Ontario responds to UN officials’ call for urgent action to prevent famine

A media release said the UN had given its Food and Agriculture Organization a $22 million loan to help tackle the crisis but this amount falls short of the $4.4 billion they need by July to prevent Yemenis, Somalis, Nigerians and South Sudanese from dying.

Wynne stated, “On behalf of the people of Ontario, we have heard and heeded the United Nations’ call for immediate support for the urgent food crises in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria.”

Famine was declared in South Sudan officially on February 20, 2017 and UN agencies had warned that both war and a declining economy led 100,000 people facing starvation.

According to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update released last month by the government, humanitarian organisations and the WFP, The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN children’s fund, Unicef, said about 4.9 million people, which comes to more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population, are in need of urgent food and agriculture assistance.

The IPC update, based on information collected over recent months, predicted that in the absence of aid, number of food insecure people would escalate to 5.5 million in July.

The people mainly farmers and war had disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools and inflation also rose up to 800 percent year-on-year

The WFP said it planned to provide food and nutrition assistance to 4.1 million people during this year.

Unicef said it planned to treat 207,000 children for severe malnutrition in South Sudan this year out of more than 1 million children estimated to be acutely malnourished.

In the wake of this tragic situation, Ontario is giving $1 million to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF Canada) to provide food, support and medical treatment to most vulnerable population on South Sudan.

Wynne stated, “Our province has a long history of coming to the aid of people around the world in times of tragedy and adversity, and the severity of each of these situations calls for us to do so again”.

The UN had warned that in Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria millions more people were on the verge of starvation and require humanitarian support this year.

Over the past 20 years, the generosity of donors had risen sixfold and donor funding reached a record high last year, but only half of the requirements were met, according to the UN’s humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien.

The UN had launched a $2.1bn (£1.6bn) appeal for Yemen this year, its largest ever for the country. It is requesting a record $22.2bn overall in 2017, an increase on the $22.1bn asked for in 2016.

Due to this humanitarian appeal Yemen was able to raise £17m since its launch in December, the largest launched for Yemen would provide for life-saving assistance to 12 million people this year.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said at least 10,000 people had lost their lives in the conflict which was the main cause of a hunger crisis and it could turn to famine this year if nothing was done.

In Somalia hundreds of people had died due to cholera outbreaks and the future famine threatens 6.2 million, more than half the population.

Besides donating funds, the tech developers and social activists joined forces to use Ushahidi the Kenyan open source software and were able to develop a crowdsourcing platform Abaaraha (“drought” in Somali), which collected and verified data through text, phone calls, email, and social media alerts.

With this platform and a GoFundMe campaign they were able to raise more than $45,000.

Celebrities all over the world, like Ben Stiller and NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick with help from Turkish Airlines, had joined the campaign to help Somalis facing starvation. The campaign, known as the Love Army for Somalia, had collected $2 million in less than a week.

Humanitarian groups had been warning they needed to avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine in Somalia, where hundreds of thousands of people starved to death after a slow response from donors.

Sara Pantuliano, managing director at the Overseas Development Institute, said the aid system needs a complete overhaul to respond to the needs of a changing world on time.

In northern Nigeria, more than 5 million people faced acute food shortages and Nigerians had launched Adopt-A-Camp in 2015 and raised $28,000 last year.

But in Nigeria, transparency presented a bigger challenge as there were reports of IDP camp officials stealing and selling donated items which resulted government’s intervention.

Ontario is also granting $1.5 million to the Canadian Red Cross to address food insecurity in these three countries.

Wynne stated, “Ontario is home to people from around the world, including the areas affected by these crises. Our support will help these organizations deliver critical services and help people in life-threatening need.

In many ways, a tragedy like this is unthinkable, but I know the people of Ontario will pause today to consider how they can help in the relief effort. This also provides a poignant reminder of the prosperity we enjoy in Ontario and it encourages us to continue to build a society that is guided by compassion.”

Gareth Owen, humanitarian director of Save the Children, said that this year they had to tackle four famines with the resources.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)