United Nations launches Food Coalition to prevent COVID-19 Food crisis

The United Nations has created a new alliance to prevent COVID-19 food crisis. It was proposed by Italy and led by Food and Agriculture Organization.

Key Highlights

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition Report, 2020 more than 690 million people went hungry in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic is to add 130 million more into chronic hunger by the end of 2020. In order to reduce the catastrophe, the Food and Agriculture Organization has launched Food Coalition.

Finances

The coalition was inaugurated by the Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte and Netherlands Deputy Prime Minister. Both Italy and Netherlands have agreed to deliver the financial resources and technical support to the coalition. Italy has initially contributed 1.2 million USD.

About the Global Alliance

The new United Nations alliance will work as a network to support measures to increase resilience of agricultural food system and ensure food access. According to the FAO Food Price Index, the food prices are rising for the fifth successive month. Therefore, it is essential to address global hunger issues. Apart from hunger, malnutrition and undernourishment problems should also be solved. According to FAO, around 132 million people will become undernourished due to COVID-19 and  the price rise created by the pandemic.

Key Features of the Food Coalition

• The coalition will mobilise resources, innovation and expertise.
• It will advocate for coordinated COVID-19 response
• It will promote and exchange knowledge and expertise among countries
• It will work to frame solution-oriented plans and programmes
• It will expand international partnership and cooperation for a longer term impact.

Hunger in India

India ranked 94 out of 107 countries in Global Hunger Index. With a score of 27.2 India has a high level of hunger issue. The index released by United Nations also said that the world is not in track to achieve the second SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) called Zero Hunger.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2020