Rome: With some of the world's worst food crises in recent years impacting tens of millions of people, there is an urgent need for specifically targeted funding for emergency livelihoods assistance and to build resilience, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) said Monday.
"Today we face unprecedented food crises on multiple fronts. Starvation and hunger-related deaths are a present reality," FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu told the High-Level UN event: Action in Support of Preventing and Ending Famine Now.
"As we near the end of 2021, the situation has continued to deteriorate," he added.
Over half a million people in four countries (Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen) are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity and more than 41 million are on the edge of famine, in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4 out of 5) - one shock or stress away from a worst-case scenario, Qu said.
Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria, he stated, are also facing an increased risk of acute food insecurity.
Monday's event was convened in collaboration between the Governments of the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, FAO, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The FAO Director-General said the situation had continued to deteriorate, with amounts of aid allocated and disbursed falling well short of the $6.6 billion sought by humanitarian organizations to meet urgent needs.
In addition, of the funding provided, far too little was focused on the resourcing of emergency livelihoods assistance - a central component of any effective strategy to prevent famine, Qu said.
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