UN / GUTERRES GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
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STORY: UN / GUTERRES GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
TRT: 01:47
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MAY 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
18 MAY 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
2. Wide shot, conference room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“There is no effective solution to the food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine’s food production, as well as the food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets -- despite the war.
Russia must permit the safe and secure export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports. Alternative transportation routes can be explored – even if we know that by itself, they will not be enough to solve the problem. And Russian food and fertilizers must have unrestricted access to world markets without indirect impediments.”
4. Wide shot, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, United States:
“Countries with significant grain and fertilizer reserves, as well as those with financial resources, need to step up and do it fast. The United States has announced more than 2.3 billion dollars in new funding for emergency food assistance to meet global humanitarian needs since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Today, given the urgency of the crisis, we're announcing another 215 million in new emergency food assistance. And we'll do much more.”
6. Med shot, Ukraine’s delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“I ask President Putin, if you have any heart at all, to please open these ports. Please assure everyone concerned that the passageways will be cleared so that we can feed the poorest of the poor and avert famine as we've done in the past, when nations in this room have stepped up together to the call of action to prevent catastrophe from year after year.”
8. Wide shot, delegates
Secretary-General, António Guterres, today (18 May) said, “there is no effective solution” to the current global food crisis “without reintegrating Ukraine’s food production, as well as the food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets -- despite the war.”
Briefing a ministerial level meeting on global food security, convened by the United States, Guterres said,
“Russia must permit the safe and secure export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports,” and Russian food and fertilizers “must have unrestricted access to world markets without indirect impediments.”
The Secretary-General warned that global hunger levels are at a new high, and that the war in Ukraine is amplifying and accelerating driving factors such as climate change, COVID-19, and inequality.
He highlighted urgent steps needed to solve the short-term crisis and prevent a long-term catastrophe, including the urgent need to reduce the pressure on markets by increasing supplies of food, the need for social protection systems to cover everyone in need, and fully funding humanitarian operations to prevent famine and reduce hunger.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the meeting that “countries with significant grain and fertilizer reserves, as well as those with financial resources, need to step up and do it fast.”
The United States, he said, “has announced more than 2.3 billion dollars in new funding for emergency food assistance to meet global humanitarian needs since Russia's invasion of Ukraine” and “today, given the urgency of the crisis, we're announcing another 215 million in new emergency food assistance. And we'll do much more.”
For his part the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin directly and said, “if you have any heart at all, to please open these ports. Please assure everyone concerned that the passageways will be cleared so that we can feed the poorest of the poor and avert famine as we've done in the past, when nations in this room have stepped up together to the call of action to prevent catastrophe from year after year.”
The number of severely food insecure people had doubled in just two years – from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today, with more than half a million experiencing famine conditions – an increase of more than 500 percent since 2016.