UN food agency chief calls on US Congress to prevent emergencies by anticipating them

While thanking the United States for its “miraculous” support in keeping 12 million people alive in Sudan’s Darfur region and East Africa, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has called on the US Congress to take preventive measures ahead of time to head off major humanitarian emergencies.

“Priority has to go to the hungriest people in the poorest places, before they become victims of emergencies,” WFP Executive Director James Morris, told the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations in a session yesterday.

This would not only save lives but greatly reduce the costs of humanitarian intervention, he said, noting that in Africa alone WFP anticipates it will need to respond to the needs of an unprecedented 50 million people this year.

“If I count just our urgent needs on the continent – those where rations have been or are about to be cut – we are looking at a shortfall of more than $1.4 billion. Tens of millions of very poor, very hungry people are counting on us to find that money before it is too late,” he added.

Mr. Morris, who oversees the world’s largest humanitarian organization, which fed 97 million poor people in 82 countries last year, expressed deep gratitude to the US Government, WFP’s single-largest donor, for “coming to the rescue” after it was forced this month to cut food rations in half for close to 3 million people in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.

“WFP – and the people caught in these terrible crises – have much to thank the United States for,” he declared. “In Darfur and East Africa, food aid worth $552 million from the United States is keeping 12 million people alive. Truly, your support is miraculous.”

Other donors, including the European Commission, Canada and Denmark, have also stepped forward and the Government of Sudan recently announced a donation to WFP of 20,000 tons of cereals, he noted.

But he stressed that the situation in Darfur was still critical and WFP remained strapped for cash. Despite donor generosity, the agency was only 57 per cent funded for emergencies like Darfur and East Africa in 2005. He urged donors to manage risks ahead of time, creating more flexible tools and funding streams to respond as soon as emergencies developed.

Mr. Morris said the key to breaking the escalating cycle of humanitarian crises was focusing efforts on children – the world’s future – and their mothers. WFP estimates that helping the roughly 100 million poor children who are not currently reached by any assistance would cost some $5 billion a year.

He noted that that was about the same amount of money as Congress appropriated for the 2005 fiscal year for 7 million American women and infants through the Women, Infants and Children Programme. “If that investment in America’s poor mothers and children was worth making, why not reach out to all who need our help?” he asked.

Adequate food and nutrition are also essential weapons in the war against AIDS to help the sick tolerate harsh AIDS drugs and extend their lives. “Without a healthy diet, their fight to survive this plague is being fought with one hand tied behind their backs,” he said.