Hungr In The News

Famine Concerns As Dry Season Starts In January —The Star

There are concerns over hunger as Kenya enters what is traditionally the driest season on the calendar. “High levels of food security remain for poor and very poor households with non-self supporting livelihoods,” says the October 2011 to March 2012 report by Famine Early Warning Systems Network, WFP, and the Ministry of Agriculture.

FreeRice.com Reaches 1 Million Users —Huffington Post 

FreeRice.com, once a small seedling, has sprouted into something huge. The online game that allows players to donate grains of rice for correctly answered trivia questions announced it had reached 1 million registered users since its founding in 2007. 

Hunger Can’t Wait —Huffington Post

This year, the traditional year-end exercise of reflecting on the successes and failures of the past 12 months, and looking ahead to the coming ones, holds special significance for Jose Graziano da Silva. Last June marked a turning point, with his election as director-general of FAO.

Sudan of 3,000 Deaths in Ethnic Violence —The New York Times

More than 3,000 villagers were massacred in the recent burst of communal violence in South Sudan, with the fledging South Sudanese government, which just won its independence six months ago, seemingly unable to stem the bloodshed. 

Zimbabwe Faces Growing Risk Of Waterborne Diseases In Rural Areas —The Guardian

The coming of the rainy season and a lack of pit toilets in rural areas exposes many people to waterborne diseases. Since the rains began several weeks ago, dirty water has been accumulating on the settlement, now home to hundreds of former farmworkers and others displaced during Operation Murambatsvina in 2005.

Should We Worry About Redefining Aid? —The Guardian 

The definition of what counts as “aid” drawn up by the donors, has always included debt cancellation, regardless of whether or not it will make any more money available to the recipient country. Should we go back to the drawing board and write a better definition of what should and shouldn’t be called aid?

Hungr in the News

WFP Scheme To Buy Local Helps Farmers In Zimbabwe —The Guardian

WFP initiative that is prompting Mamombe’s return to maize farming involves technical support to smallholder farmers and the identification of local traders who can guarantee them prompt cash payments and low transport costs as a result of a more efficient marketing policy. WFP then buys the grain from the traders to distribute in its food assistance programmes. It is part of a global pilot project called the Purchase for Progress Initiative, which aims to use the WFP’s purchasing power and demand for staple food commodities to help smallholder farmers and small traders. 

WFP to Ramp Up Food Aid In South Sudan Next Year —Voice of America

WFP reports it is scaling up its humanitarian operation in South Sudan next year to support 2.7 million people affected by hunger and conflict. WFP says crop failure brought about by little and erratic rainfall this year is worsening food insecurity in this newly independent country.  

Global Family Day: Focusing on World Hunger —The Huffington Post Blog

World hunger is the focus on Global Family Day. Solutions come from Howard Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s new steward of corporate culture. Unlike his market savvy father, Howard left college to pursue his dream to farm, and currently grows corn and soybeans in Illinois and Nebraska. But he also runs an eponymous foundation he established in 1999, which promotes sustainable farming, agricultural education and feeding programs globally; travels the world documenting food and conservation challenges; and is a UN Goodwill Ambassador Against Hunger on behalf of WFP. 

Hungr in the News

N. Korea’s Children in Need of Food Aid, Agencies Warn –-The International Herald Tribune

N. Korea’s harvests this fall were expected to increase by 8.5% compared to a year ago, but the most vulnerable segments of the population, especially young children, urgently need international aid. “Although improved with the new harvest, the situation remains precarious, especially on a nutritional level,” Arif Husain of WFP’s food security analysis unit said. 

Drastic Child Poverty Might Destroy Lesotho’s Future —IPS

Flagging economic fortunes and a persistent AIDS pandemic have devastated Lesotho, leaving little hope it will ever be able to pull itself out of its bleak poverty trap. Alternate floods and droughts have reduced farmers’ yields to a bare minimum, leaving more than a quarter of the population food insecure.

Hungr in the News

At Least 1 Million Zimbabweans Facing Hunger —AP

The U.N. World Food Program said Monday that families are already skipping meals during the “lean season” expected to end with the March harvest. It says the worst affected areas are in the driest parts of Zimbabwe and are expected to again face poor harvests.

Médecins sans Frontières Book Reveals Aid Agencies’ Ugly Compromises —The Guardian 

A controversial new book produced by one of the world’s best-known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, lifts the lid on the often deeply uncomfortable compromises aid organisations are forced to make while working in conflicts.

Seeds of Progress in Mali —The Guardian

Before the construction of their communal warehouse, the seed producers of Falema village would travel miles to sell their goods. It is a scenario that has kept many smallholder farmers in Mali locked in poverty.

The Key Ingredients to Tackle Food Crisis —The Guardian

Increasing agricultural productivity in Africa and removing trade restrictions are our best hope for feeding the planet. A G20 agriculture ministers meeting in Paris in June agreed to resist the use of any restrictions adversely affecting efforts of the World Food Programme (WFP) to feed the hungry. 

The Emergency the World Forgot —Newsweek

After this year’s floods—despite some level of response from local NGOs, young Pakistani activists, relief workers, and the U.N.—aid inflows remain dangerously inadequate and relief workers warn of an impending catastrophe due to unmet pledges and a potential looming breach in the relief-and-food supply line to victims in the difficult months ahead.