World Food Programme Chief Urges Congress To Give World's Poorest Children Top Priority

The Executive Director of the WFP, James Morris, today urged United States Congress Members to make the world's poorest children their top priority when deciding foreign aid, describing it as a significant "investment" to head off major humanitarian emergencies.


Morris, who oversees the world's largest humanitarian organisation that fed 97 million poor people last year in 82 countries, was addressing a hearing on food aid before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations' Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations.


Morris expressed deep gratitude to the US government, WFP's single-largest donor, for "coming to the rescue" after the agency was forced this month to cut food rations in half for close to three million people in war-torn Darfur, Sudan.


Gratitude


He said US aid had helped expedite delivery of 40,000 metric tons of sorghum for Darfur, allowing WFP to start increasing rations again next month.


"WFP - and the people caught in these terrible crises - have much to thank the United States for," Morris said.


"In Darfur and East Africa, food aid worth US$552 million from the United States is keeping 12 million people alive. Truly, your support is miraculous."


He said other donors, including the European Commission, Canada and Denmark, have also stepped forward. In addition, the Government of Sudan recently announced a donation to WFP of 20,000 tons of cereals.


"Strapped for cash"


However, Morris said the situation in Darfur was still critical -- the agency remained strapped for cash and, in spite of donor generosity, was only 57 percent funded its emergency operations - like Darfur and East Africa - in 2005.


Morris urged donors to "manage risks" ahead of time and create "more flexible tools" and funding streams to respond quickly as emergencies developed.


"Priority has to go to the hungriest people in the poorest places, before they become victims of emergencies," he said, noting that this would not only save lives but greatly reduce the costs of humanitarian interventions.


In Africa alone, Morris said, WFP anticipates it will need to respond to an unprecedented 50 million people in 2006.


Focus on children


"If I count just our urgent needs on the continent - those where rations have been or are about to be cut - we are looking at a shortfall of more than $1.4 billion," he said.


"Tens of millions of very poor, very hungry people are counting on us to find that money before it is too late."


Morris said the key to breaking the escalating cycle of humanitarian crises was focusing efforts on children - the world's future - and their mothers.


WFP estimates that helping the roughly 100 million poor children who are not currently reached by any assistance would cost some US$ 5 billion a year.


Food weapon in HIV/AIDS fight















Morris said that was approximately the same amount of money as Congress appropriated for 2005 (fiscal year) to assist seven million American women and infants through the WIC program.


"If that investment in America's poor mothers and children was worth making, why not reach out to all who need our help?" he asked.


Morris also noted that many of the world's hungriest children have also been touched by HIV/AIDS - either because they are orphans, caring for sick parents, or are HIV-positive themselves.


He said adequate food and nutrition were essential weapons in the war against AIDS - to help the sick tolerate the harsh AIDS medications, to extend lives and empower struggling young people to make the right choices.


"Without a healthy diet, their fight to survive this plague is being fought with one hand tied behind their backs," Morris said.


Protecting children


"A comprehensive and sound medical approach that encompasses the food and nutritional needs of people affected by HIV, is needed. I urge Congress to support it."


"What I'm asking is that we apply the same standards of care for all the world's children - as you would to your own," he added.


"We don't stand by and allow children to die from hunger in the United States. We don't try to give antiretroviral treatment to malnourished patients without meeting their nutritional needs. We don't allow mothers to pass HIV to their babies. We don't allow hunger and poverty to keep children out of school. We don't cut food rations for the victims of emergencies."


When those standards are applied universally, Morris said: "Child hunger will be a phenomenon to be studied in history class - not a matter for the nightly news."


wfp