Thursday, March 28

Ukraine war hits poor countries


The wars always have collateral victims and that of Ukraine is no different. This week the secretary general of United NationsAntónio Guterres, warned that the conflict “is taking resources and attention from other places with problems in a desperate situation” and urged “doing everything possible to avoid a hurricane of hunger and the collapse of the global food system”. The Portuguese also warned that this blow, “harder to the most poor“, is “sowing the seeds for political instability and unrest around the world.”

The conflict started by Russia has come in the difficult wake of the pandemicwith the inflation already fired and the prices of Petroleum in 13-year records. With 44 million people in 38 countries on the brink of famine, its impact has unleashed a perfect storm, one that is especially severe in places where the situation was already critical.

On Yemenfor example, the shortage of funding for aid has forced to downgrade or close programs of the UN, food assistance to eight million people has been drastically cut and it is warned that in the coming weeks almost four million people could lose access to drinking water. On South Sudanalso more than 70% of the population, eight million people who include refugees, face the prospect of extreme hunger.

half rations

The World Food Program (WFP) is one of the agencies most affected by those derived from the war conflict in a region where 30% of the world wheat market originates, 20% of the corn market, three quarters of the sunflower market and one third of the barley market and which functions as a breadbasket for much of the world, and especially for Africa and Middle East. Grain prices have surpassed what they were before the Arab Spring and food price riots of 2007 and 2008. 45 countries in Africa and developing countries import at least a third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia and 18 from they, including Burkina Faso, Egypt, Congo, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, depend on the region for half their grain.

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WFP also sources more than half of the wheat it distributes from Ukraine and also has its main supply of sunflower oil there. And its chief executive, David Beasley, has spoken out about the forced ration cuts given to refugees and other vulnerable populations in East Africa and the Middle East. “Half rations means hungry kids who eat the equivalent of just one bowl of cereal every day,” he explained.

WFP is currently paying for the food it distributes 30% more than it paid in 2019. And the situation may deteriorate further if transport corridors are altered by the Black Sea, which in WFP calculations can double or triple transport prices. Insurance for freighter transit has already skyrocketed, reaching up to $300,000 per ship.

Furthermore, as Beasley pointed out, “if Ukraine’s fields lie fallow this year, aid agencies such as the WFP will be forced to seek new markets to make up for the loss of some of the world’s best wheat, and doing so will greatly increase costs. “.

urgent financing

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Given the situation, in which increases in fertilizer prices and the problems of the poorest countries to meet their debt obligations or obtain financing are also combined, Guterres has asked the international community for “creativity to finance humanitarian aid” and that the funds committed for that assistance be delivered “immediately”.

This week he also announced the creation within the UN secretariat of a Global Crisis Response Group focused on food, energy and finance that will be overseen by Under-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. And she called on nations to “resist the temptation to increase military budgets at the expense of official development aid and climate action.”

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