U.N. General Assembly Hall. 📸: Patrick Gruban
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Congressional Hunger Center applauds the Administration’s announcement of $2.9 billion to address the growing global food security crisis, while urging leaders to commit to transformational change to prevent future crises. The funding was pledged by President Biden at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The announcement comes as conflict, climate change, pandemic, and supply chain disruptions have tipped food systems around the world into chaos. 345 million people are estimated to be experiencing acute hunger, more than double the number in 2019. Earlier this week the Hunger Center joined with nearly 250 local and international NGOs in an open letter to the UN Member States, urging leaders to respond urgently to the crisis.
The funding will pay for humanitarian and development assistance through USAID, the McGovern-Dole Child Nutrition Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and others.
“We are pleased to see the Administration extend the assistance of the American people to blunt the worst effects of the global food crisis,” said the Hunger Center’s executive director Shannon Maynard. “The namesake of our International Fellowship, Rep. Mickey Leland, once said, ‘I am as much a citizen of the world as I am of my country.’ We applaud the Administration’s leadership as a global citizen in this pivotal moment.
“We also urge all leaders to consider the far-reaching effects of imbalances in power and privilege, which have created the conditions for global crisis in the first place. Even after the current emergency subsides, without fixing the underlying causes, we will certainly find ourselves here again and again.”
According to FEWS NET, barring timely relief supplies, Somalia will experience a famine this year, while areas of dozens of other countries in Central America, Africa, and Central Asia are stressed or in crisis.
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