Dozens of leaders on Tuesday (September 20th) called for renewed efforts to tackle global food insecurity, exacerbated by a convergence of crises, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the lack of fertilizer. In a joint statement issued after a ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the United States, the European Union, the African Union, Colombia, Nigeria and Indonesia affirm their “commitment to act with urgency, scale and concert to meet the urgent food needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world”.
These countries undertake in particular to increase their financial aid to humanitarian organizations and not to put in place restrictions on the food and fertilizer markets, whose production they want to increase. This meeting came in the wake of the G7, during which the major powers had promised to devote nearly 5 billion dollars to fight against food insecurity.
Russia implicated
Among the crisis factors are the Covid-19 pandemic which has disrupted distribution channels, climate change and the war in Ukraine, with officials on Tuesday accusing Russia of putting food security at risk. “There is no peace with hunger and there is no fight against hunger without peace”, summed up Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. His German counterpart, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, called for “act with a sense of urgency”.
In a speech at the UN on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron announced that France would fund “the evacuation of Ukrainian wheat bound for Somalia”, a country threatened by famine. US President Joe Biden, who will speak on Wednesday, is expected to announce new aid.
