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Hunger in the news

A daily selection of news reports from the world's media dealing with hunger and responses to it.
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Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

Malnutrition Still Killing Three Million Children Under Five

June 6 - The focus of agricultural programmes should shift towards enhanced nutrition rather than just increasing crop yields, Professor Robert Black of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told IPS. (..) Martin Bloem, senior nutritional advisor with the World Food Program (WFP), echoed a similar sentiment. He emphasised the role of Anganwadis, government sponsored child-care centres in India, in countries like India. (..) But inspection and strict monitoring is paramount when local communities are involved, Bloem said. The findings in The Lancet come ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, which will be preceded by the UK and Brazilian governments co-hosting a high-level event on Nutrition for Growth.
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

Our Collective Failure To Address Malnutrition Is a Glaring Scandal of the 21st Century

June 8 - As we gather in London this weekend for the Nutrition for Growth Summit, we should remind ourselves that while stunting was long ago banished from the streets of this city, it is still very much a reality in the developing world. (..) Although we have made considerable progress in recent years, most notably with the new focus on the 1,000 days window from the start of a woman's pregnancy to her baby's second birthday, there is room for more progress. (..) The London Nutrition for Growth Summit provides a golden opportunity to forge a partnership to provide comprehensive nutritional cover for adolescent girls and all women of reproductive age. If we can do this in London, then we have a genuine opportunity to consign stunting to the pages of history, once and for all.
Huffington Post
Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

Nutrition more than ever is a global priority - WFP

June 7 - Donors are providing more money to tackle malnutrition in recognition of a global problem that until recently was overlooked, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. (..) WFP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said they planned to roll out pilot programmes to improve nutrition among women before, during and after pregnancy in Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Zambia. (..) "Nutrition is one of those issues that has not always been a high priority issue for the global community," Executive Director Ertharin Cousin told reporters on a teleconference.
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

Lebanon struggles to cope with Syrian refugee influx

Head of WFP sub-office in Bekaa, Ingolfur Palsson, explained the problems. "Every month we have 50,000 people crossing the border to Lebanon coming from Syria. And every month we are increasing our capacity to meet the needs of these people. For us, food is the highest priority for these people at the moment. We're able to cope, but it's getting more and more difficult," he said. To help the local economy, WFP issues food vouchers to refugees once they are registered.
Al Arabiya
Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

In Its Biggest Appeal Ever, U.N. Requests $5 Billion in Humanitarian Aid for Syria

June 7 - The United Nations issued the biggest financing appeal in its history on Friday, asking for more than $5 billion in humanitarian aid for Syria this year to help millions of people affected by the country’s civil war and ease the pressure building up in neighboring countries overwhelmed by Syrian refugees. (..) “We have reached a stage in Syria where some of the people, if they do not get food from the World Food Program, they simply do not eat,” Muhannad Hadi, the program’s emergency coordinator in Syria, told reporters in Geneva. “If mothers do not get food on the promised day that we deliver food,” Mr. Hadi said, “then there is nothing for them to cook for their children. Their children will go to bed on an empty stomach.”
The New York Times
Hunger in the news
7 June 2013

Food for thought: global school feeding programmes – in pictures

Proper nutrition is vital to ensuring students are able to concentrate. A report by the UN's World Food Programme looks at how school feeding programmes are helping support some of the world's most vulnerable families and children.
The Guardian
Hunger in the news
7 June 2013

U.N. says half of Syria's population will need aid by end of year

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which has delivered 500 million meals in Syria so far this year, expects its weekly costs to rise from almost $20 million now to $36 million after September. It says it has a funding shortfall of about $725 million. "These are huge numbers. They're not sustainable over the very long term," said WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Abdulla.
TrustLaw/ Reuters
Hunger in the news
5 June 2013

UN: Global Malnutrition Costs Are Unacceptable

Global hunger, poor nutrition and obesity are costing the world trillions of dollars in health costs and lost productivity, according to a new report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO report says fighting hunger is not enough. Tackling the more complex problem of malnutrition calls for action across the entire food system, from farm to fork. About 870 million people worldwide are hungry, according to the FAO. But malnutrition is about more than just hunger.
VOA News
ED - E.Cousin
5 June 2013

The World's Most Powerful Black Women 2013

A couple of weeks ago, FORBES published its 2013 annual list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Of the 100 women featured, 11 are black, of whom 3 are Africans. They include political leaders, corporate executives, heads of non-governmental organizations, top government functionaries and a first lady. These are the 11 black women who matter the most: Ertharin Cousin Executive Director, World Food Programme, United Nations, U.S.A
Forbes
Purchase for Progress
5 June 2013

Global Food for Thought - Solvable Problem

Whenever I have the privilege of spending time among the people that the World Food Programme (WFP) serves, I come away enriched with precious extra knowledge and inspired by the new ways in which governments are tackling the world’s greatest solvable problem – hunger. (..) We at WFP have seen farmers’ capacity to prevent food loss transformed thanks to the Purchase for Progress (P4P) pilot project, which we launched with partners five years ago to test new ways to buy food that could enable smallholder farmers to achieve better yields, improve the quality of their crops and sell to reliable buyers for a fair price. (..) But preventing food that could nourish the hungry from being lost early in the food chain requires the coordinated efforts of many actors.
The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs

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