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	Framing the problem of hunger and conflict at the UN Security Council by Michael Fakhri Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food   Organized violence and armed conflict remain the principal causes of food insecurity. But when I was asked to brief the Security Council in April, in my capacity as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, my main goal was not to call the Security Council into action. Putting aside the legitimacy of the Security Council as currently structured, my main concern was that the food crisis was being framed in very narrow terms in New York. I instead focused on re-framing the issue so that the Security Council and the large number of General Assembly Members in attendance had a broader and systemic understanding of the food crisis.   In 2018, when the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2417 (2018), it was the first time the Security Council recognized the intrinsic link between hunger and conflict and condemned the use of starvation as a method of warfare, emphasizing that it may constitute a war crime. Through this resolution, the Council has empowered itself to act in situations where hunger and armed conflict are reinforcing each other in a deadly feedback loop.   To understand the importance of this resolution, it helps to go back to when the term “food security” was first introduced in the 1970s. It was used to highlight, at the highest political level, the importance of food’s connection to peace. Third World countries wanted to create a World Food Security Council akin to the UN Security Council. The Third World may have also used the term “security” to respond to direct threats from people like US Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz who in the mid-1970s admitted to using food and hunger for geopolitical gains when he famously stated, “Food is a weapon. It is now one of the principal tools in our negotiating kit.”   What Happened at the Security Council   Not surprisingly, there was a divide over the cause of the world food crisis. Western countries focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and some suggested that it was the principal cause of the global food crisis.   There is no doubt in my mind that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is wrong, and that Russia is responsible for the death and displacement of millions of civilians. I thus noted that Russia should end the war immediately and unconditionally.   The Russian invasion of Ukraine is one of the most recent global shocks to food systems, but it is not the cause. Rates of hunger and the risk of famine were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic and made even worse during the pandemic.   Some European delegates went so far to say (or imply) that an attack against Ukraine is an attack against the global food system. I advised against this line of thinking for two reasons. First, it suggests that if a country is not a principal exporter of a major food stuff, then the Security Council would consider it less of a priority to intervene and end an invasion or occupation. Second, if we have learned anything from the pandemic it is that all food systems are inherently interconnected; an invasion or occupation of any place is an attack on the global food system.   While the US and EU and their allies point to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the cause of the current food crisis, the Russian Federation and their allies disagree and point to how unilateral coercive measures generate hunger and famine and disrupt food systems around the world. The Russian position has significant merit. Some of the same countries chastising Russia are countries implicated in the blockade against Yemen that has led to famine and the starvation of tens of thousands of children since 2015. Today, over 2 million children in Yemen are suffering from acute malnutrition.   In sum, despite this disagreement, both perspectives regarding hunger and conflict generally have been true. But neither side goes far enough in their food systems analysis. For instance, it is true that the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted global markets, and that prices are skyrocketing. How prices responded to the war also tells us that markets are part of the problem.   Markets are amplifying shocks and not absorbing them. I noted two things Member States could focus on to better understand why markets are causing more harm. First, the fact that a significant number of countries and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) relied on just 1 or 2 countries for a major food stuff like wheat tells us that the trade system does not work the way it should. Moreover, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been at a standstill over agriculture negotiations and food security for over 25 years. There were some developments at the recent WTO Ministerial Conference since countries successfully negotiated several ministerial declarations on food security and the pandemic. However, these declarations have mostly been about process and lacked substance.   Second, food prices are soaring not because of a problem with supply and demand as such; it is because of price speculation in commodity futures markets. Global prices have been drastically fluctuating for the past two years partly because commodity markets in the United States were deregulated in 2000 (through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act).   