Day: June 23, 2022

As humanitarian workers, we have long been aware that the global climate crisis poses an existential threat to humanity.

We have long known that the most vulnerable people are feeling this crisis first and worst. They feel it with every drought. Every flood. Every superstorm.

And we have long been concerned about how this crisis disproportionately affects the countries that are the least responsible for it. As a matter of fact, 12 of the 15 countries most at risk and least ready to adapt to climate change are in Africa. Last year, we supported efforts to provide life-saving needs in nine of them. Places where humanitarian relief makes the difference between life and death.

Excellencies, colleagues,

What we are seeing on the ground – from Somalia to the Maldives, and from Afghanistan to Mozambique – is in line with the recent warning from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, as we have heard from my colleague, that there would be limits to how we adapt to a changing climate.

The IPCC talks about two types of adaptation limits.

There are “soft” adaptation limits, where people can cope but are unable to because they lack the resources to do so. This is where we have often stepped in with adaptation support, such as early warning systems that protect lives. Anticipatory action can cushion the blow.

Then there are “hard” adaptation limits when the damage caused by climate change is permanent. Distinguished speakers from small island countries can talk about this more authoritatively. Their people are already losing the land they live on to rising sea levels.

In both cases, what these vulnerable countries need is more resources, because what already exists is not enough. Yes, current climate-finance mechanisms fund mitigation, adaptation and possibly some elements of averting loss and damage.

And yes, the OCHA-run Central Emergency Response Fund and the Country-Based Pooled Funds can complement the climate funds with speed and agility, especially in fragile places. The pooled funds have backed our scalable pilot activities on anticipatory action. Through them we have eased the predictable suffering of more than 2.5 million people before the onset of floods and drought.

However, all of this is not enough. Ultimately no single form of loss-and-damage financing will fit everyone’s needs. We need many different players to come together, and we need MORE funding.

The way forward is clear:

We need to invest in anticipatory action and early warning systems.

We need to invest in flexible funding to support early action.

More importantly, we need to invest in people and communities – help them to adapt.

We are up against a crisis of unfathomable proportions. No one and I underline no one can walk this path alone. And no one should be left behind.

We have to walk this path together.

Thank you.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Nearly 8 million children under the age of 5 in 15 countries affected by the hunger crisis are at risk of dying from severe wasting unless they receive immediate food and therapeutic care, and the number growing by the minute, UNICEF warned today as preparations for world leaders gather at the G7 summit.

Since the beginning of the year, the growing global food crisis has caused an additional 260,000 children – or one child every 60 seconds – to suffer from severe wasting in the 15 countries most affected by the crisis, including the Horn of Africa and the Central Sahel. This rise in severe wasting is on top of existing levels of child malnutrition that UNICEF warned last month constitute a “potential tinderbox” .

“Now we are seeing the tinderbox that has created the conditions for extreme levels of childhood wasting to rise, beginning to catch fire,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Food aid is essential, but we cannot save hungry children with sacks of wheat. We need to reach these children right now with therapeutic treatment, before it’s too late.”

Rising food prices caused by the war in Ukraine, persistent drought due to climate change in some countries – sometimes combined with conflict – and the ongoing economic fallout from COVID-19 continue to exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity of children worldwide, leading to catastrophic levels of severe malnutrition among those under 5 years of age. In response, UNICEF is expanding its efforts in the 15 most affected countries. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen will be included in an acceleration plan to try to avoid an explosion of deaths children and mitigate long-term harm from severe wasting.

Severe wasting – when children are too thin for their height – is the most visible and deadly form of malnutrition. The weakening of the immune system increases the risk of death among children under 5 years of age up to 11 times more than among well-nourished children.

UNICEF estimates that at least 40 million children suffer from severe nutritional insecurity in the 15 countries mentioned, which means that they do not receive the minimum and diverse food they need to grow and develop in early childhood. In addition, 21 million children are severely food insecure, meaning they do not have access to enough food to meet minimum dietary needs, putting them at high risk of severe wasting.

Meanwhile, the price of ready-to-use therapeutic foods, used to treat severe wasting, has soared by 16% in recent weeks due to a sharp rise in the cost of raw materials, leaving others 600,000 children at risk of dying without access to life-saving treatment.

Shortly before several world leaders meet at the G7 summit, UNICEF is calling for $1.2 billion to:

Provide an essential package of nutrition and care services in order to prevent what could be millions of child deaths in the 15 countries with the highest burden of disease. This package includes prevention programs to protect maternal and child nutrition among pregnant women and young children, early detection and treatment programs for severely wasted children, and a plan for the procurement and distribution of ready-to-use therapeutic foods.

Prioritize the prevention and treatment of severe wasting in all response plans to the global food crisis, ensuring that budget allocations include preventive nutrition interventions as well as therapeutic foods to address the immediate needs of children who are severely wasted .

“It’s hard to describe what it means for a child to be ‘severely wasted’, but when you meet a child suffering from this deadliest form of malnutrition, you understand it, and you never forget it,” Russell said. “World leaders gathered in Germany for the G7 ministerial meeting have a limited opportunity to act to save the lives of these children. There is no time to lose. Waiting for famine to break out is waiting for children to die.”

Source: UN Children’s Fund