Agriculture as Humanitarian Aid
15 December 2021, Washington, DC - The dire situation in Afghanistan has captured recent headlines. But the Afghan people are far from alone in their fight against hunger. In fact, the world has not faced a risk of widespread famine affecting multiple countries severely in over a decade. In just four countries - Ethiopia, southern Madagascar, South Sudan, Yemen- 584 000 people are living in famine conditions. Elsewhere, an additional 45 million are at a tipping point.
Alongside soaring hunger and food insecurity, funding to the food aid sector grew dramatically from USD 6.2 billion to nearly USD 8 billion between 2016 and 2019. Yet, with at least two-thirds of people who suffer from acute hunger living in rural areas, the agriculture component of humanitarian aid remains massively underfunded.
To call for an urgent shift in the humanitarian-aid paradigm, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office for North America hosted a forum, “Agriculture as Humanitarian Aid,” in partnership with leading American humanitarian organizations, including CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and World Vision.
According to Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, “In 2016, 108 million people were hit by acute hunger. Tragically, that number has now climbed to 161 million people. To stop and reverse these trends, it is time to move to a forward-looking strategy and invest in what should be an obvious solution: helping vulnerable people grow food right where it is needed most.”
There is no one solution to the problem of food insecurity. But the speakers were unified that the common solution to exiting hunger is agrifood systems resilience. To achieve that objective, the speakers focused on solutions to the root causes of hunger: gender equality in agriculture; access to local market systems; adapting agriculture to shocks such as conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the centre of the discussion is agriculture, which is among the most cost-effective humanitarian frontline interventions. For example, a USD 157 wheat package can supply a family of seven with enough staple food for a full year - less than a quarter of the cost of purchasing the same amount of grain in the local market. Alternatively, it would cost USD 1080 in food aid to cover the minimum food basket needs locally of a family for those 12 months.
For 2022, as part of the United Nations’ large-scale humanitarian appeal, FAO is requesting 1.5 billion USD to help 50 million people, ensuring food is produced right where it is needed most and providing a path out of protracted and deepening food crises.
Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of the FAO Liaison Office for North America, specified that “We must be more strategic in allocating the substantial resources that are already being spent, not to pause acute hunger, but to halt and reverse it. We need an exit strategy from hunger, and we need it now.”
This is the first in a series of webinars that will address the topic of agriculture as an integral part of the response to world hunger.
Resources:
Watch the webinar here
For more information on FAO 2022 humanitarian appeals read the PDF version.