The Nobel UN Food Agency warns that 2021 will be worse than 2020

United Nations (AP) – President of the World Food Program, Nobel Peace Prize UN The company said next year would be worse than this year, without billions of dollars “We are going to have a biblical famine in 2021. “

In an interview with the Associated Press, David Beasley said that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was monitoring the agency’s daily work in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often endangering the lives of staff to feed millions of hungry people – but “to send a message to the world that it is getting worse …” ) Our hard work has not yet come. “

“It was a very timely time because we’re struggling above the singers,” Beasley said of last month’s award, pointing to news dominated by the U.S. election and the Govt-19 epidemic, and the difficulty in drawing global attention to “the plight we face around the world.”

Recalling the surprise and delight of WFP’s 20,000 employees around the world, Beasley recalled with news the shock of being interrupted during a meeting in Niger, Sahel, Africa.

Beasley recalled his warning to the UN Security Council in April that when the world was dealing with the corona virus, it was “on the brink of a famine epidemic” and no immediate action was taken to lead to “many biblical famines” within months.

“We were able to avoid it in 2020 … because world leaders responded with money, stimulus packages, debt deferrals,” he said.

Now, Beasley said, COVID-19 is rising again, especially as economies continue to deteriorate in low- and middle-income countries, and there is another wave of locks and strikes.

But he said the money raised in 2020 would not be available in 2021, so he uses the Nobel to meet leaders almost face-to-face, talk to parliaments and deliver speeches which make those in power feel. The tragedy we face – crises that will be truly extraordinary for the next 12 to 18 months. ”

“Everyone now wants to meet the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Beasley said, adding that now there are 45 minutes available with leaders, and priority should be given to programs that can go deeper and explain how bad things are going to happen next year and how leaders can be. “And the response was very good,” he said.

“I tell them you don’t have enough money to fund all the projects you have historically funded,” he said.

“Those are important things,” Beasley said, but he compared the impending crisis to the Titanic, saying, “Right now, we really need to focus on glaciers, and glaciers famine, starvation, instability and migration.”

Beasley said the WFP needs $ 15 billion next year – $ 5 billion to avoid famine and $ 10 billion to implement the agency’s global programs, including for malnourished children and school lunches, food that is mostly available only to young people.

“If I can get it with our normal money, we will avoid famine around the world” and reduce instability and migration. he said.

Beasley said his other “big hope” was not only to raise more money from governments, but also to make sure that the billionaires who made billions during the COVID-19 epidemic would progress on a one-time basis. He plans to launch this news probably in December or January.

In April, Beasley said 135 million people were facing “hunger crisis or worse conditions.” A WFP analysis later showed that COVID = 19 could push an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.

He said in a virtual interview on Wednesday from Rome, which is based in WFP, that despite the avoidance of famine this year, the number of people facing the crisis of famine is rising to 270 million.

“There are three dozen countries that could get into famine conditions if we don’t have the money we need,” Beasley said.

In October, the WFP and the UN According to a joint analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organization, over the next three to six months, 20 countries are likely to face “serious potential for food insecurity” and “urgent attention.”

Among them, Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Burkina Faso have “reached a critical famine level following years of conflict or other shocks,” the UN said. The agencies said the “risk of famine” would worsen in the coming months.

Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe are other countries that need “urgent attention.”

A Govt-19 vaccine will “create some hope that will help improve economies around the world, especially Western economies,” Beasley said. But the WFP executive director said there was already a $ 17 billion economic stimulus this year, saying, “We’re not going to get it globally.”

Beasley said “2021 will be a very bad year”, with deferred lending, new locks and a bad economic impact for low- and middle-income countries, which will resume in January.