UN reveals the severe problems to be faced when aiding undernourished populations

Resulting from the massive rise in world commodity prices the United Nations warned that it no longer had sufficient funds to hold global malnutrition at bay.

Head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, outlined the problem that is to come in future months should commodity prices stay at such high levels. Sheeran then continued by pointing out that simply to continue meeting current assessed needs would require an additional half billion dollars.

Across 78 countries the WFP feeds 73 million people, with funds raised by voluntary contributions from wealthy nations worldwide. Although large this figure realistically covers under a tenth of the world’s total number of undernourished people.

As annual food prices are increasing by up to 40% across the world the WFP’s agreed 2008 budget of $2.9bn (£1.5bn) is no longer adequate enough to uphold existing food deliveries.

This is particularly disturbing as populations that had considered themselves safe in their food supply (a large number of which are found in urban areas), are currently not able to afford essential food products. Lately Afghanistan put another 2.5 million people on its number it claims are at severe risk of malnutrition.

Sheeran called this the “new face of hunger”, where, although adequate food is on the shelves, people are unable to afford the product.

WPF officials have suggested a blend of reasons explaining the reasons for the phenomenal global price rises of basic foods. These include; increasing areas of land and agricultural produce for biofuels, climate change and an increase in the demand for animal feed from populations in China and India.

Worldwide impact is extremely evident. Food riots have exploded in Mexico, Morocco, Guinea, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Mauritania and Senegal. Russia has fixed the price of bread, eggs, cooking oil and milk for a period of six months. Thailand is setting up a comparable price fix. Pakistan has introduced rationing again; the first time in twenty years. India has prohibited the export of all rice bar the high-quality basmati rice, whilst protests across Indonesia have resulted in Jakarta implementing an increase on public food subsidies.

An Oxfam humanitarian policy advisor, Frederic Mousseau, spoke of the anxiety for the world’s poorest countries where roughly 50-80% of income is spent on food purchases. He discussed how there are worries of an instantaneous rise in malnutrition in these poorer countries.

Head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Joachim von Braun, stated the main cause to be high income growth, with biofuels and weather related inconsistent changes causing irritation to world food markets also following closely behind as chief causes.

An emergency meeting is planned for Friday in Rome, where WFP senior managers are set to congregate with board members and brief them as to the full scale of the dilemma.

This is to be followed by a case-by-case assessment of the scale of the situation in each affected country. Then in June the WFP will formally request for an increased budget at the executive board meeting.