Very good morning and thank you for joining us here at this press conference at the UN office at Geneva on the launch of the Global Report on Food Crises 2024 from the Global Network Against Food Crises.
The global network, I should mention, is a multi stakeholder initiative which is working to address the root causes of food crises and promote sustainable solutions.
We have with us 3 3 guests, Dominic Berzon in the centre, who you know is the Director of the Food and Agricultural Organisation Liaison Office here in Geneva.
On my left is Mr Kahin Ismail, who is Chief of Self-reliance and Economic Inclusion Section at UNHCR, and my far left is Miss Courtney Blake, Senior Humanitarian Advisor for the US Mission here in Geneva.
I should note that this press conference is under embargo.
There's a report that should have been shared with you.
The embargo will be lifted at 12 noon today.
So please respect the embargo.
Before we start off with a brief opening remarks from our speakers, I should also mention, by the way, we do have some experts here in the room from the European Union, from the World Bank and the World Food Programme, as well as a colleague online from UNICEF.
Should you have specific questions pointed to them, they would be happy to take the floor.
Otherwise, the respondents will be here on the podium with me.
Before we start, I should mention there's a short video which I think is cued to play.
So before opening remarks, we'll show the video and then over to our colleagues for their opening remarks.
I'll turn the floor over to Dominic now for opening remarks.
Thank you very much, Rolando and good morning everyone.
So I would like to start by saying that I'm delivering this intervention on behalf of our key partner WSP, UNICEF and we are we are presenting the home of virtually and I would like to share some key highlights of the global on the global acute food insecurity and nutrition situation as presented in the report along with the concerted actions that our agencies are committed to pursuing to fight food crisis.
First, I would like to say that when we talk about acute food insecurity, we are talking about anger so severe that it poses an immediate ****** to people's livelihoods and lives.
This is anger that threatens to slide into famine and cause widespread death.
The report tells us that despite major efforts by the international community, acute anger remained at unacceptable level in 2023.
As a matter of fact, more than 281 million people in 59 countries and territories face levels of acute food insecurity that are classified in line with IPC classification as crisis, emergency and catastrophe.
The proportion of people facing acute food insecurity remain persistently **** at almost 22% in 2023 and which significantly exceeding pre COVID levels.
You may want to know that when we launched the the first report in 2017, the the proportion which is today 22% was 11%.
And the severity of food crisis is also intensifying.
In 2023, emergency levels of acute food insecurity one step before famine affected over 36 million people.
So level of emergency, emergency level of acute food insecurity one step before famine affected over 36 million people, while the total population in catastrophe was more than four times higher than in 2016.
The report also tells us that 60% of children experiencing acute malnutrition live in the 10 countries facing the highest level of acute food insecurity.
Stefano Fideli, our colleague from UNICEF is online and would be able to to provide more details on this issue of acute from acute food.
Acute malnutrition, the two biggest deteriorations recorded in 2023, where as you would expect Gaza and the Sudan.
At the end of the year, the Gaza Strip became the most severe food crisis in our reporting history.
Conflict and insecurity, along with extreme weather events and economic shocks are the key drivers of food insecurity and nutrition crisis.
As was shown in the video, the outlook for 2024 is bleak.
Just four months into the year, the situation is no or less concerning with, as you know, famine looming in the Gaza Strip and people facing extreme anger in Sudan IT and continuing projection of catastrophic hunger in parts of South Sudan.
This latest evidence tells us we are far from achieving SDG20 anger, so we need to rethink how we address food crisis.
The report presents us with the stark reality that we cannot reverse the trends if we work in isolation.
We need to ensure that there is coherence and coordination between the various initiatives and actors to break the cycle of stubbornly persistent acute anger beside peace and prevention.
Of course, tackling persistent food crisis requires urgent long term national and international investment to transform food system and boost agricultural and rural development, alongside a greater crisis preparedness and critical life saving assistance at scale where people need it the most.
We need integrated solution that go beyond humanitarian assistance, ensuring access and working with hosting states.
Finally, I would like to highlight that humanitarian operations are desperately overstretched with many being forced to scale down and further cut.
Support to the most vulnerable, more equitable and effective global economic governance is imperative and must be matched with government LED plans that seek to reduce and and anger.
Now I'll turn to Mr Ishmael.
