NEW YORK, December 16 2008: Without a “human rescue” package, costing a mere fraction of the financial bailout and economic stimulus initiatives tabled in Western Europe and the United States, millions of people around the world will go hungry early next year, warned the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today.
WFP, which aims to feed nearly 100 million of the world’s hungriest people in 2009, announced that it will start the New Year needing 5,2 billion US dollars to urgently support its programmes combating global hunger.
Unless donors provide a rapid injection of funds, the agency’s warehouse stocks will run out by the end of March, condemning millions of people in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya and other hunger hot spots to live without essential food assistance.
With just one per cent of the money proposed for bailout packages across the developed world, WFP Executive Director Ms. Sheeran said that WFP could fully fund its work, and make a mark toward meeting other urgent hunger needs. Feeding all 59 million hungry school children worldwide, for example, would only cost 3 billion US dollars per year.
WFP’s urgent call comes off the back of historically high food prices and market volatility, which is compounded by the financial meltdown in the developed world, spilling into the developing world.
