"Global hunger levels are at a new high" - UN Chief at the Global Food Security Call to Action HD

Opening remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the Global Food Security Call to Action - Ministerial Meeting. "Two weeks ago, I visited the Sahel region of Africa, where I met families who do not know where their next meal is coming from. Severe acute malnutrition – a wasting disease that can kill if left untreated – is rising. Farm animals are already dying of hunger. Leaders told me that because of the war in Ukraine, on top of the other crises they face, they fear this dangerous situation could tip into catastrophe. They are not alone. Global hunger levels are at a new high. In just two years, the number of severely food insecure people has doubled, from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today. More than half a million people are living in famine conditions – an increase of more than 500 percent since 2016. As we will discuss in the Security Council tomorrow, these frightening figures are inextricably linked with conflict, as both cause, and effect. If we do not feed people, we feed conflict. The climate emergency is another driver of global hunger. Over the past decade, 1.7 billion people have been affected by extreme weather and climate-related disasters. The economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded food insecurity, reducing incomes and disrupting supply chains. An uneven recovery from the pandemic has already put many developing countries on the brink of debt default and restricted access to financial markets. And now the Russian invasion in Ukraine is amplifying and accelerating all these factors: climate change, COVID-19, and inequality. It threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years. Between them, Ukraine and Russia produce almost a third of the world’s wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil. Russia and Belarus are the world’s number two and three producers of potash, a key ingredient of fertilizer. In the past year, global food prices have risen by nearly one-third, fertilizer by more than half, and oil prices by almost two-thirds. Most developing countries lack the fiscal space to cushion the blow of these huge increases. Many cannot borrow because markets are closed to them. Those that are able to borrow are charged high interest rates that put them at risk of debt distress and default. If high fertilizer prices continue, today’s crisis in grain and cooking oil could affect many other foods including rice, impacting billions of people in Asia and the Americas. High rates of hunger have a devastating impact on individuals, families, and societies. Children may suffer the lifetime effects of stunting. Millions of women and children will become malnourished; girls will be pulled from school and forced to work or get married; and families will embark on dangerous journeys across continents, just to survive. Ending hunger is w