On May 18, before the United Nations Security Council, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) Antonio Guterres issued a warning cry: the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at the end of February placed the planet “under the specter of global food shortages”. Since the start of the war, the UN official has multiplied alarming messages, particularly fearing a “hurricane of famine” on the African continent.
The situation is paradoxical: despite the conflict that is raging in Ukraine, a major world producer of cereals and oilseeds, and which is paralyzing grain traffic in the Black Sea, world production should hardly weaken in 2022. But the existence of However, stocks do not mean that cereals are available and several countries find themselves unable to supply themselves on international markets, which have become inaccessible due to stratospheric prices. The situation is particularly worrying in the states most dependent on Ukrainian and Russian harvests, in Africa and the Middle East, which are also among the poorest and most indebted. Among the many domino effects of the war in Ukraine, Chad officially declared a “food emergency” on June 2.
Due to the conflict, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated in mid-March that 8 to 13 million additional people are at risk of falling into hunger. This threat worries international bodies, which are multiplying initiatives. In recent years, however, little action has been taken, while hunger has been steadily increasing since 2015, affecting around 800 million people, as has broader food insecurity, which affects a third of the world’s population. Will awareness today help stem the spiral of malnutrition? Measures can be taken, but require real political and diplomatic impetus.
A multitude of international initiatives with no real impact
The food crisis is the symptom of broken international cooperation. In recent months, initiatives have multiplied to try to find solutions to the current situation, without success. The G7 countries launched in May, with the World Bank, a Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS), which adds to the global response group on food, energy and finance (Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, GCRG), created by the UN in April, as well as the French initiative of the Food & Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM). Objective: to ensure the food security of the most vulnerable countries, in particular importers of agricultural products. International donors such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank have, in the process, unveiled an action plan in poor countries to support agricultural production, deal with shortages of fertilizers or fight against malnutrition.
You have 83.06% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.