We're very glad to join you in the launch of this global food crisis report.
And Dominique has highlighted the, the deteriorating and the dire food insecurity situation that will detail in the in, in the report.
My, my comments will focus on the correlation between displacement and food insecurity.
And in the last record we have as UNSCR in 2023, we have a record level displacement globally.
114 million refugees and ID PS are displaced globally.
90 million or 80% of the displaced persons are in the 59 countries that are that are detailed in the in the in the Food Crisis report.
At the moment we see an outflow, an increase outflow of displacement, but also a protracted situation of displaced populations that persist.
This edition of the global report has a spotlight highlighting the displacement context in in the food security situation and the report show shows that a strong correlation of **** level of food insecurity and malnutrition among the displaced communities.
It also shows shows a protective situation of refugees and ID PS that are deteriorating and being exacerbated by the food insecurity.
Our monitoring shows strong evidence of negative COVID mechanisms and other and other consequences because of food insecurity among the displaced populations globally.
Our message is to really scale up integrated response strategies, that is join up.
And the work that has been done by the Global Network Against Food Crisis and others shows that this approach in terms of across humanitarian development context is very important to move beyond as you see persistent and recurring food crisis into more long term solutions.
That is, that is supported by evidence and analysis that inform policies as well.
We also see support to host governments and host communities in terms of development financing, but also technical and other support.
We have seen in the last GRF that took place in December.
And we had a very strong collaboration with WFPFAO and others as well in terms of full security, full systems.
The a great deal of interest in in fact in terms of commitments and pledge to move the needle down forward in terms of long term solutions, resilience for communities that are displayed that are facing food insecure situations.
So this will be our message in terms in the context and we will be happy to take some questions later on.
Thank you very much, Mr Smile, Miss Blake.
As we've heard from the presentations in the video, the numbers of people facing acute food insecurity worldwide continues to rise year on year.
And this is despite the significant investments that have been made by a broad range of actors in efforts to combat hunger and fragility and reduce the risk of famining and worsening food insecurity worldwide.
In this landscape, progress might feel elusive, but as the report underscores, there are things that we can be doing about it.
And as Dominique has highlighted, the call is really to rethink and reorient how we're tackling this.
From our perspective, a key aspect of this is recognising that emergency food assistance alone cannot abate the rising trend of food insecurity that we are facing today, with conflict remaining the biggest driver of food crises.
We need longer term approaches that foster collaboration across peace, development and humanitarian efforts, but approaches that also bring together a broad range of sectors such as Health Protection and WASH, and do so with a sense of urgency.
And while we're doing that, it's really important that we better leverage the knowledge, reach, influencing capacities of local actors.
Secondly, we need to engage a much broader pool of partners to both prevent and respond to crises, particularly the private sector.
In response to the 2023 earthquakes, for example, we saw private sector capacities and resources quickly surpass the contributions of bilateral donors.
But private sector engagement can't just be limited to resourcing and supporting otherwise critical responses.
The private sector has a fundamental role to play in building local resilience, supply chains, productive capabilities and preventing communities from reaching such severe levels of food insecurity in the 1st place.
Third, we need to better coordinate our efforts and take the interventions that we know can and do work to scale.
In particular, we need to see further scale up of access to treatment of acute malnutrition and efforts that are also paired with approaches to strengthen prevention of acute malnutrition.
And that's why we've been working closely as USAID with UNICEF and WFP, both who play an important role in providing this assistance to improve coordination, better incorporate prevention and treatment and reach those children most in need with the right services when they need them.
Finally, from our perspective, This is why the joined up work of the global network is so important.
Progress is possible, but no single actor can do this alone.
It will take collective action globally and most importantly, locally to translate the findings of the report and to change on the ground.
And just before I close, I would just like to acknowledge in particular the important role that our donor partner, the European Union has played in the global networks efforts and formation.
And I'm hoping that we can pull in their perspective as we further our discussions.
Thank you all very much for those remarks.
OK, we'll take questions now.
We start in the room in our first row here, Gabriella from Reuters.
Thank you for taking my question.
The report says that weather extremes and conflict in Ethiopia and Sudan could cause catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.
What does catastrophic mean to you in in this report?
You know when we are talking of this report, basically the big number we are coming with is 281,000,000 which we refer to which is according to the IPC scale that goes from 1:00 to 5:00.