The other issue some delegates raised is the disruption of the supply of fertilizer caused by the war in Ukraine. For example, Belarus has been keen to export its fertilizer. I agree that in the immediate term, countries and suppliers should do what they can to ensure that farmers get access to fertilizer. But reliance on chemical fertilizers is the ultimate problem. Chemical fertilizer may sometimes boost production in the short term, nevertheless in the long term it will deplete the soil and harm the environment in effect violating people’s rights to life, food, and a healthy environment. There are a host of techniques that allow farmers to grow enough food without depending on chemical inputs, much less imported chemical inputs.   What is to be Done?   The question I rhetorically asked the Security Council was: Why is it only after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that there has been this degree of political focus on the food crisis that started in 2020? My answer was that we have all failed. Every UN agency, every regional body, every government has failed.   In the past 60 years, hunger and famine has not been caused by inadequate amounts of food. Hunger and famine, like conflicts, are always the result of political failures. Governments and international institutions have failed to listen to the most vulnerable communities and respond to their demands. Governments and international institutions have failed to cooperate and coordinate. This is why we are facing the threat of more famine and more armed conflict.   The fact that only now is there some semblance of a global response to the food crisis reveals what is at stake. This is the moment in which international institutions’ legitimacy and national governments’ ability to maintain security is threatened.   The current food crisis, like the pandemic at large (as I explain in my most recent report), is driven by an international failure to cooperate and coordinate. For example, under the auspices of the Secretary General, a Food Systems Summit was held in September 2021. There we saw a global commitment to help every single country transform their food system to eliminate hunger, famine, and malnutrition, within the context of climate change and biodiversity loss. And yet, the Summit organizers consciously left out the pandemic and the food crisis, essentially wasting most people’s time.   Resolution 2417 can be a powerful tool because it recognizes that hunger is a cause and effect of armed conflict. It is powerful because it warns against using food as a weapon. It requires the Secretary General to report regularly to the Security Council, and there have been debates over how to make these reports more frequent and robust to trigger action. It might be the case, however, that when reports arrive regarding hunger and conflict it is too late to prevent the death spiral.   To address the issue of hunger and conflict, one must address the underlying causes of the food crisis. Corporate-led food systems around the world are increasing inequality and creating systems of dependency. As food prices skyrocket, many countries are faced with the impossible choice of either feeding people or servicing debt.   Using public funds to ensure that people have access to adequate food can cause a government to fall into arrears, worsening financial shocks; servicing debt instead leads to more hunger and malnutrition. The international economic and financial architecture treats food as a commodity and has not served people’s real food security needs. All while climate change continues to disrupt food systems and governments dither.   Only a global right to food plan will eliminate hunger, and therefore eliminate one of the causes of violence and armed conflict. As I detail in my July report to the General Assembly, the easiest first step is to extend pandemic-era policies that have proven to strengthen the realization of the right to food and convert them into permanent programs. Long term change will have to begin with increasing biodiversity, ensuring a just transition for workers, enacting land rights and genuine agrarian reform, and curtailing corporate power.   * July report: The right to food and the coronavirus disease pandemic:   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77177-right-food-and-covid-19-pandemic-interim-report-special http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-food/annual-thematic-reports   * Michael Fakhri is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He is also a Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law where he teaches international law, commercial law, and food and agriculture law.   http://www.justsecurity.org/83173/framing-the-problem-of-hunger-and-conflict-at-the-un-security-council/ http://theconversation.com/starving-civilians-is-an-ancient-military-tactic-but-today-its-a-war-crime-in-ukraine-yemen-tigray-and-elsewhere-184297 Visit the related web page
	There is no hierarchy of human suffering by Laila Matar Director of Advocacy, Norwegian Refugee Council.   Driving through the windswept camps in Hajjah, north-west Yemen in June, I was struck by the stark contrast between the precarious makeshift homes, and the conference hall in Geneva where two months earlier donors had pledged less than a quarter of the aid needed by these war-ravaged communities to simply survive.   Although one of the world’s most high-profile humanitarian crises, Yemen is now severely underfunded and at risk of joining the long list of countries neglected by world leaders.   Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council publishes its report on the top ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The analysis looks at the crises that rarely make international headlines, receive inadequate aid, and are ignored by politicians.   