Hunger on the march in Middle East

Dubai: The Middle East and North Africa region accounts for four per cent of the world's hungry, which is approximately 37 million people.

The figure for the total number of hungry people in the world is now a huge 923 million.

Among the four per cent of hungry people in this region are 1.1 million Iraqi refugees, two million in Yemen and around 665,000 people in the Palestinian Territories.

"We are still in a food crisis. We are not out of the woods yet. The prices locally of commodities in countries like Ethiopia are 280 per cent higher than a year before," Josette Sheeran, executive director for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), told Gulf News.

"We are still finding hunger is on the march and more people are hungry. This year 75 million people have been added to the ranks of the urgently hungry," Sheeran added.

This means there are now 923 million hungry people in the world.

"As far as global production is concerned, they're up this year and food production is good, but we're entering a very difficult time due to the pressures on climate, water and available land at a time when the global populations is growing and global demand for food is growing," Sheeran added.

There was a report this year that lauded Kuwait in particular for cutting the global hunger index by 70 per cent over the past two years.

Improvements

"We've seen improvements in the Gulf as there's been economic development and also a consciousness about improving food security for individuals which is different from producing enough crops," Sheeran said.

The issues of open access to food through international trade is a very important one for the region.

With some countries being import-dependent to some degree, they are totally reliant on global trading systems.

"In the last year, only seven per cent of rice was actually traded on global markets. This has become a real issue for certain countries such as Singapore which is almost completely dependent on imports," Sheeran said.

The UAE, too, is predominantly dependent on imports for food.

For the past three decades, the world has been an era of increasing food dependence, increase in prices and increasing availability. This scenario changed dramatically last year.

"We've seen a reversal of these trends to higher prices and restricted access to food," said Sheeran.

Despite, the food crisis, compounded by the financial crisis, Sheeran and her fellow delegates are optimistic about the future.

"The expectation is to double food production by 2050 and this is possible with the right incentives. We're in a period of greater uncertainty and perhaps a deterioration of food security due to decreased water, decreased land and restricted trade," Sheeran said.

The need for increased investments in agriculture and the problem of decreasing water are to be discussed in depth during the WEF this weekend.

Lennart Bage, president of the IFAD, is also to discuss the possibility of UAE nationals taking part in IFAD-supported training programmes.

The UAE is currently the sixth largest contributor to IFAD resources among members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The UNWFP case load has grown to 90 million people from 68 million and the global centre of logistics operations is here in Dubai.

"The Gulf and in particular the UAE and particularly Dubai is playing a role in meeting the emergency needs throughout the region," Sheeran said.

The UN WFP feeds three million people a day in Darfur, 2.8 million people a day in Somalia, over seven million people a day in Ethiopia and two million people in Yemen.

"The food security issue is very prominent in the region," Sheeran told Gulf News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

There are currently about 450 million smallholder farms providing livelihoods for more than two billion people in developing countries.

Bage said that by increasing their output, these farms would help satisfy market demand and avert future crises.