The population which is in IPC 3-4 and five, 3-4 and five is crisis, emergency, catastrophe, catastrophe that can then potentially turn into famine catastrophe is the phase five population.
In concrete terms, what it means is that when a population is falling from IPC 2 to IPC 345 is that it is more and more difficult for people to access to food.
It means that they have to cut on the number of meals, on the quality of the meals and then going down, down, down.
I mean they have to get rid to to they are losing all their assets to actually procure meagre meals.
And so it means when you are talking of catastrophe situation, it is at the level of the population and it means a collapse of the livelihood coming on the top of extremely **** acute malnutrition and extremely important lack of food.
So this is what it means.
No, you know there are there are regular discussions on is famine or not going to be declared.
I think what is very important to understand is that when we are looking at population that are in IPC 4, for example, emergency level, so we are not declaring famine, but there is already excess mortality directly due to the, to the shortage of food, but also to the, to the consequences of that.
The fact that if you are not eating enough, if you are malnourished, etcetera, you are, you are weak and therefore you catch all sort of of disease and, and, and you can therefore die.
You know, the, the one thing I always remember is that the, the, the, one of the largest massive famine we had was in 2011 in Somalia.
And when we actually declared famine, the total number of casualties for that entire famine was about 260,000 people.
When we declared famine, it was already too late for about half of these people.
So it means action needs to be taken not on the number of people in catastrophe or in famine situation, but on the total number of people in emergency, in emergency and crisis situation and with the type of assistance, humanitarian assistance, but also longer term assistance.
Colleagues, if either of you want to jump in at any point in time, just let me know.
We'll take a question from, I think we'll go to Jamil first.
Yes, hi, I'm a journalist from Brazil.
I have a number of questions.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, Roland.
First of all, have you done any calculation of how much you will need in terms of investments in order to tackle at least this trend?
I'm not saying eradicate, even if you have the number of or how much it would be needed to eradicate acute hunger, it would be good as well.
But any number that you would have in terms of investment, how much?
First of all, Second, we are five years from 2030 for six years.
Let's be realistic, Is it achievable still or we can basically declare already that it is not?
The target, I don't see how, but anyway, I would like to hear from you and and to Mrs Blake, what is your assessment about Israeli behaviour in Gaza regarding basically food assistant?
I, I wish to say we have a colleague from the, the bank also perhaps if you want to come in Maria.
Well, I think we have to, we have to, when, when it comes to, to eradicate, of course is a, is to eradicate acute anger is a very big question.
But we have the, the HR PS, I mean the humanitarian response plans that we see that are, are really we that have been sort of increasing dramatically from when we started the report.
We were talking of some $20 billion of the total ask.
We are now at about 56 billion and, and, and we see that, that if you want the, the share of that, that is going normally to, to, to food security in crisis context is quite significant.
I mean, it's the, the, the need is about 3032% of the, of the total of those amounts that are needed for the, the food, the food sector.
But of course we see that if there has been, for example, IN2022A good response at I think around 15 billion going to, to the food sector.
I mean, no, we see that in 2023 and in 2024 is significantly decreasing.
So it means on the one hand we need of course you know food assistance, livelihood emergency assistance is critical and we see that it is decreasing.
But at the top of that, what is very concerning is that the level of development assistance that is going to food crisis context is where is to food security in food crisis context is extremely low and I think it's in the range of 3%.
So it needs to be significantly, significantly increased.
Now when it comes to your question on the on the on, on the target of achieving SDG 2, you know the numbers, it says that if we continue on the same on the same track with all the the those drivers that we see, you know conflict, extreme weather events, economic downturns, I mean it would be of course extremely difficult to achieve.
And the estimate is that we will be around 600 million people in chronic food insecurity still in 2030.
So I don't know if my colleagues want to, Maria.
Yes, please, if you'd like to maybe take the far seat there.
If you can kindly introduce yourself.
And Natal, thank you very much.
Thank you for being with us today.
OK, it's good, I'm married Mitriardo, I'm the special representative of the World Bank to the UN and WTO in Geneva.
As Dominique mentioned, it's it's very difficult to to calculate the amount.
Another way to see it from our point of view, between April 22 and June 23, the World Bank has mobilised 45 billion U.S.
dollars, including 22 billion in new lending to tackle food crisis.