This year, analysis from prior to the escalation of the war in Ukraine found that all of the ten most neglected crises were on the African continent: Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi, and Ethiopia.   For the coming year, this list will likely see a race to the bottom as previously headline-hitting crises such as Yemen and Syria become increasingly overshadowed by the needs in Europe, driven by the war in Ukraine. But this is not inevitable.   The response to the devastating war in Ukraine, which I visited in April, has demonstrated the gap between the immense support that can be generated when the international community rallies behind a crisis, and the daily reality for millions of people suffering in silence and on the brink of being forgotten.   It was heart-warming to see that in a matter of hours, the UN’s Ukraine appeal was almost fully funded, politicians mobilised, publics around the world donated record amounts, and newspapers ran front page after front page reporting the horrors of the unfolding war. Of course, this conflict is still far from being resolved and will need sustained action for many months to come.   But seldom has the selectivity of the world’s attention been so striking. This strong reaction to a conflict happening within Europe which has uprooted 14 million people, and which has vast global consequences, is human and understandable.   But the desperation I saw on the faces of people in Bucha, Ukraine bore striking similarities to those I have seen in Yemenis, Syrian refugees in Jordan, or Afghans who have fled to Iran. These people and the millions of others chronically ignored around the world have also been forced from their home, and they all deserve our support. There is no hierarchy of human suffering.   Whether driven by geopolitical interests, fatigue due to the protracted nature of many neglected crises, or even a form of eurocentrism and racism, the glaring gap between the response to the Ukraine crisis and the meagre support offered to many of the world’s neglected crises is undeniable.   But rather than simply make comparisons between the support given to Ukraine and to other crises, pitting one against the other, we should instead focus on learning and replicating this unprecedented response to inspire robust action for all those at risk of being forgotten.   As the number of people displaced around the world reaches 100 million – a record high – now more than ever the world must rally together and dig deep to provide the funding and political will required to prevent creating another lost generation of displaced children.   Countries must avoid devastating cuts to their humanitarian budgets as we have seen in the UK, or redistributing already limited funding away from crises countries to support the local hosting of Ukrainians as we have seen in Sweden, Denmark and in Norway. Instead, it is imperative that the world richest nations – which have the ability to fully fund all UN humanitarian appeals overnight if they wish – increase their support across the board.   We urge donors to scale up their efforts in meeting their target of providing 0.7% of Gross National Income in development assistance as soon as possible, supporting those most in need in crisis-affected countries. This aid must be allocated based on need rather than based on perceived national interest or the level of media coverage.   Beyond this, political will must be put towards finding lasting real solutions to these crises to halt them in their tracks. International support for inclusive solutions at national and regional level is essential to allow conflict-affected populations to rebuild their lives.   Women I met in Yemen, like Mariam who is losing her sight from malnutrition, or Mona who cannot find enough food for her children, cannot afford to wait for the world to debate the severity of their needs. They need action from leaders today.   http://www.nrc.no/the-world-beyond-ukraine/ http://www.nrc.no/feature/the-world-turns-its-back-on-africa/ http://www.nrc.no/shorthand/fr/the-worlds-most-neglected-displacement-crises-in-2021/index.html   June 2022   With all eyes on Ukraine, is humanitarian support to the Horn of Africa crisis missing in action? (Overseas Development Institute)   It is possible that you don’t know how dire the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is right now, judging from the lack of attention it is getting both in the media and even in aid circles. But there are already reports of one person dying every 48 seconds in the Horn of Africa. When mortality rates are framed in the number of seconds between deaths, you know things are serious. And since the next rainy season isn’t due for months, it is inevitable that things will get worse, even if those rains are good. (The current forecast is that they won’t be.) Famine is already underway in some parts of Somalia.   The Horn of Africa is now facing the worst drought for 40 years, with up to 20 million people at risk of going hungry. The current crisis is drawing parallels to the famine in 2011 that killed nearly 260,000 in Somalia alone.   http://odi.org/en/events/late-again-on-the-verge-of-famine-in-the-horn-of-africa/ http://odi.org/en/insights/think-change-episode-6-how-can-we-break-the-silence-on-famine-in-the-horn-of-africa/ http://www.unicef.org/esa/reports/horn-africa-drought-crisis http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/horn-africa-drought-regional-humanitarian-overview-call-action-published-4-july-2022 http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/eastern-africa-over-50-million-face-acute-food-insecurity-2022 http://fews.net/horn-africa/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/alerts-archive/en/ Visit the related web page
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