News

Hunger in the news

A daily selection of news reports from the world's media dealing with hunger and responses to it.
Subscribe

Hunger in the news
30 January 2013

Mali: UN gears up to assist possible return of thousands of displaced people

The United Nations refugee agency today announced it is urgently preparing for a possible spontaneous return of thousands of conflict-displaced people in northern Mali, where ongoing insecurity is hampering some 380,000 from returning home. (..) The World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that it completed food distributions to 22,000 IDPs in Mopti and 12,000 IDPs in the capital city of Bamako. The distributions had been postponed following the outbreak of fighting and military intervention. Rapid analyses of the food security situation in other affected areas are underway.
UN News Centre
Nutrition
29 January 2013

Davos 2013: Obesity not a problem for the rich

By contrast, both starvation and obesity are closely linked with poverty, and as such they are both symptoms of malnutrition, Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, tells BBC News. "As countries develop, they often get a double problem," she says. "Affordable nutritious food is the way to address both. It's about having access to such food."
BBC News
Nutrition
29 January 2013

Principles and Practice for Resilience, Food Security and Nutrition

All of us engaged in the fight against hunger -- governments, international organizations, non-governmental and community-based organizations, private businesses and foundations -- recognize the need to shift the way we work with food insecure communities to help them become more resilient. The Rome-based United Nations agencies are championing this shift by aligning our policies and programmes with six core principles.
Huffington Post
Hunger in the news
29 January 2013

UN: To avoid tensions with refugees, Lebanese hosts need support

Donors channelling funds towards Syrian refugees in Lebanon must also assist their poor Lebanese hosts to diffuse rising tensions, aid workers and a government official said ahead of an international pledging conference for humanitarian aid to Syria and its neighbours. (..) Aid agencies have already tried to tailor their programmes accordingly. Instead of distributing food, for example, the World Food Programme (WFP) gives refugees vouchers to redeem food at local shops with which it has signed contracts.

IRIN News
Hunger in the news
29 January 2013

UN: Syrian Refugees Overwhelm Jordan Camp

The United Nations says the huge influx of Syrian refugees crossing into neighboring Jordan during the past week was larger than anticipated and left its agencies, already suffering from a funding shortfall, reeling under the influx. U.N. officials are crying out for more funding as they rush to build showers, toilets and a school for the newcomers. (..) International donors have pledged less than 3 percent to a $1 billion U.N. appeal made last month to aid the more than 670,000 Syrian refugees estimated to have fled to surrounding countries during the 22-month uprising to topple President Bashar Assad. The U.N. says it hopes a donor conference for Syrian refugees Wednesday in Kuwait will rectify the dire funding situation.

The New York Times / AP
Hunger in the news
29 January 2013

Syrians flee violence in dangerous nighttime trek to Jordan

Most of those who made the journey on this night were women and children. Some had walked for hours, others for days, coming from cities as close as Daraa and as far as Aleppo. (..) Jordan's Border Guard said the border will remain open but that the exodus from southern Syria has severely taxed resources.

CNN
Hunger in the news
27 January 2013

Principles and Practice for Resilience, Food Security and Nutrition

We are at a tipping point in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The world is becoming a less predictable and more threatening place for the poorest and most vulnerable. As we grow more interconnected, a range of complex risks, including climate change, environmental degradation, population growth, conflict, and food and fuel price volatility, are exacerbating the challenges faced by vulnerable communities. Unless we protect the world's poorest people and empower them to adapt to change and build robust, adaptable and more prosperous livelihoods, we face a future where every shock becomes an opportunity for hunger and poverty to thrive.

Huffington Post
Hunger in the news
25 January 2013

Food shortage crisis in Dadaab refugee camp

For more than a year, following a spate of kidnappings of aid workers, outside journalists have not been able to visit this isolated, arid camp.(..) The World Food Programme relies on donor funds to feed the almost half a million people in Dadaab. But they are almost $40 million short on keeping people fed for the next six months and are contemplating ration cuts in a camp where people currently exist on the bare minimum. Australia has donated two million dollars but it is a drop in the bucket for what is actually needed.

ABC News (Australia)
Hunger in the news
25 January 2013

Davos 2013: water scarcity is 'second most important world risk'

Yesterday, Ban Ki-moon, secretary general at the United Nations, reminded presidents, business leaders and NGOs at a meeting in Davos that "most of us do not appreciate water. We just take it for granted. Someone with a lavish life, we say he is spending money like water." (..) The problem with finding solutions is that many developing countries have little idea of how to address the problem, and are not able to measure rainfall patterns or water usage.
The Guardian
Hunger in the news
25 January 2013

Life turns bittersweet for the people of Damascus

As the peaceful uprisings that began in March 2011 morphed into a devastating civil war, once self-indulgent Damascus residents found themselves trading their sweets for basic groceries and heating fuel, whose prices have skyrocketed. (..) On Friday, the authorities raised the price of diesel by 40 percent per liter to 35 Syrian pounds ($0.49). In the freezing winter, its value on the black market has shot up to 115 pounds ($1.62) a liter. (..) Like its pastries, the spirit of the capital has waned. Scores of factories have closed, electricity is in short supply and residents shiver at home because of a lack of heating oil.
AFP/ Now

Video

Fighting Hunger Worldwide