This financing is expected to benefit 335 million people, equivalent to approximately 44% of the number of undernourished people around the world and more than half of the targeted beneficiaries on our side are women.
That's another dimension on on a potential way to see the the needs.
And I think Miss Blake, there was a question for you as well.
We've been clear at the highest levels of my government that there's more that needs to be done, and this report is a stark and devastating reminder of this.
Israel needs to provide sustained, unimpeded access to both northern and southern Gaza in order to reverse the fast-paced deterioration of the food security situation and prevent the loss of life due to starvation, acute malnutrition and disease outbreaks.
But this is a really important topic and I would encourage you to engage colleagues in Washington on more of the details.
They can speak more authoritatively on the different aspects of our engagement on the crisis that at this point is, you know, truly around the clock.
I think Michelle, you have a question.
Thank you, Rolando, Michelle and Grant for Geneva Solutions.
My question is about conflict, which is, you know, the the main driver as you've mentioned.
I mean, it seems that in the end it all boils down to political will.
So what can humanitarian organisations do to the address this particular issue, this particular driver that they haven't been doing already?
And I also have a sort of a follow up for Mrs Blake regarding the situation in Gaza and the pier that is expected to be built soon.
What are your expectations in terms of that?
How can that this particular solution that has been found will actually help alleviate the situation, particularly with some of the scepticism that has been expressed regarding, you know, that it will actually be able to reach those in in the northern part of Gaza?
Maybe just to comment on in terms of the root causes, obviously the the main driver as you said it's noted in the report is conflict is the main driver.
And as the records show here on your own, we have an increased number of displacement, 114 million ADP and refugees in 2023.
And that is expected to increase in 2024, unfortunately.
And that is the root causes is, is, is obviously the conflict.
The, the, the situation in Sudan, for example, has now generated the largest IDP displacement on the record.
So that is very, very stark in terms of figures, in terms of numbers and obviously of all these statistics of people and you know, families affected and impacted.
And as I mentioned also we see all these displacements are protracted in nature, meaning that they lasted more than five years.
Majority of the refugees and displaced situations now are in protracted situation, I think some 70% and with no sort of solutions inside in terms of the root causes of the conflict that will allow people to go back to their place of origin and to their countries of origin as well.
So that is really a such situation.
We as a humanitarian agencies, obviously our focus is to assist those who are displaced, but also to advocate for a long term solution.
So on that our mandate as UNSCS, protection and solutions.
And in that we play our part in terms of advocating with the government in terms of issues, but also to really look at while people are displaced and even in, in, in, in the, in the conditions that they are to find long term solutions, integration, inclusion of refugees and displaced persons in the national development plans.
As we see that as, as the situation is now more and more entrenched.
But yes, the root causes is to really is to really address these issues.
And that's why we we think that it should be an integrated approach, not only humanitarian, but development and and peace.
That Nexus has to be strongly brought into bear in terms of making any efforts in terms of direction to ameliorate the situation.
Yeah, of course, to follow up on what you said, fully agreeing with what you said of course.
But I think indeed humanitarian agencies were there to to respond to those most urgent need primarily in line with humanitarian principles.
But in the meantime, I think and and our colleague Fedrac perhaps may want to come back on that as well later on.
I think that the report we are launching today, which is a report that we are launching since 2017, the exact purpose of that report is to draw attention in a consolidated way in a technically neutral analysis.
This is produced by 16 partners working together.
If you look at the cover page, there is no logo of any single organisation.
It's us working together, offering the international community with a technically neutral analysis of these are the 59 food crisis in the world, trying to identify what are the drivers conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks and beyond that.
So this is done in the context of the Global Network Against Food Crisis, providing the evidence to the international community, but also trying to indeed say, yes, we need to provide humanitarian short term response, but we need to work on the root causes.
We need to to advocate on longer term solutions, prevention, preparedness, anticipatory reaction, Many of these, on many of these, especially climate related shocks, a lot can be done in terms of anticipating.
And when we do that, I mean, of course, not only it is better for the dignity of the people who are at risk, but it's also a good thing for the the taxpayer money that goes into that because it is much more cost effective, of course.
I think Miss Blake, you had a follow up here.
