WFP Note to Correspondents

WASHINGTON – Thank you for the opportunity to join you today.

This meeting comes at a pivotal moment. I fear the world is on the brink of a hunger emergency like we’ve never seen.

Before the Middle East crisis, 318 million people were severely hungry. Last year, 1.4 million faced catastrophic – or famine like – conditions.

Now, a historic shock to energy markets and a sudden drop in fuel and fertilizer exports threaten global agriculture systems.  Around the world, food prices are already shooting up. And, as always, the most vulnerable people will be hit hardest.

WFP analysis indicates that, if this crisis doesn’t end by June, 45 million more people could fall into severe hunger.

WFP’s lifesaving and livelihoods support are affected, too. The chokehold on trade has added 20 percent more costs, and month-long delays, to our critical food shipments. This comes on top of significant funding reductions, which have forced WFP to halt support to millions of families.

I fear the world is sleepwalking toward a moment we can’t undo. A global hunger catastrophe of this scale could take countless lives. And it could hollow out economies, destabilize communities, and set back an entire generation. That can be avoided, if we act early, and act together.

I commend the Managing Director and President for recognizing the risks and setting us on the right path. We’ve agreed to work closely to step up for the most vulnerable.

By providing urgent relief to safeguard lives and livelihoods, while also helping countries lay the foundations for a resilient recovery. One that strengthens food security, safeguards development gains, and delivers stability, growth and jobs.

If I may, I would like to share some thoughts on future priorities:

First, we must keep innovating to stretch every dollar. Co-financing across institutions is now imperative. Leveraging grants from across the system will generate more impact, and will also incentivize our teams to work better across institutional boundaries. We can also scale mechanisms, like debt-for-food-security swaps, to expand fiscal space.

Second, we must continue to strengthen alignment across programs. With greater integration, we can spend fewer dollars to help more communities build self-reliance and prosperity. For example, we can tap into high-impact social spending priorities, like school meals, to link smallholder farmers with predictable demand for their produce. We plan to work with the World Bank, AgriConnect, and others, to develop this integrated model, and prove it can be scaled.

I want to finish by saying thank you, for your trust and partnership. We are aware of what is happening, and we must act.

So, let us stand together, and step up, for the people we serve.

Thank you.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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