Food

The World Food Programme (WFP) reached an agreement with Venezuela to begin operations to serve nutritious meals to the most vulnerable children, particularly in pre-primary and special education schools, reaching up to 185,000 children by year-end.  WFP aims to provide daily meals to 1.5 million students by the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

Experts today outlined innovative approaches to transform global food systems — assuring that an end to hunger can be within reach — as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development opened the second day of its annual session.

As COVID-19 continues to expose links between gender inequality, food insecurity and poor access to health care and reproductive rights, the global community has an obligation to build back better, fairer and more sustainably for the estimated 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development heard today, as members opened their fifty-fourth session.

United Nations humanitarian staff in Nigeria continue to receive alarming reports of clashes between insurgent groups and the armed forces in the town of Damasak in Borno State.  Recently, they say, non-State armed groups have been searching house to house, reportedly looking for civilians identified as aid workers.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says 71 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar, with more than half of them still detained since the beginning of February.  Some 24 people have been charged for allegedly spreading fake news.

The United Nations Children’s Fund warned today that Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is facing a large and likely long-lasting humanitarian situation.  The agency said it is concerned about the rising rate of malnutrition, and about cholera, which is not yet under control and is spreading to other provinces.

The United Nations team in Timor-Leste, led by Roy Trivedy, the Resident Coordinator, is supporting local authorities following floods that have impacted Díli and other parts of the country.  The Government says there have been more than 30 deaths and over 13,500 people are living in evacuation sites.

After La Soufriere volcano erupted today in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the United Nations Emergency Technical Team for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries met to discuss the pre-positioning of relief items.  The World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund are also readying supplies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today that, due to significant funding gaps, it is cutting food rations for refugees and internally displaced people in South Sudan.  The cuts will affect nearly 700,000 of them and they will now receive 50 per cent of a full ration, down from 70 per cent.

At least 11,000 people have fled their homes following an attack by insurgents on the town of Palma, Mozambique, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  Officials are working around the clock to provide assistance, including blankets and sleeping mats, but warn that hunger is rising.