On the maritime, I mean that that is an all day long everyday discussion and I would recommend reaching out to colleagues at the Department of Defence who are leading on shaping that effort.
They can speak in more detail, but what I can say is that the intention is a simple one.
It's to utilise and explore any and all means possible to get additional assistance into Gaza.
I do think it's important though that we also note that, as Dominique highlighted at the top, this is in the video as well.
This is truly a global challenge.
There are far too many people waking up in the morning not knowing where their next meal will come from, not knowing how to feed their children and having to make really, truly impossible decisions throughout the course of their day to ensure that their most fundamental needs are being met.
And the report is important in that perspective because it highlights that business as usual or ways of thinking about this aren't working.
And we are really interested in using this partnership to really start to drive some long overdue and necessary changes in our approach.
And our colleague from the European Union has joined us.
I think he wanted to address a point on the previous question, if you will, and if you can kindly introduce yourself.
I'm Predro Gavramovich, Head of the Humanitarian Migration Section at the EU Delegation here in Geneva.
And as my FAO colleague has kindly given me the floor to just add to to the question of how we could be jointly addressing these drivers.
Indeed, to recall that the this report and indeed the global network is first an attempt to arrive at a joint and reliable view of the situation.
And among the many partners involved in elaborating the report, there is also, for example, our scientific branch, the EU Joint Research Centre.
And of course it's very significant that we are together in this with the world's largest and second largest humanitarian donors, with the, with the bank, with WFP file, with other humanitarian partners like UNHCR.
We need this joined up assessment to address the the the problems.
And to the question of how we can address these drivers and how can the humanitarian organisations address these drivers, I would respond, it shouldn't be just the humanitarians.
So what we have been saying, and I think a good way of putting it is the the different pillars of a comprehensive approach to, to, to addressing food insecurity is of course solidarity.
And we're all trying hard to make as much money available as we can.
And other donors should of course step in, but it's also the longer term efforts to support production in the countries affected.
And we have long list of examples of, of good programmes working on agrifood chains, value chains to to increase production.
Then we have the trade aspects.
You, you're all aware of the initiatives over the last two years to alleviate the impact on the global food prices of the, of the war of aggression against Ukraine.
And even after the Black Sea grain initiative was not extended for reasons you will know, we were able to continue the EU solidarity lanes from Ukraine or the indeed the, the other route.
And last but not least, multilateralism approaching this altogether, as we are doing here today and as we will be trying to do through the G7 initiative led by Italy, the G20 initiative to be led by Brazil, everything that we agreed and would still agree in the, in the COP, so COP 28, everything climate related.
So I just want to replace in the broader context that we are trying to have a reliable view of the situation through this report.
We are trying to address both the immediate short term needs and reasoning longer term for production, for trade and we are trying to do it together multilaterally.
Thank you very much for that elaboration.
Musa, we, if you don't mind, we're going to go to Christian who's been waiting patiently online.
Christian from the German news agency has a question online.
Yes, my question is you are all calling for more integrated response and it sounds like we need to reinvent the wheel here.
This is what the UN is all about.
I thought coordinating and integrating.
So what is the failure here on the part of the UN that that doesn't seem to be happening enough?
You are also making suggestion, suggestions of what needs to be done.
But can you be more specific of who has failed, who is failing?
Who needs to do what exactly?
Are you talking to governments?
Are you talking to heads of UN organisations?
Are you talking to yourself?
Who needs to do what concretely?
Who wants to tackle that question?
It's a, it's a difficult one, but I think we are not here to finger point to anyone.
I mean, it's a, it's a fact of the matter is that the situation now that we are facing requires and this is the big plea for all of us, collective action, collective mobilisation from the side of the, of the, of the UN and from the side of our resource partners.
And This is why an initiative like the the Global Network Against Food Crisis, the report, if you look at the report, there are so many partners, the the UN agencies, resource partners, technical sub regional organisations, EGAD, Seals, Sika, they are all partners of that.
We are, we are also, I think what is very important to realise is that where we say we need to, to transform at the end of the day, the day, the, the way we work, it means that the food agencies here, we are not alone on that.
We, we, we, it's OK FAOWFP more and more we have EFAT working with us, but we are together on that with, with HCR to work on on displacement.
We are of course the central role of the World Bank for longer term response.
And here it's, it's really about about I, I, I would say putting together all our best assets to say, well, indeed it needs to change.
