The head of the World Food Programme says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars \u201cwe are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was looking at the work the agency does every day in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often putting staffers\u2019 lives at risk to feed millions of hungry people but also to send \u201ca message to the world that it\u2019s getting worse out there \u2026 that our hardest work is yet to come.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was so timely because we\u2019ve been fighting to get above the choir,\u201d Beasley said of last month\u2019s award, pointing to the news being dominated by the U.S. elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the difficulty of getting global attention focused on \u201cthe travesty that we\u2019re facing around the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo this was really a gift from above,\u201d Beasley said, recalling the surprise and delight of WFP\u2019s 20,000 staffers worldwide, and his own shock at being interrupted during a meeting in Niger in Africa\u2019s Sahel region with the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beasley recalled his warning to the UN Security Council in April that as the world was dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it was also \u201con the brink of a hunger pandemic\u201d that could lead to \u201cmultiple famines of biblical proportions\u201d within a few months if immediate action wasn\u2019t taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he said the money that was available in 2020 isn\u2019t going to be available in 2021, so he has been using the Nobel to meet leaders virtually and in person, talk to parliaments, and give speeches to sensitise those with power to \u201cthis tragedy that we are facing crises that really are going to be extraordinary over the next, who knows, 12 to 18 months.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverybody now wants to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner,\u201d he said, explaining he now gets 45 minutes instead of 15 minutes with leaders and is able to go into depth and explain how bad things are going to be next year and how leaders are going to have to prioritize programs, Beasley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose are important things,\u201d Beasley said, but he likened the upcoming crisis to the Titanic saying \u201cright now, we really need to focus on icebergs, and icebergs are famine, starvation, destabilization and migration.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beasley said WFP needs USD 15 billion next year USD 5 billion just to avert famine and USD 10 billion to carry out the agency\u2019s global programmes including for malnourished children and school lunches which are often the only meal youngsters get.\u201cIf I could get that coupled with our normal money, then we avert famine around the world\u201d and minimize destabilization as well as migration. he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to raising extra money from governments, Beasley said, his other \u201cgreat hope\u201d is that billionaires that have made billions during the COVID-19 pandemic will step up on a one-time basis. He plans to start pushing this message probably in December or January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of the World Food Programme says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the UN agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars \u201cwe are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.\u201d David Beasley said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84027,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84025\/revisions\/84027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}