“Every ration cut means a child goes to bed hungry, a mother skips a meal, or a family loses the support they need to survive.”said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.
Record hunger, reduced budget
The crisis comes as global hunger reaches record levels: 319 million people face acute food insecurity, of which 44 million are at emergency level. Famine has also gripped Sudan and the Gaza Strip.
The WFP expects to receive 40 percent less funding this year, resulting in a projected budget of $6.4 billion, down from $10 billion in 2024.
“Are at risk of losing decades of progress in the fight against hunger”Ms. McCain said.
“Even hard-won gains in the Sahel region, where 500,000 people have been lifted out of aid dependency thanks to integrated food assistance and resilience programmes, could soon disappear without continued support.”
Critical operations at risk
The cuts could take 13.7 million people receiving WFP food assistance from crisis to emergency levels of hunger – an increase of a third, the agency said in a new report.
In Afghanistan, “dramatic reductions” mean that food assistance is reaching less than 10 percent of those who need it, despite rising rates of malnutrition.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing record levels of hunger and approximately a quarter of the population, 28 million people, are food insecure.
The WFP had planned to feed 2.3 million people there this month, a figure that has been reduced to 600,000, and “A complete pipeline rupture” could occur in February.
“In Haiti, hot meal programs have already ceased, and families are receiving half of WFP’s standard monthly rations,” the agency said, while “support in Somalia has been repeatedly reduced,” from 2.2 million people last year to just 350,000 in November.
All WFP food beneficiaries in South Sudan now receive a reduced ration, “which will be short of some food from October as stocks in the country run out.”
Meanwhile, WFP currently supports four million people each month in war-torn Sudan, but 25 million people, half the population, face acute food insecurity.
Food aid is loaded onto a Nile River barge for delivery to remote communities.
Delivery commitment
The WFP said its preparedness efforts have also been affected. For the first time in almost a decade there is no contingency stock for hurricane season in Haiti, nor pre-positioning of food in Afghanistan as winter approaches.
Although the cuts have varying impacts on its operations, the agency remains committed to providing food assistance in the hungriest places in the world.
“The devastating damage inflicted by cuts to food assistance not only threatens lives, but also risks undermining stability, fueling displacement and fueling broader social and economic unrest,” Ms. McCain said.
“Fast and efficient Food assistance is a vital bulwark against chaos. in nations that are already struggling to get ahead.”