We need to have and, and, and we need to, to come with robust planning in support of the, of the local government, local, I mean to, to put in place those programmes.
So it takes effort, yes, on our site.
And we are not, I would say evading.
I would say, I don't know if it's the word in, in English, but you understand what I mean.
Our, our responsibilities, we are, we are doing what it takes.
We are, we are advocating as we have never been advocating before, providing the evidence, but also providing the solutions and, and we are more than ever partnering with the, with, with the partner in support, of course, of those who have the prime responsibilities which are at, at, at country level.
So this is I think what we are, what we are, what we are trying to do, but also providing, you know, more innovative approach where it can be, I mean, of course, evolving.
So these are my my two cents on that.
Thank you very much, Dominic Musa from Almaydin.
Francais, Gaza System Gaza.
OK, OK, So what is your recommendation to your administration for Gaza regarding the situation today?
The famine in somewhere is a result of the the collaboration between the United States and Israel.
Israel used the bomb, the American bomb in Gaza and like you, you are a humanitarian person.
What is your recommendation for to your administration concerning that, concerning that prevent maybe the prevent of the catastrophe in Gaza?
Start with Dominic, maybe the first question.
Some paperless situation in Gaza on the security, the famine.
If it is said that in the situation, yeah, consensus la tu en Tri bocu avec no codec dupam la tu ES chilli potato de la tu de du volume.
That's it stands humanitar Quito a contre or plan de security Monterre.
So don't answer all back on like it effective more essential with it essential with in presence Gaza depopulation Gaza with agriculture.
Or see how much the the the the Tusa I tell several more affective team, for example, the situation on this team on that.
On Ave calendar person de tere cuptiva revanci person de SE evancet person de de puy de puy do que vet de on the.
What some more about you, you know?
The capacity to say population affected or resistor a situation from it seems.
Melcia Dominique, Miss Blake, thanks.
You're raising a really important set of questions, and I would really encourage you to engage Washington colleagues that can speak on all of the different aspects of the crisis in much more authoritatively and in detail.
And I would just say that on this one and any other crisis that's covered in the context of the report, the the privilege of a personal opinion one way or the other is a privilege that we give up when we join government service.
Miss Blake, I think our colleague from WFP is going to jump up.
I think Dominique, Yep, he's going to jump in on that question in Gaza.
If you just give us a minute again, if you can introduce yourself.
Should I answer in English, In French, maybe in English then?
Yeah, in English is fine for you.
The, the situation in Gaza is, is extremely worrying.
We, we we all know that we, we, we are getting closer by the day to to a famine situation.
Malnutrition among children is spreading.
We estimate 30% of children, be the age of 2, is now acutely malnourished or or or wasted, and 70% of the population in the North is vastly facing catastrophic anger.
There is reasonable evidence that all three farming thresholds, food insecurity, malnutrition, mortality will be passed in the next six weeks.
We we are in a situation where the IPC, the famous IPC five well, that that means and, and, and Dominique mentioned that that, you know, people cannot meet even the most basic food needs.
They have exhausted all coping strategies like eating animal fodder, begging, selling off their belongings to buy to buy food.
They are most of the time destitute and and clearly some of them are are dying of anger.
Now, the only way to to address the the the situation and to all out the the the famine is daily deliveries of food supplies in the very short term.
OK, we've mentioned the necessity to rebuild the livelihood, to address root cause and so on.
But in the immediate term, by tomorrow, we really need to to significantly increase our our food supplies.
This means rolling out massive and consistent food assistance in conditions that allow humanitarian staff and supplies to move freely and affected people to access safely the assistance.
Thank you very much if you would.
I know we've met before, but if you wouldn't mind introducing, yes, it's true.
I didn't introduce myself.
My name is Giancarlo Chilli and I am the World Food Programme director of the Geneva office.
Thank you very much, Giancarlo.
OK, I was going to say last question, but a couple of other hands popped up.
So if you could indulge it just for a few more minutes.
Christian and Jamil, if you wouldn't mind.
Let's take a from a person who hasn't asked yet.
Lisa Shrine, a Voice of America is online with a question.
We're going to jump over you go to Lisa.
Lisa, who is hasn't asked a question yet, Lisa from Voice of America.
