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World Hunger in the Rise - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum World Hunger in the Rise
Radio Netherlands
January 20, 2004
Twenty-four thousand people die from hunger every day; that's one death on average every five seconds. The United Nations World Food Programme, the world's biggest humanitarian organization, is fighting against these horrifying statistics - last year, they distributed food aid to 110 million people – but the numbers of the famished are rising.
Why are there 800 million hungry people in the world, and what can be done about it? On Tuesday 20 January the Amsterdam Forum spoke to James T Morris*, the head of the WFP, in an attempt to answer these questions. Forum host Andy Clark: "Mr Morris, tell us, why are the numbers rising again?"
Mr Morris: "Well thank goodness there's been progress in China or the numbers around the world would really be devastating. Essentially there has been a change in the weather. I'm not a scientist or a technician, but we are doing three times as many disaster assessments we did in the early 60s and twice as many as in the 90s, so there's been a change in the weather."
"Secondly, there's just a huge amount of conflict in the world, especially in Africa but in other places as well. The conflict in northern Uganda has produced 1.2 million new internally displaced people. Conflicts all over – the conflict in Liberia and Ivory Coast, the conflict in the Congo, the conflict in the Sudan, hopefully there's peace on the horizon in the Sudan, there's peace now in Angola, but these conflicts have had an enormous effect on agricultural production and the number of people at risk."
Andy Clark: "Give us an idea of the worst affected areas."
"The most serious problems at the moment are in Africa. About half our work is in Africa. But a place like North Korea, we are feeding about a third of the population. Afghanistan is coming out of conflict, and we are prepared throughout the course of the year to feed almost ten million people. Obviously the Iraqi situation – for the last several months we have been providing food to feed the entire population of Iraq. We will continue to be focussed on Iraq, probably until the middle of 2004."
*James T Morris has been the director of the United Nations' World Food Programme since the beginning of April 2002. After four months as Executive Director, Mr Morris was appointed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy on the humanitarian crisis in southern Africa, which is now gripped by a major food emergency. For over 35 years, Mr Morris has combined a career of business and organizational management with a personal life of public service.
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