WFP faces major funding shortfall

(September 18, 2009) As the number of hungry people pass the 1 billion mark this year for the first time the flow of food aid is at a 20-year low, according to the United Nation’s World Food Program (WFP). Josette Sheeran, executive director of WFP, told a press conference in London on Wednesday that the number of hungry people in 2009 would be 1.02 billion for the first time in history, according to the data of UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. But the food aid flow is going down in recent years. In 2001, there were 10.9 million tons of food aid but the number fell to 6. 3 million tonnes in 2008. Sheeran said that WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization ,was aiming to feed 108 million people in 2009, but is facing a serious budget shortfall, which is about US$3 billion. This shortage means ration reductions and cuts in programs that provide a lifeline to the world's hungriest people. In Kenya, food crisis "have pushed almost 4 million into the hunger trap" while in Guatemala, nutritious food supplements to 100,000 children and 50, 000 pregnant and lactating women "is hanging by a thread". In Bangladesh, WFP is reaching barely 1 million people out of a target 5 million because of the shortage. Sheeran plans to take her message of the urgent need for funding to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh on Sept 24 and 25 and to the UN General Assembly. "We would like to see a bold vision," she said, adding that the hunger crisis can be solved.