Yeah, I have have a couple of questions.
One is I was wondering whether the the number of acutely food insecure people's 2.86 million, is this a record number of people or have there been other times when the situation has been worse?
And then your report talks about both Gaza and Sudan as being of immediate emergency assistance and the WFP gentleman spoke very eloquently about the situation in Gaza.
Could you perhaps talk about the situation in Sudan in the same in this the same way so that I can get a better full of picture about what is going on there?
And also someone else spoke about the need to reach malnourished children.
Why is there such a need to reach them globally?
And is this because what happens to the children now will have a profound impact upon the viability of future generations and future societies?
And just one other thing, the the names of the people who spoke who were not written before, it's kind of hard to get the spelling and the titles.
If somebody after the briefing could be kind enough to just send us those names and titles, it would be very helpful.
Lisa, Will, Will maybe key if I can ask you to send those details maybe in the chat and then afterwards in e-mail.
We do have a colleague from Stefano Federer, Fedele, I think it is who is online from UNICEF who may be able to address this question on Sudan, if you would.
Yes, apologies for not being present in the room.
Yes, Sudan is a major concern for the nutrition component because primarily of the major caseload, the number of people is staggering and also for the difficulty of reaching these people.
In many areas there is impossible access and or inconsistent access, and this is not only for access to food assistance, but also access to other critical essential services that are needed for survival and prevention and addressing malnutrition, including health services and adequate water and sanitation and improving care practises.
And I think it's it's an important point from the the report is also that indicates that while conflict within areas are the most affected, with around 60% of minor children living in 10 countries facing the highest level of acute food insecurity.
These countries are grappling with significant conflicts which either persist or intensified in 23/20/23, exacerbating existing food and nutrition crisis.
However, not all children are at the highest risk of nutrition necessarily live in food insecure areas.
My nutrition is multidimensional and is determined by a complex interplay of factors, including obviously food intake but also hygiene practise and access to health and social services.
And the report illustrates that areas with **** levels of acute food insecurity tend to have the **** levels of acute my nutrition.
But the association is not necessarily linear in in all areas.
And we've seen that in in Gaza or also in Sudan, child wasting can escalate rapidly to the conflict and and other conditions of the crisis.
And these escalation of still is created the most severe food crisis in in IPC and global report on food crisis history.
And sorry, the the the other point on the question was that yes, absolutely 36.4 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished in as reported in the report and 9.8 million.
So almost 10 millions of these children are severely, acutely malnourished and in urgent need of treatment.
And this risk, these children are at an increased risk of dying.
And even if they recover from nutrition, they're, they're likely to not meet their full cognitive or developmental potential, which has obviously critical impact on, on, on the individual, individual level, but also in terms of potential development of, of the country.
But also the final point is that when we were talking about the failures and, and, and opportunities, I just wanted to also highlight that in 2023, the humanitarian response plan, which includes all sectors in, was only founded, funded at 42% of the total of 56 billion.
And for 2024, the current funding of an estimated total of 48 billion is still only 9%.
So obviously we need to address the the prevention first and foremost, but then also address the humanitarian response.
And even just the humanitarian response is still severely underfunded.
I think Dominic wanted to add something on a general general comment.
And on Sudan and perhaps also Giancarlo want to say something on Sudan.
But on on Sudan, of course, we are very concerned with the rapid deterioration of the of the food security situation.
We have about 18 million people who are in in acute food insecurity IPC 3/4 plus.
What I think needs to be said also is that we have about 5 million people who are in IPC four, so the the one step away from famine and that nine out of ten of these people, they are in the in the current conflict hotspots of Darfur, Kordofan, Aljazeera and therefore Kodafan and Al Jazeera state and Khartoum area.
What is very concerning for us is that of course, the bulk of those people, they depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
And that for example, if you take the, the Al Jazeera state, this is a critical state for food production.
It's about 50% of the wheat production of, of Sudan that is coming out of Al Jazeera state.
So when you know that we are a couple of weeks away from the from the planting season, it is absolutely critical that wherever it will be possible to access the people, we provide them with agricultural input on time so that they can plan their field.
If those people fail to plan their field, it means we have to be prepared for massive food assistance requirement until the next harvest next year.
So it means that sort of assistance is critical.
I feel is is fully mobilised.
