The Nobel UN food agency has warned that 2021 will be even worse than 2020

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and a megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars There will be a famine. “

David Beasley said in an interview with the Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is focusing on the agency’s day-to-day work in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, with the risk of feeding millions of hungry people often endangering staff lives – but “to send a message to the world.” That it’s getting worse from there … (and) that we still have a lot of work to do. “

“It was so timely because we’re fighting to move the lyrics forward,” Basel said of last month’s award. Drawing attention to the news of the election and the Covid-1p epidemic, and the difficulty in attracting global attention to the “travesty we are facing around the world.”

“So this was really a gift from above,” Beasley said, recalling the surprise and joy of 20,000 WFP employees worldwide, and his own shock was interrupted during a meeting in Niger in the Sahel region of Africa with the news.

Beasley recalled a warning to the UN Security Council in April that the world was dealing with a coronavirus epidemic, also on the verge of a “famine” that could lead to “several biblical famines” in a few months. No immediate action was taken.

“We can avoid it in 2020 … because world leaders responded with money, stimulus packages, debt deferrals.”

Now, Beasley said, COVID-19 is on the rise again, especially in low- and middle-income countries where economies continue to deteriorate, and there is another wave of lockdowns and shutdowns.

But he said the money that was available in 2020 will not be available in 2021, so he is using the Nobel virtually and in person to meet leaders, speak in parliament and give speeches to empathize with those in power. Tragedy that we are facing – crises that will really be extraordinary in the near future, who knows, 12 to 18 months. “

“Now everyone wants to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner,” Bisley said. “Now they get 45 minutes instead of 15 minutes with the leaders and go deeper and are able to explain what bad things will be like next year and the leaders. How will be. Programs have to be prioritized. “And the answer has been really good,” he said.

“I tell them you don’t have enough money to fund projects that historically fund.”

“That’s important,” Beasley said, “but comparing the Titanic to the next crisis.” “

Beasley said the WFP needs 15 15 billion next year – 5 5 billion to prevent drought and 10 10 billion to run the agency’s global programs, including malnourished children and school meals that often go to food-only youth.

“If I can get it with our normal money, then we can avoid worldwide famine” and reduce instability as well as migration. He said.

In addition to raising extra money from governments, Beasley said his other “great hope” is that the billionaires who made billions during the Covid-11 epidemic will move forward on a one-time basis. He plans to start pushing the message in December or January.

In April, Beasley said 135 million people had “hunger crisis levels or worse.” The WFP analysis showed that COVID = 19 could push an additional 1 million million people “to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.”

He said in a virtual interview in Rome on Wednesday, where the WFP-based, while the drought was averted this year, the number of people facing hunger crisis levels is rising to 270 million.

“There are about three dozen countries that could be in a drought situation if we don’t have the money we need,” Beasley said.

According to a joint analysis by the WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in October, over the next three to six months, 20 countries are likely to “face potential spikes in high-intensity food insecurity,” and urgent attention is needed. “

Of those, Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Faso in Burkina Faso have some areas that have “reached critical levels of hunger after years of conflict or other shocks,” UN agencies said, and any further deterioration could occur in the coming months. Risk of drought. “

Other countries need immediate attention – Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.

Beasley said the Covid-19 vaccine “will generate some optimism that will hopefully help economies around the world, especially Western economies, move forward. But the WFP’s executive director said there has already been an economic stimulus of બ 17 billion this year and we will not go that far globally.

“We are very, very concerned that 2021 will be a very bad year for deferred debt payments, new lockdowns and bursting economic impacts for low- and middle-income countries that will resume in January,” Beasley said.