The UN World Food Programme (WFP) needs to raise $6.8 billion over the next six months. In turn, to avert famine in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. The agency released this statement on Tuesday, October 14th.

UN World Food Programme is the Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week for its efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, the WFP said it has raised $1.6 billion so far.

“We’ve got a lot more money to raise to make certain we avert famine,” David Beasley, executive director of the WFP, said at a conference organized by the U.N’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“The hunger death rate could be 3, 4, 5 times that,” If we don’t sort out COVID,” said Beasley.

The Rome-based UN World Food Programme (WFP) helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year. In turn, that one in nine people worldwide that don’t have enough to eat.

The Scourges of Conflict and Climate Change

World hunger worldwide is on the rise again since 2016. Therefore, it is driven by the twin scourges of conflict and climate change. In turn, this was after declining for several decades.

Beasley said if you think about the wealth on Earth today, we shouldn’t see one single child (go) hungry or die. Beasley is underscoring the beyond serious and catastrophic situation of this humanitarian crisis.

WFP Send out Medical Cargoes to over 120 Countries During the Pandemic

The WFP has dispatched medical cargoes to over 120 countries during the pandemic. As a result, it has provided passenger services to ferry humanitarian workers where commercial flights were unavailable.

UN food agency is the world’s largest humanitarian organization. It is funded entirely by donations. In turn, the organization provides school meals to 17.3 million children globally. Therefore, it delivered 4.2 million tons of food to regions or countries in need in 2019.