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THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC could nearly double the number of people around the world facing acute hunger and lead to multiple famines of “biblical proportions”, the United Nations’ World Food Programme has warned.
“We are on the brink of a hunger pandemic,” David Beasley, the WFP’s executive director, told the UN Security Council in a video conference yesterday.
“We could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months,” he said. “The truth is we do not have time on our side.”
Beasley added that there is a looming “global humanitarian catastrophe” and the world has to “act wisely and act fast”.
In a call to action, he added: “I do believe that with our expertise and our partnerships, we can bring together the teams and the programmes necessary to make certain the Covid-19 pandemic does not become a human and food crisis catastrophe.”
The warning came as the WFP and other partners released a new report on food crises around the world that predicted huge growth in the number of people threatened with “acute food insecurity”.
The fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises said the number was already on the rise last year before the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
The report highlights the dire situation in countries such as Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria.
‘Worst-case scenario’
The economic impact of Covid-19 is projected by the WFP to increase the number of people facing food insecurity to 265 million this year, up from 135 million in 2019, already the highest in the four years the report has been prepared.
“With Covid-19, I want to stress that we are not only facing a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe,” Beasley said.
“Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations, including many women and children, face being pushed to the brink of starvation, with the spectre of famine a very real and dangerous possibility,” he said.
“In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation.”
Comparing the 50 countries in the reports this and last year, the number of people in food crisis rose by nearly 10% to 123 million people.
The increase was due to conflicts, economic shocks and weather-related events such as drought.
The report found another 183 million people were at risk of slipping into food crisis “if confronted by an additional shock or stressor”.
Covid-19 could easily turn out to be such a shock, both as ill people overwhelm hospitals and governments impose lockdowns that have disrupted the economy and thrown people out of work.
“Covid-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread,” the WFP’s Senior Economist Arif Husain said in a statement.
“We must collectively act now to mitigate the impact of this global catastrophe,” he added.
G20 pledge
G20 agriculture ministers have pledged to ensure “sufficient” global food supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will work together to help ensure that sufficient, safe, affordable, and nutritious food continues to be available and accessible to all people, including the poorest, the most vulnerable, and displaced people,” the ministers from the 20 most advanced economies said in a joint statement.
“Under the current challenging circumstances, we stress the importance of avoiding food losses and waste caused by disruptions throughout food supply chains, which could exacerbate food insecurity and nutrition risks and economic loss,” they said after a virtual meeting hosted by the group’s current president Saudi Arabia.
As Covid-19 lockdowns disrupt the global economy, the G20 ministers also said they were working to prevent “excessive food price volatility” in international markets.
The ministers stressed it was important that coronavirus restrictions do not create “unnecessary barriers” to trade and food supply chains.
- © AFP 2020 with reporting by Órla Ryan
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So when you say “The State”, you mean the tax payers of Ireland.
@MK76: What else would it mean? Tax is meant to go towards services for the whole country not just large urban areas.
Another pay day coming for friend of fianna Fail and fine Gael, Denis o brien! Can we get michael lowry to award him this contract aswell, just for the lols!
@John Dman: Where in this whole process is there, or was there, a connection to Denis O’Brien ?
Has anyone mentioned the fact that Eir cherry picked 300k of the most profitable rural homes off that original list in a secret deal with the government without consulting other stakeholders in the tendering process?!?! I was livid at the time because it was obvious to me that siro and eir would pull out and 6 months and later they did! Why would eir stay in when they have already taken the best of it!!! It doesn’t affect me in the slightest but the principle of the deal was disgusting. Now we have this big furore where taxpayers are to be penalised.
’Eir undoubtedly cherry picked those homes ( and I’ll be honest I feel blessed to be among them) but the government didn’t have much of a choice. Eir are connecting these homes without a state subsidy and under state aid rules, these homes had to be removed from the plan including state aid, the NBP in this case. This is because state aid cannot be provided when there is a commercial alternative, Eir in this case. When eir proposed this, I’m not sure there was much the government could do. Strict timelines were laid down for roll out but I think eir are, by and large sticking to these.
However there’s no doubt that what Eir did was cherry picking and used their muscle as the already dominant operator to push up the average cost of connecting the remaining 500k homes, on a per house basis, pretty substantially. The remaining 500k homes will now effectively have to be subsidised to the hilt to get their 30mb broadband I think.
@Eric Curry: eir own the network they did not cherry pick.
@Keith McSweeney: in that case why didn’t they connect everyone. They just picked the handy ones and then fecked off.
@Eric Curry: Eric if you want to make a difference support this Petition on the EU Petitions Court, which has also been forwarded to Comm. Industry, research and Energy and Comm. on Economic and Monetary Affairs….
