{"id":807067,"date":"2022-09-21T19:21:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T19:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=3066d7ab1df21fdabee7f5e7c8f408fc"},"modified":"2022-09-21T19:21:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T19:21:39","slug":"1-person-dies-of-hunger-every-4-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/09\/21\/1-person-dies-of-hunger-every-4-seconds\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Person Dies of Hunger Every 4 Seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"
An open letter signed by over 200 humanitarian groups calls on world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly to urgently take action on world hunger, citing that one person dies of hunger every four seconds. We speak with Abby Maxman, president and CEO<\/span> of Oxfam America, one of the letter\u2019s signatories, who just returned from Somaliland, where a famine may be declared as early as next month. Climate change, COVID<\/span> and conflicts such as the war in Ukraine are largely to blame for rising hunger, she says, and \u201cthose who are the least responsible are suffering its worst impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/em><\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> One person is dying of hunger every four seconds. That\u2019s the warning from a coalition of humanitarian groups, who say global hunger is spiraling out of control. Oxfam, Save the Children and other groups say 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger \u2014 double the number from 2019. Humanitarian groups from 75 countries sent an open letter<\/a> to world leaders and high-level diplomats gathering this week for the United Nations General Assembly here in New York Ciy. This is the first U.N. General Assembly since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and a key meeting Tuesday focused on how the war is contributing to skyrocketing levels of hunger. This is the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.<\/p>\n SECRETARY<\/span> OF STATE<\/span> ANTONY<\/span> BLINKEN<\/span>:<\/strong> At the outset of 2022, conflicts, COVID<\/span>-19, the effects of the climate crisis had already driven more than 190 million people into acute food insecurity. According to the World Food Programme, President Putin\u2019s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine may add 70 million people on top of that \u2014 an already staggering number becoming even more staggering.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> This comes as the United Nations is warning of a looming famine in Somalia, where a searing drought fueled by the climate crisis has withered crops, killed livestock and left nearly 8 million people, or half of Somalia\u2019s population, in need of humanitarian assistance. The U.N. says millions more are at risk of hunger and famine across East Africa, including Kenya and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n For more on the world hunger emergency, we\u2019re joined in New York by Abby Maxman, president and CEO<\/span> of Oxfam America. She recently returned from a trip to Somaliland, where a famine may be declared as early as October. Oxfam is one of the signatories to an open letter<\/a> submitted by over 200 NGOs to world leaders this week, calling on them to take immediate action.<\/p>\n Welcome to Democracy Now!<\/em>, Abby Maxman. Can you start off by laying out the scope of the problem and what you\u2019re calling for?<\/p>\n ABBY<\/span> MAXMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Thanks so much, Amy. Good to be with you.<\/p>\n Having just returned from Somaliland last week, I\u2019m able to connect what we\u2019re seeing in the lived, real lives of people and how they\u2019re affected, and connect them with those global numbers you already outlined. Three hundred and forty-five million people are facing extreme hunger as a result of that confluence of climate, COVID<\/span> and conflict \u2014 and that number, in and of itself, 345 million people, more than the entire population of the United States, and this in the 21st century.<\/p>\n Now, we know that we have been calling the alarm for several years. And we\u2019ve had used our early-warning systems to trigger, to show \u2014 that have showed drought has continued to erode the lives and livelihoods of pastoralist and agropastoralist communities. Someone I saw in Somaliland, the stories were very similar. A woman named Safia, mother of eight, divorc\u00e9e, who had stayed in her community as long as she could over the past several years, and ultimately went to a displaced persons camp near Burao called Durdur after she had lost 90% of her livestock. And hyenas were literally circling her family and her community as the livestock weakened. They had no choice but to move.<\/p>\n What is so egregious about this is the cause of this is climate change. The increasing frequency and ferocity of intense climatic shocks, droughts, floods and heat waves, that we\u2019re observing from Pakistan to Puerto Rico and, of course, across East Africa, are evidenced in all of the news. But we know it\u2019s people like Safia and the 74-year-old farmer who said this is the worst drought he has ever seen in his lifetime, they are down to one meal a day. And they need and deserve our help.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> And, Abby Maxman, you mentioned conflict, as well. To what degree has the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected the food supply, especially to the Global South? And also, to what degree, from your sense, is it the corporations taking advantage of situations? We see the secretary-general mentioning oil companies or energy companies exploiting the current crises. Your sense of these two things \u2014 the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and general super profits sought by some international companies?<\/p>\n ABBY<\/span> MAXMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Yeah, Juan, thanks for pointing those two things out. Yes, the war in Ukraine has exacerbated an already dire situation. The economic consequences of COVID<\/span> and the climate crisis have been supercharged by the war in Ukraine. Prices have gone up exorbitantly. And people in Somaliland who I was talking to and seeing were spending more than 90% \u2014 90% \u2014 of their income on food just to survive, and they were using coping strategies, down to one and two meals a day. That just is one anecdote of many about the impacts, direct and indirect, of the global crisis and conflict and its impact on those in East Africa and Somaliland.<\/p>\n Your point on fossil fuel profit and others, it can\u2019t be understated. It is extraordinary that as humanity faces this existential crisis of climate, that there is still more incentive by fossil fuel companies to destroy our planet and people than to save lives and to save the planet. Now, we know that the oil and gas industry has enjoyed staggering profits as they have wrought havoc on the planet. They\u2019ve been amassing $2.8 billion a day. That\u2019s more than a trillion dollars a year over the last 50 years. And just let me contrast that against the fact that 18 days of fossil companies\u2019 profit could cover the entire U.N. humanitarian appeal for 2022, which has been woefully underfunded.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> And you also mentioned that you were in Somaliland recently. Particularly, could you talk about the situation in Africa? Obviously, there are major conflicts still raging there, especially in Ethiopia. Your sense of the impact of those regional conflicts in terms of hunger and poverty in Africa?<\/p>\n ABBY<\/span> MAXMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Yeah, Juan. Well, that confluence of those toxic three Cs \u2014 COVID<\/span>, climate, conflict \u2014 are just supercharging the situation. And those who are least responsible are suffering its worst impacts. So, we need to make sure \u2014 we know that when humanitarian access is limited, that exacerbates people\u2019s lives and livelihoods and the ability to get basics of their human rights \u2014 food, shelter, water, safety, protection. So, that is part of the cocktail, if you will, the toxic one, that people who \u2014 are experiencing, people like the countless pastoralists who are facing existential crisis to their lives, livelihoods, and that of their ancestors. They have rights and dignity that we need to protect and support in crisis. And the international community has a responsibility and a moral duty to act. And this week, in New York, around the U.N. General Assembly, we are calling on those in power, member states and policymakers, to take action now.<\/p>\n We need to do three big things. Save lives \u2014 and there\u2019s a number of ways of doing that: make sure we resource the humanitarian appeals and get the resources to people who need them, support local organizations, women-led organizations. Second, we need to build resilience. We cannot repeat this pattern of pulling resources to respond to crises that we know are coming. And we need to invest in both now. It\u2019s an investment in the future. It\u2019s an investment in protection. It\u2019s an investment in promoting lives and livelihoods and dignity. And third, we need to invest in that future, beyond the resilience. We need to double climate adaptation funds. We need to make sure that special drawing rights are modified so that countries are relieved from debt and debt burden. And we need to fund nutrition and other fundamental issues that need to be supported at this time.<\/p>\nTRANSCRIPT<\/h2>\n
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