FAO statement at ECOSOC HAS – High Level Panel 2: Reaching people in need, supporting humanitarian assistance for all in times of conflict and promoting good practices in the application of international humanitarian law

 

High-Level Panel 2

Reaching people in need, supporting humanitarian assistance for all in times of conflict and promoting good practices in the application of international humanitarian law

Statement by FAO, delivered by

Conor Elliott, Humanitarian and Resilience Programme Officer at the FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York

 

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Conflict is the primary driver of acute food insecurity. In 2021, 139 million people , or 70 percent of the acutely food insecure people in 53 countries, were acutely food insecure because of conflict. This is a marked increase from 2020, when 99 million people were acutely food insecure due to conflict. 

Conflict negatively affects the means of production; limiting or denying access to agricultural inputs, rendering agricultural land unusable and destroying rural infrastructure, while also disrupting commercial trade, the provision of services and markets.

So we must continue to strongly condemn the unlawful denial of humanitarian access by parties to conflict, impeding relief supplies and other support. 

And we must continue to remind everyone to comply with their obligations under international law, including as outlined in Security Council Resolution 2573, to refrain from depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, crops, livestock, agricultural assets, drinking water installations and irrigation works. But we see this happening all too often, in many contexts.

The relationship between Conflict and hunger, the impact on food systems and the risk of famine are all restated in UNSC Resolution 2417, which was unanimously adopted by the UNSC in 2018. Further attention to and implementation of this Resolution is essential.

And where access is constrained, for conflict-affected populations who cannot or do not want to flee, survival on locally produced food is critical. Last year, in Tigray, Ethiopia, despite extremely low funding for the agriculture sector, local farmers were able to produce some 900 000 tonnes of food – about five times more than entered through food assistance . 

So, agriculture is critical in these contexts, yet allocations to agriculture have significantly decreased, accounting for about only 8 percent of humanitarian food security funding.

Well-sequenced, layered and financed responses, a new attention to agriculture, ensured access and the fulfillment of IHL obligations by all parties, is what we need. 

Thank you.