We are we provided assistance in the last in the last season to about 1,000,000 people and we are trying to raise sufficient resource and be able to provide those inputs on time for the the coming planting season.
But of course, I'm sure John Carlo may want to say something on the WFP side as well.
Yes, thank you, Dominique.
Yeah, Sudan, Sudan is is is is is really a, a major worry these days.
We, we think that there, there are obvious risks that Sudan would become the largest hunger crisis in the world in in in the short term.
And this as you know, is severely affecting as well as South Sudan and Chad for the refugee outflow.
Dominic mentioned this 90% of people in, in IPC four.
Well, we don't have access to those people in the current situation.
We can't, we can't assist them and not assisting a population that is under IPC 4 is, is quite dramatic situation to add to the green picture.
We think that the situation is likely to worsen during the, the, the lean season that is starting in, in, in May.
And As for for for Gaza, the the the conflict makes it so difficult and at times impossible to to reach affected people that as humanitarian we we usually don't for humanitarian principles to a bid to those principles.
We don't call for ceasefire on these two contexts.
We have no other choice than asking for for a ceasefire.
This is the only way for us as humanitarian as well food programme to access these people that are in acute needs.
So we need we need that to to scale up massively the our our assistant.
It can be done, but under the prevailing conditions, I'm afraid the situation will further deteriorate.
Carlo Cain, you know, just to add maybe a point on Sudan as well in terms of what Dominique and Giancarlo described on the IPC and the malnutrition and food security.
Obviously that is happening in the backdrop of the, the, the most dramatic displacement we have seen in recent, in recent years in the context of Sudan.
You have basically one in four of the population now displace and about 10 million AD PS2 million refugees fleeing the country.
As Dominique mentioning protection disruptions and destruction of assets and the impact of livelihood is just magnificent in terms of the impact on on the food security, but also on the well-being of society in general.
So that is in the in that context and in that background in in the context of Sudan as well.
We've just passed the one hour mark, so we really have time for just one.
I'm sorry, Boris, maybe afterwards we could take your question.
But Christian, been waiting for a quick, quick follow up before we wrap up this press conference.
Christian from a German news agency.
This is to clarify what Giancarlo said on Gaza.
Did you say that clammen will be declared because the three food insecurity, malnutrition, immortality will be passed in the next six weeks unless more food is being immediately delivered.
And if that is yes, then my question is, would this also be under embargo or could we use this information as of now?
You know, Israel is circulating photos of abundant markets in Gaza saying there is no food problem.
So maybe you can also just specify where your information, where your assessments come from.
Does that rely on information from the Gaza Health Ministry or do you have people on the ground who are actually looking at people and making their own assessments?
Dominic mentioned that the declaring A famine.
I think we, we, we, we all agree at at the minimum on the humanitarian side that when we declare A famine, it's too late.
We have already lost a huge number of, of people so and, and by the way, I can't predict if it will be declared or not.
However, the, the assessment and this is not a WFPSS assessment.
It's again a joint assessment with the, the IPC colleagues.
It's a consensual assessment.
The the latest assessment that is available is indicating that we are on the path of a famine and this is not news.
It's not a striking news.
And and there again that we need a massive scale up.
We need we need access, we need land access if required maritime access, you know that we've resorted to even to air drops in, in Gaza.
The, the the most efficient way is, is, is land transport, OK, but every, every mean to increase access to food within Gaza and especially in the northern part of Gaza is, is is for sure welcome.
I'm sure if this and then you ask the assessment.
Yes, I think I mentioned that it's a it's a joint assessment with the IPC.
We indeed have people on the ground and it has been performed as other IPC assessment and we are confident on, on, on on the reading and the interpretation of what the data are telling us.
Thanks to you, Giancarlo.
And I think on that note, we'll, we'll need to end this press conference and like to thank you all very, very much for the important work you're doing and for, for holding this press conference.
I remind you this is under embargo.
I, I take your point, Christian, maybe you wanted liaise with Key afterwards, but the constants of the report that has been shared here is under embargo.
The embargo will be lifted in about 90 minutes from now.
I would like again to thank you.
And as you mentioned, Dominic is about drawing attention, advocacy.
So thank you journalists for, for really doing just that.
It's, it's critical that we do get some good reporting on this important report, this joint report.
So thanks again and have a good day.
