the Report, which will be presented to the UN security Council on Tuesday night, reinforces the fears of the international community that the world may face a repeat of the growth in food prices, which occurred during the economic crisis in 2007-2008. Rising prices and reduced purchasing power of citizens has led to widespread political upheaval whose consequences are still being felt throughout the middle East, Asia and Latin America, notes The Guardian. UN Secretary-General, antónio Guterres, said that the report should be a call to action for wealthy countries. “Disruption caused by the pandemic COVID-19, can lead to even greater disaster of families and communities,” said UN Secretary-General in his Foreword to the report, which notes that some of the poorest countries “may be faced with a painful trade-off between saving lives and finding sources of livelihood”.
Even more pessimistic assessment, see the forecasts of the heads of the food multinationals, who recently warned that the number of people suffering from chronic hunger could double to more than 1.6 billion as a result of the pandemic and called on world leaders to take urgent action. Nobel prize winning economists warn that the developed countries will face a recurrence of the pandemic in their countries, if they will not be able to Fund projects in the poorest countries of the world.
“COVID-19 potentially disastrous for millions, whose life already hangs in the balance, said Dr. Arif Husain, chief economist of the world food programme. Is like a hammer blow to millions of people, which can thrive only if they receive a salary and can’t count on. The food shortages and the global economic downturn has destroyed their livelihoods. Only required another shock, such as COVID-19, to push them over the edge. We must collectively act now to mitigate the effects of this global disaster.”
Experts at the food is concerned that donor countries have been slow to provide funds needed urgently on the ground for the creation of networks for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most affected areas. The world food programme believes that these needs in the near future will need $ 350 million , but three-quarters of this amount has not yet obtained the international food organizations.
In the report, health services in developing countries facing shortages of beds and specialists are likely to be overloaded, and the global economic downturn will disrupt the supply chain aboutallowances. Of particular concern to the UN cause the people working on uncontrolled government clandestine factories and workshops, particularly in Asia, and 79 million refugees and displaced persons in the world.
According to experts, serious health risks are only part of the outbreak. Restrictive measures and isolation prevent people to plant and to harvest, to work as day laborers and to sell products, and create other problems. The shortage of labor faced by the poorest countries in the period of the pandemic could further complicate food production, protectionist measures can raise prices on them, but rising unemployment will reduce the purchasing power of people, which ultimately, will contribute to the growth of hunger.
Extreme weather conditions caused by disturbance of the climate, are also likely to increase the loss, as it was a year earlier. In 2019 of the 130 million people affected by severe food shortages, the majority – 77 million was in countries affected by civil conflict, 34 million have suffered from climate crisis, and 24 million lived in areas where there was economic crisis.