Petition No 1102/2017 by P. M. (Irish) on the alleged monopolistic position of a telecommunication company in Ireland
The petitioner believes that the present Irish government concluded an agreement with one big fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications provider in Ireland, for the supply of the internet fibre in selected areas in Ireland. In his view, it will establish a monopoly because other companies withdrew from the tender not being able to compete with this big …
Is broadband not a luxury for those living in isolated rural communities? The main towns and cities should be connected but outside of that I’m not convinced.
@Sean: It’s not a luxury. I live in rural Ireland and my livelihood depends on broadband.
Fast broadband is a necessity in today’s world.
@Sean: are you serious? Job applicants are now almost 90% online, revenue books need to be done online, communication for businesses online… why discriminate against people because they don’t live in cities?
@Sean: Sean isn’t convinced everyone. That’s the end of those story.
@Sean: You may not be convinced, however the governments stated commitment to the NBP is for every house in the country to get connected. If this is not the case then it will no longer be a National Broadband Plan.
@Chris Kirk: okay I won’t be too upset if the name changes. I totally get that some people in the countryside want d’internet but why do my taxes have to pay for it was essentially my question. Private operators kitted out Dublin because there was a commercial incentive but if you build your trophy mansion half way up a hill in Ballygobackwards broadband is your problem and not mine. Read up on the unsustainable costs of isolated one-off houses. These costs should not be pushed back on city dwellers who already pay significantly more property tax because their comparatively tiny houses are assessed on location and not square footage.
Sometimes I think elected politicians are no longer in the real world. When telecoms and rural electrification were rolled out in the 1950′s/60′s they strung cables from poles. They are still there in many towns and villages with no government plan to get them put underground. Now they talk about providing hi-speed broadband to every home and business through fibre optic cables, no doubt fixed to the same poles in our town and villages.
@Chris Kirk: They’re getting the ball rolling on undeliverable campaign promises Chris.
@Blants: Politics as usual pokes its nose into decisions which at best are commercial since the privatisation of telecoms in this country. Where I live there is a large company that has been here 120 years being lured to set up headquarters somewhere else by political gerrymandering. There will never be a rollout of National Broadband while this is allowed to continue.
@Guy Incognito: When it happens I will believe it, even though it is coming from a politicians mouth. If Eir can’t do it then perhaps nobody can, because it is not a realistic proposal to supply hi-speed broadband to every home.
@Blants: What local TD’s…. we are a divided county with half in Cavan/Monaghan and half in the Sligo/ Leitrim constituency. The Cavan based TD’s don’t even live in our constituency, it is a complete stitch up..
It’s not a tender with one company in the tendor. We need to get the government to go to Europe for dispensation and fund our own government controlled infrastructure. That’s the long and short of it we are a small island and we are supposedly focused on IT and being dynamic we need a network to back that up now more than ever. Just get it done and stop talking about it. With such an important piece of infrastructure we can’t put it in the hands of the markets any longer . Ridiculous outcomes like this will be the norm. We can lease the lines back to the market and it will pay for itself over the next two decades.
Yes timmy. The gov should step in now and solve the problem. So who was responsible for it all along, and who’s already made a dogs dinner of it? The gov!
This entire thing is dead now, we have only been waiting for 8 years now for usable internet access so rushing now to give contract to only bidder is desperation. Yes, the cost of running fiber optics to all houses outside Dublin and other areas of high density customers is not logical. 5g is just around the corner so building a comprehensive network of 4/5 g transmitters by all companies interested in maintaining their communications licence (three, eir and vodafone) on a rural first basis with subsidies for low density areas and fees for urban areas. Force the to work back towards Dublin , not out from it.
@Cathal Flood: Cathal you don’t have a clue of the nature and cost of 5g technology if you think it’s some form of pancia .it’s not it suffers from degredation due to topology and geography it requires constant upgrading and monitoring it suffers heavily from contention and ultimately fibre is the best technology and very future proof cable is incredibly cheap putting the cable out has the cost but over the lifetime it’s a better cost in comparison to 5G it’s simply not a reasonable alternative outside of mobile applications.
@JustOneScoop: great big words but seriously dumb. 2g was complex, 3g took years to properly develope (3.5g) and 4 g is a huge jump and would be perfect if it cast it’s shadow over 100 % customers with full reception. All 5g problems will be ironed out and streamlined as per normal, will start in Dublin or Cork or Galway, move out to bigger towns, pull up 10% short of “countrywide” rollout counting “economics” as the problem, and then they sit back and take the huge profits from urban customers and no re-investment in rural.
@Cathal Flood: big words ? You just wrote a paragraph of nonsense, do you even understand the term contention? What about topology? Perhaps line of sight of we really get down to something you might pick up. 5g has its place , great technology. Not adequate for a national home network . Sorry horse but backing the wrong pony
The point that’s missing here is that people don’t realise how hard it is to get an appointment for an abortion with a virtual GP in parts of rural Ireland with poor broadband infrastructure.
