WFP / CLIMATE RELATED HUNGER
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: WFP / CLIMATE RELATED HUNGER
TRT: 04:00
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / PASHTUN / NATS
DATELINE: 10 MAY 2024, BAGHLAN, AFGHANISTAN / 18 MAY 2024, LAQAIHA, AFGHANISTAN / 18 MAY 2024, SUSU VILLAGE, ZAMBIA / 22 MAY 2024, ROME, ITALY / 09 MAY 2024, KALEMIE, TANGANYIKA PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
10 MAY 2024, BAGHLAN, AFGHANISTAN
1. Various shots, floods, children pulled from mud
18 MAY 2024, LAQAIHA, AFGHANISTAN
2. Various shots, community digging out from the floods
3. Various shots, WFP response to the floods
4. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Rashmin, Local Resident:
“Our neighbours yelled when floods came. We all went out and flood has destroyed our homes, everything, nothing remained for us. People said that floods will come again, and we all slept outside or our relative homes.”
18 MAY 2024, SUSU VILLAGE, ZAMBIA
5. Various shots, farmer walks through his dried-out cornfield
22 MAY 2024, ROME, ITALY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Gernot Laganda, Director, Climate and Resilience, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Out of the three big drivers of hunger; conflicts, economic shocks, climate extremes, the climate dimension is the one that can be most reliably predicted and that also goes for the El Nino related droughts and floods. So, we have what it takes to forecast these damaging events. We have we it takes to protect lives before they need saving what we need to do is to make these systems and processes accessible and available also in fragile context where people are usually disconnected from these services.”
09 MAY 2024, KALEMIE, TANGANYIKA PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
7. Various shots, flooding
8. Various shots, displaced families
9. Various shots, WFP aid operation
A cycle of the El Niño climate phenomenon is exacerbating the impacts of the climate crisis globally, resulting in more frequent and intense droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones.
The most recent El Niño event is one of the five strongest on record and has led to significant alterations in weather patterns globally. Southern Africa, a region where 70 percent of the population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, has experienced severe drought conditions, plunging millions into hunger.
In other regions, El Niño has contributed to heavy rains and flash floods, affecting nearly 850,000 people across Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, and Tanzania. Crops have been destroyed, livestock have died, and people have been displaced. Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced prolonged drought and water shortages in some countries alongside intense rainfall and flooding in others.
Unusually high rainfall in Afghanistan, after a dry winter which has left the ground too hard to absorb water, led to massive floods that started in March this year. This was further compounded by unseasonably warm temperatures that melted snowpack cover into rivers, sweeping through entire villages, burying them under mud. Research conducted by WFP across the country shows increasingly erratic weather patterns exacerbated by the worsening climate crisis will significantly impact the ability of communities to feed themselves.
Communities like Laqaiha dig out from the floods that struck northeast Afghanistan in the past two weeks impacting more than 80,000 people and killing 180 people.
Within hours of the latest floods, WFP provided affected people with fortified biscuits and children with nutritional supplements. Working with local bakeries, WFP then distributed bread to communities most hard hit. By the end of last week, WFP started giving food rations to people in the affected districts, and providing cash assistance where markets were still functional.
Rashmin and her family were refugees living in Pakistan until they were expelled 7 months ago. Her husband died 3 months ago leaving her with a disabled son to take care of. Now she has been displaced again.
SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Rashmin, Local Resident:
“Our neighbours yelled when floods came. We all went out and flood has destroyed our homes, everything, nothing remained for us. People said that floods will come again, and we all slept outside or our relative homes.”
In southern Africa, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have declared national emergencies due to drought, nearly five million people in the worst-affected countries need assistance.
SOUNDBITE (English) Gernot Laganda, Director, Climate and Resilience, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Out of the three big drivers of hunger; conflicts, economic shocks, climate extremes, the climate dimension is the one that can be most reliably predicted and that also goes for the El Nino related droughts and floods. So, we have what it takes to forecast these damaging events. We have we it takes to protect lives before they need saving what we need to do is to make these systems and processes accessible and available also in fragile context where people are usually disconnected from these services.”
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), heavier rainfall than usual during the rainy season, prompted by climate change, has forced rivers and lakes to overflow, swallowing towns, villages, and roads on the shores. With farmlands swept away, crops destroyed, and roads cut off from regular trade routes, food is scarce, and rapidly becoming more expensive, and hunger is setting in for the people living in flood-affected areas. Over one million people are estimated to be impacted by flooding across the country and WFP is responding with food assistance in some of the worst affected areas.
El Niño and the climate crisis are increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather events and placing additional burdens on communities dealing with vulnerabilities from conflict, food price increases and other shocks. Whilst the climate cycle is expected to end around mid-2024 and transition to neutral conditions, the impacts to crops and livelihoods are expected to persist for months, with additional impacts expected with the potential arrival of La Niña, the cooling phase of the climate phenomenon.
The impacts of El Niño are hitting at a time of significant food insecurity and funding shortfalls across humanitarian operations. WFP, with the support of its partners, is providing emergency assistance to communities in the aftermath of extreme weather events and working with governments to strengthen social protection systems and scale up school meals programmes.
In Malawi, WFP aims to provide food assistance to 2.1 million people through in-kind assistance and cash-based transfers. The additional challenge of a cereal deficit in the region underscores the urgent need for funding to procure sufficient supplies without delays.
WFP anticipated the effects of the El Niño season as soon as predictions were released in 2023, allowing anticipatory action plans and early warning messages to be prepared. As extreme weather events continue to become more frequent and severe, more communities need support before hazards hit.
To limit escalating needs, the humanitarian sector must ramp up climate prediction and protection with the same urgency that is applied to emergency operations. The most effective defence against El Niño and climate-related disasters is a package of integrated resilience programmes.
Most climate disasters are predictable, and the systems used to forecast them are increasingly reliable. WFP uses forecasting and risk analysis tools to disseminate early warning messages, cash transfers and other support to communities before climate- related hazards turn into disasters. With these resources, people can prepare for shocks and mitigate their impact, rather than waiting for emergency response.
Combining early warning systems and financial safety nets, including climate risk insurance, with ecosystem- and infrastructure-based solutions such as soil regeneration and reforestation, provides strong layers of defines against recurrent climate impacts.
In Somalia, when excess rainfall was predicted in 2023, WFP distributed anticipatory cash and early warning messages to more than 200,000 people days before communities were hit by the deadliest floods in decades.
In Zambia and Zimbabwe, WFP is aiming to reach nearly 280,000 people in the most affected areas with cash distributions and other assistance thanks to US$9.4 million from insurance policies from the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Replica.