This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
New Yemen food insecurity data shows ‘ticking timebomb’ of hunger
In Yemen, a fresh alert from the UN that time is running out to avoid famine in the country.
Out of two million children who need treatment for acute malnutrition, 360,000 are at risk of dying if they do not receive medical care, said World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri:
“We are running out of time…approximately 16 million people cannot put food on their table. This is a disaster, this is a ticking time-bomb and the world needs to act now.”
The UN refugee agency UNHCR also warned that hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people also face life-threatening food insecurity.
They have been victims of “ceaseless violence” and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have left them without work to support themselves, spokesperson Babar Baloch told journalists in Geneva.
He cited a new UN food security survey in Yemen which showed that the risk of “famine-like” conditions was increasing.
Data indicated that the biggest dangers were in areas of conflict, which are home to half of Yemen’s displaced population of four million.
The districts worst affected by acute food insecurity are in Marib, Al Bayda, Abyan, Taizz, Hadramautand and Al Jawf governorates.
Out of a total population of 30.5 million, more than 23 million Yemenis need some form of humanitarian assistance.
Liquid gold? Rights expert warns of speculation risks in new water futures index
To the world’s first futures market in water, and concern that the index could lead to dangerous speculation and leave people more vulnerable than ever.
UN-appointed Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo-Agudo cautioned on Friday that investors might trade it like gold and oil.
“You can’t put a value on water as you do with other traded commodities,” Mr Arrojo-Agudo said in a statement.
Water “belongs to everyone and is a public good”, he added, before insisting that having access to water had been key in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
His comments follow this week’s launch by CME Group of the world’s first “water futures contract”.
It aims to help water users manage threats to supply, such as drought and flooding; it allows buyers and sellers to barter a fixed price for the delivery of a fixed quantity of water, at a later date.
As well as large-scale farmers, factories and utility companies looking to lock-in prices – at the expense of smallholders - Mr Arrojo-Agudo noted that a futures market in water could invite dangerous price bets from hedge funds and banks, which risked repeating the speculative bubble of the global food market in 2008.
Mountain folk ‘among world’s hungriest’ amid biodiversity, climate shocks
Finally, mountain communities are among the world’s hungriest, as biodiversity loss and climate change shocks take their toll.
That’s one of the key findings of a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
It showed that the number of mountain people vulnerable to food insecurity in developing countries increased from 243 million to almost 350 million between 2000 and 2017.
FAO said that the world’s mountains provide between 60 and 80 per cent of our fresh water, while many of the world's most important crops and livestock species also come from high regions, which are also a source for food and medicine.
But the agency said that its joint study had found that mountain ecosystems are becoming increasingly fragile from overexploitation, pollution and demographic shifts, all of which threaten livelihoods and food security.
It also warned that climate change has disproportionately increased the degradation of mountain habitats and the likelihood of natural hazards.
These include landslides and droughts, which have already affected 275 million people who are vulnerable to food insecurity in mountain areas.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
