The world is falling far short in feeding its most critically hungry, pledging only $3.7 billion of the $6.7 billion needed to fund the World Food Programme for 2009, the head of the United Nations relief agency said on July 29.
The agency has so far received only $1.8 billion and has had to cut back rations and programs to the 108 million people it serves, said Josette Sheeran, its executive director.
The cutbacks will have a “destabilizing” impact in parts of the world reeling from dramatically higher food prices and less income due to the global financial crisis, Sheeran said.
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“There’s nothing more basic than food. If people don’t have it, one of three things happen: they revolt, they migrate or they die,” Sheeran said.
More than 1 billion people in the world are chronically hungry, up from 860 million two years ago. The WFP helps feed those deemed most desperate – about 10 percent of the total.
When food prices soared to record levels last year, prompting riots and hoarding in some countries, the WFP raised a record $5 billion in donations – about $2 billion more than in 2007 – to help feed 102 million people in 78 countries.
