million before the year’s end - an 82 percent increase from before the pandemic took hold.
SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The COVID pandemic has created a hunger pandemic. In fact, we’ve gone from now 135 million people on the brink of starvation. To 270 million people and while we’ve got to have a vaccine for COVID
We DO have a vaccine for hunger and starvation and that’s the WFP. So, we need support right now and if we don’t, if we don’t get that support, you can imagine, death rates, starvation, mass migration by necessity, and exploitation by extremist groups. We’ve got the vaccine; we need the food we need to move it now.”
The crisis unfolds at a time when the number of severely food insecure people in the world had already risen nearly 70 percent over the past four years, compounding the effects of climate change, conflict and socio-economic shocks in regions of the world that had previously escaped severe levels of food insecurity.
The fallout from the pandemic is being felt hardest in Latin America, which has seen an almost three-fold rise in the number of people requiring food assistance, and among urban communities in low- and middle-income countries, which are being dragged into destitution by job losses and a precipitous drop in remittances. Spikes in hunger are also evident in West and Central Africa which has seen a 135% jump in the number of food insecure people as well as in Southern Africa where there has been a 90% rise.
Coronavirus infection levels are climbing at the very moment when food stocks in some parts of the world are already low. At this time of year many farmers are awaiting crops from new harvests. Hurricane and monsoon seasons are getting underway, while record locust invasions in East Africa and outbreaks of conflict are adding to an already challenging outlook for the world’s hungry.
SOUNDBITE (Yoruba) Alice Tinsheme, Makoko Resident:
“Our children are not in school because of corona, but as they are at home, we don’t even know what to do with them. If they are in school, they are learning and getting food. It gives me joy that I have received some food items.”
The new face of hunger requires specialised responses, with a big increase in the use of cash-based transfers, and a heavy focus on urban settings. Over half of WFP’s new response plan will be delivered in cash and vouchers - allowing urban communities to meet their food needs in local markets – while providing a stimulus to economies.
WFP is uniquely positioned to help governments assist and empower vulnerable communities through support to social protection systems, access to basic school-based and nutrition services, and support to food systems.
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