ECONOMICS AND TRADE | Achieving growth through open markets
30 September 2008
Widespread Hunger Poses National Security Threat
U.N. director appeals for ship escorts to protect food aid from pirates
Washington — The director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) warns that the burgeoning global food crisis is “a silent tsunami striking the most vulnerable” wherever they are located.
Josette Sheeran, the 11th director of WFP, told the Women’s Foreign Policy Group in Washington on September 29 that hunger “can have a profound impact on national security.”
The problem of staving off hunger is a critical one for fragile and economically unstable nations, she said. In the past year and a half, 34 nations have experienced food riots and protests. Political strife tied to climbing food prices has occurred in Liberia, Cameroon, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia and elsewhere.
“So often these nations are neighbors, friends and allies of the United States whose prosperity, stability and success are so critical to America’s own national security,” Sheeran said.
“Without food, societies become breeding grounds for instability, civil unrest, terrorism and demagogues,” the WFP director said. Her organization is striving to help as many hungry individuals as possible. It expects to aid 90 million people this year, including an estimated 20 million schoolchildren, many of whose daily diets will be supplemented with a hearty cup of enriched porridge, she said.
However, that cup is at risk of being reduced by as much as 40 percent in places such as Rwanda as the result of soaring commodity prices. Sometimes, Sheeran said, the WFP faces the grim choice of cutting the number of calories packed into the offering or reducing the number of people who are on the distribution list.
The price of rice has soared recently, she said, rising from $780 a metric ton in March to more than $1,000 a metric ton in Haiti at the end of September. This statistic is especially devastating for Haiti, which lost 50 percent of its planned harvest in the wake of a pounding succession of four hurricanes.
Haiti is suffering from what Sheeran described as “a perfect storm within a perfect storm — in fact, four storms.” Sheeran just returned from Gonaïves, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Ike. It is entombed in a landslide of mud, she reported, with many Haitians still hungry, thirsty and trapped on their roofs or marooned in makeshift shelters.
Aid from the United States, Canada and the United Nations has begun to flow into the flood zone, but Sheeran said the situation in Gonaïves is still “desperate.” She thanked the United States for its $7 million donation in September and acknowledged Yum Brands Chief Executive Officer David Novak’s pledge of 4 million school meals for Haitians. Canada and Switzerland have pitched in several million dollars in food aid and logistical support, Sheeran added.
But hunger should not be viewed simply as a humanitarian challenge, Sheeran said, because it is also “a vital national security issue for the United States and, indeed, for the world.” Combatants, she said, frequently use hunger as a weapon and hijack food aid.
Sheeran appealed to the world’s navies to provide consistent escort for ships stocked with WFP food aid so the cargo and crew will not fall prey to pirate attacks. “There are pirates off the coast of Somalia threatening our supply line,” she said.
It is far too dangerous to send in ships without escort now, Sheeran said. Sporadic escorts have been provided, she said, and Canada, most recently, is escorting ships. But the WFP director said it is unclear who will provide escort service when Canada’s turn is over in three weeks.
Sheeran reminded her audience that the pursuit of food security “has been at the core of the rise and fall of civilizations.” It has toppled governments, allowed dictators to prevail, and spawned mass migration. “When food security is in question, we must pull together and act,” she said, because “there is no other option.” Hunger is not only about providing compassion, she added, but it also “is about global stability and security.”
Sheeran said food aid is now at its lowest level in three decades, even as “the national security threat of widespread hunger is far greater and more immediate” than it has been in the past.
MONEY, LOGISTICS, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDED
Even though the United States has pledged $5 billion in aid in 2008-2009 and Saudi Arabia is donating $500 million to the WFP, the director said more money is needed.
And more food. Sheeran quoted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization as saying the world will need to produce twice as much food by 2050, given growing demands and rising populations.
She identified any number of actions that could be taken to help alleviate the shortfall, including greater agricultural research and more partnering between governments and the private sector.
More nutrition-packed food also must be designed, Sheeran said. India developed a sweet paste made from chickpeas that requires neither water nor refrigeration. Egypt created a successful power bar made from dates. “This is the wave of the future,” the director said.
The world financial crisis cannot be used as an excuse “not to come to the assistance of fragile democracies facing hunger and even starvation,” Sheeran said.
For more information about Haiti, see “United States Boosts Aid for Haitian Storm Relief to $29 Million.”
For more on the WFP, see “U.N. Food Agency Urges Countries to Lift Food Export Bans.”
