In just a matter of two months, India’s second wave of COVID-19 infections overwhelmed the second most populous nation in the world, with 100,000 deaths recorded during May.
Behind the massive health crisis lurks an unprecedented threat to the job and food security of millions. UN News’s Anshu Sharma spoke to World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director to India, Bishow Parajuli, for an overview of measures being taken to help the country recover.
An estimated 160,000 people in Gaza now face going hungry as the escalation of violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and across the border into Israel, continues into its second week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
In addition to seeing that they get enough to eat, another priority for the agency’s Country Director in Palestine, Samer AbdelJaber, is making sure that his aid team stays safe, as he explains to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which provides lifesaving food assistance to millions across the world – often in extremely dangerous and hard-to-access conditions – has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.
A ‘business as usual' approach is no longer an option, the head of the UN agriculture agency said on Tuesday, launching a new plan to move past the coronavirus pandemic.
Millions of refugees across Africa face even greater food insecurity because of aid disruption and rising food prices linked to the COVID-19 crisis, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday.
Whilst COVID-19 has posed a serious threat to food security overall, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes agricultural commodity markets are proving to be more resilient to the pandemic, than many other sectors.
But the real test in terms of food security will come now, “with lockdowns ending, and people having to go back to their jobs to support themselves”.
That’s according to Sridhar Dharmapuri, a Senior FAO Food Safety and Nutrition Officer from the Asia Pacific region.
While stressing the importance of maintaining good food safety practices at home, Mr. Dharmapuri told UN News’s Li Zhang, that cutting through the tide of misinformation was also key to battling the coronavirus.
