ROME -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today urged countries to step up and allocate to urgent hunger needs, a fraction of what is proposed for financial rescue packages, to address the global economic downturn.

“We need to send a bold signal of hope to the world with a human rescue package,” said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, speaking from New Delhi during her first visit to India, the country with the single largest population of undernourished people in the world. “As we take care of Wall Street and Main Street, we can't forget the places that have no streets,” she said, referring to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's challenge to political leaders.

WFP – which aims to feed nearly 100 million of the world's hungriest people in 2009 - announced today that it will start the New Year needing US$5.2 billion for urgent hungerneeds. Without a rapid injection of funds, millions of people in Haiti, the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya and other hunger hot spots will run out of food assistance by the end of March, when warehouse stocks run out. WFP is voluntarily funded, and relies on annual contributions for all of its programs.

WFP Ghana currently needs resources to support safety-net programmes dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable, mainly mothers and children, from the worst effects of the financial crisis, high food prices and market volatility. WFP support to Ghana includes the provision of micronutrient–rich food packages for malnourished children and underweight mothers, nutritious school meals for primary school children (in collaboration with the Ghana School Feeding Programme) and food assistance for refugees currently hosted by Ghana. The strategy of local procurement whereby Ghanaian commodities are bought in-country to assist Ghanaian beneficiaries relies on cash contributions to be effective. In 2008, WFP Ghana injected nearly US$6 million into the national economy through its local procurement programme.

Sheeran said that with a mere 1 percent of what has been tabled for financial rescue packages and stimulus packages in the United States and Europe, developed countries could fully fund the work of the World Food Programme, and make a mark toward meeting other urgent hunger needs, for example feeding all 59 million hungry school children worldwide ($3 billion per year) and the establishment of a reserve fund for fast acquisition of food stocks for emergencies. Funds are also needed to boost the agricultural production of small-holder farmers who have seen the price of seeds and fertilizers more than double since 2006.

“World leaders need to be confronted with the values implicit in the policy choices they are making,” Sheeran said. “The world is poised to produce trillions for financial rescue packages. What will they produce for the human rescue?”

WFP's urgent call comes off the back of historically high food prices, followed by continued market volatility. The global financial crisis, which is enveloping the developed world, is spilling into the developing world as incomes are affected, and trade, capital flows and remittances slow.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced last week that another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year primarily due to high food prices, bringing the total number of hungry to nearly 1 billion worldwide. This increase comes after four decades of progress when the international community collectively helped to bring down the percentage of hungry people from 37 to 17.

“We are at a critical juncture where we risk watching hunger spiral out of control as the world's population is set to climb toward 9 billion mid-century,” Sheeran said, adding the effects of hunger during a child's earliest years prevents them from reaching their full intellectual and physical capacity.

“We can't afford to lose the next generation,” she said.

Source: World Food Programme (WFP)