Its been a shambles from day one ,another fine mess ,rural ireland needs all the help it can get and consecutive governments have failed,at a time where going green is all the rage ,we continue to pump co 2 needlessly into the enviroment ,you pay peanuts you get monkeys we pay these guys some of the highest salarys in europe and we still get monkeys . kintergarden politics .
@Anthony Gallagher: Its no difference to the way this government handled LPT, social housing and public transport. They poke their noses in to spite their face and haven’t a clue.
The national broadband plan was an election promise on the program for government and confidence and supply with FF. I think accountability is important here on why just one contractor is left in the bidding who will have to deal with Eir’s Infrastructure in the roll out of high speed broadband
There has to be a realization that if you choose to live out in the sticks then you’re not going to have access to the level of services available in higher density areas – its just a product of demand.
One wonders why there is not more of a push to tender out the contract to another EU firm. Seems ENet and Eir are the only candidates, so I would be surprised that no other EU broadband company can’t find a way to profit from this.
By the time these tulips get it sorted the internet itself will be an obsolete technology….
Quite frankly, State intervention will guarantee absolute and costly failure of getting Broadband out there. And the tax payer will foot the bill. A better solution would be to stimulate the economy for homegrown business to and potential startups to address this. Instead we’ll see exorbitant priced contracts for bigger corporations to take on and fail to achieve. And a hefty bill for the taxpayer and still no infrastructure. We need to stop asking the state to solve our problems like children, and demand the state get things out of our way as people.
@Mark Browne: ‘A better solution would be to stimulate the economy for homegrown business to and potential startups to address this.’
That’s fine in theory, but people need fast broadband now. Fast broadband will stimulate the economy more than anything else.
@Mark Browne: how do these businesses operate mark? By an post perhaps pigeon mail ?
What’s the difference between what dippidy dooley is proposing and the arrangement that was in place already. Absolutely nothing! In both cases, it’s the gov getting someone to install broadband.
I live in a city. I am awaiting the ‘State’ subventing my access to 24/7 fresh air, wonderful views, empty roads, low house prices, green diesel, … No I made my choice, why should the taxpayer fund my lifestyle?
Ridiculous….if they were serious about a National Broadband scheme then the state should would set up a Company & roll out a network using cheap fixed wireless services which will deliver up to 12mb to an end customer; then invest in copper / fibre when the populous of an area grows to a point where that kind of infrastructure becomes profitable.The main problem here is that whoever is running the show is unaware of alternative technologies which could make this happen relatively cheaply.
@Frank Lee: It’s not quite that simple. Eir undoubtedly cherry picked those homes ( and I’ll be honest I feel blessed to be among them) but the government didn’t have much of a choice. Eir are connecting these homes without a state subsidy and under state aid rules, these homes had to be removed from the plan including state aid, the NBP in this case. This is because state aid cannot be provided when there is a commercial alternative, Eir in this case. When eir proposed this, I’m not sure there was much the government could do. Strict timelines were laid down for roll out but I think eir are, by and large sticking to these.
However there’s no doubt that what Eir did was cherry picking and used their muscle as the already dominant operator to push up the average cost of connecting the remaining 500k homes, on a per house basis, pretty substantially. The remaining 500k homes will now effectively have to be subsidised to the hilt to get their 30mb broadband I think.
@Frank Lee: You’re talking about about alternative technologies, but in the same breath suggest “up to 12mb” wireless and further investment in copper ? They would have been groundbreaking suggestions……back in 1998. It’s all about bandwidth in the next decade and beyond. Smart home technologies, working from home, streaming HD media, security monitoring, network connected smart cars and other services not even invented yet.. With 12mb wireless, there’d be uproar in the home when the entire WiFi network ground to a halt because little Mary was upstairs watching Peppa Pig in HD. I’m on an “up to 24mb” connection right now, with an average max of 10mb. The goal should be a 50mb minimum easily upgradable fibre to the premises network.
The slowest car crash ever.
Dude is 100% correct there’s not a chance this will work out, and we won’t probably won’t figure it out for about 18-20 months
I cannot see any other viable alternatives. There is article after article detailing how the centralisation of services in Dublin and other major cities is causing rents to rise etc. decent rural broadband is the first step in encouraging major businesses to leave the big cities and with them lots of workers. This needs to happen.
Also, planning laws need to be seriously revamped. Right now serial professional protesters can hold up or delay vital infrastructural projects, it’s madness.
There is rural broadband where I live and it’s total rubbish…so don’t get over excited
What a mess Dennis!!!!! Sure there’s only one left now
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