Briefing to the UN Security Council on conflict and hunger

Briefing to the UN Security Council on conflict and hunger

Statement by the FAO Director-General
Dr. QU Dongyu

17 September 2020

As prepared

 

 

Thank you, Mr. President, for your invitation to brief the Council today. FAO greatly welcomes the Council’s engagement on this subject and your continued recognition of the relationship between conflict and food (production and supply).

Mr President, Distinguished Members of the Council,

As you will recall, Mark Lowcock, David Beasley and I briefed you on this topic in April. Many of you emphasized the value of early warning with early action. Well established Agri-food systems are crucial for durable peace as has been proven by great successful green revolutions and the adoption of proper policies in many parts of the world.

Since we spoke five months ago, the situation has not improved and the risk of famine looms over Yemen, South Sudan and others due to natural and man-made disasters, including conflicts.

In Yemen, the continued presence of desert locusts has further threatened food availability. FAO urges all those concerned to work towards granting access for control operations to prevent the pest from further worsening the deteriorating situation in Yemen and beyond. 

We note with great alarm the situation in Burkina Faso, where the number of people experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity has almost tripled. 

We are deeply concerned by the most recent Integrated Food security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, which shows that the Democratic Republic of the Congo now has the highest number of people experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded in a single country. Today 21.8 million people are on a daily basis unable to access enough food.

In northern Nigeria, between June and August 2020, the number of people in crisis and emergency levels of acute food insecurity increased by 73 percent compared to the 2019 peak figure and reached almost 8.7 million people.

Tragically, there are many more situations where conflict and instability, now also exacerbated by COVID 19, are drivers for more serious hunger and acute food insecurity. This is particularly visible in areas where conflict and other factors such as economic turbulence, and extreme weather, are already driving people into poverty and hunger.

In Somalia, 3.5 million people face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between July and September 2020. This increase of 67 percent compared to the 2019 peak is due to the triple shocks experienced this year – COVID-19, floods and the desert locust upsurge. While much progress has been made in controlling the locusts, FAO is making every effort to sustain control operations. 

In Sudan, the number of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance has risen by 64 percent, between June and September 2020, reaching around 9.6 million people, the highest level ever recorded in the country, with serious floods further exacerbating the situation. 

Worldwide, those hardest hit include the urban poor, informal workers and pastoral communities as well as people who are already particularly vulnerable – children, women, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities. 

We need first and fast aide to stop hunger, we need prevention and production locally, we need political willingness and we need collective actions, as the forecasts for food security in 2020 continue to worsen.  

To be effective in combatting acute food insecurity; we need a package of solutions in place.  Humanitarian-development-peace actions must be well coordinated and complementary. Our actions must be mutually reinforcing across global, regional, national and local levels. Humanitarian actors can provide first aide. Agri-food systems can play a more sustainable function for better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life. The good news from harvested major crops in 2020 is that we will have a bumper harvest globally. FAO estimates we will have an all-time high year and 58 million tonnes above the 2019 outturn. This is thanks to the enabling policies, innovation (new cultivars, agri-inputs and marketing channels), investment and hard work by millions of famers. Lasting peace and harmony can be achieved, through good policies and investment in agriculture infrastructure and capacity building in the rural development, especially in conflict areas.

Mr President,

I firmly believe that the Council can play a pivotal role in addressing the threat of conflict-induced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels by advancing dialogue between parties towards finding political solutions and innovative approaches to end conflict and violence. This would allow us to scale up urgent life- and livelihood-saving operations and to deliver better-integrated humanitarian and development responses that address the multiple drivers of acute food insecurity. 

Once again let me assure the Council of FAO’s continued support through policy advice, technical assistance, our Big Data platform and concrete services on the ground.

Thank you!