Humanitarian Assistance: towards a right of access to victims of natural disasters

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (325) ◽  
pp. 589-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan J. Hardcastle ◽  
Adrian T. L. Chua
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Community ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Federation ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
World Food ◽  
World Food Programme ◽  
The World ◽  
Right Of Access

If recent estimates are to be believed, more than two million people may have died in the famine that engulfed North Korea in 1997 and 1998. In 1997, the United Nations estimated that 4.7 million North Koreans were in danger of starvation. In response, the international community pledged food aid. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies presented an expanded appeal for aid in June 1997. In January 1998, the World Food Programme (WFP) launched its biggest appeal, setting a target of 380 million US dollars in food aid, nearly double the amount requested for 1997. Yet, the international community has met resistance in attempting to assist North Koreans suffering from malnutrition and facing starvation.

scholarly journals The World Food Programme

2021 ◽  
pp. 849-918
Author(s):  
Uma Lele ◽  
Sambuddha Goswami
Keyword(s):  
Development Aid ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
Nobel Peace Prize ◽  
World Food ◽  
World Food Programme ◽  
Emergency Assistance ◽  
The World ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Multilateral Organization

The World Food Programme (WFP) has emerged as the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security. The chapter explores how the need for emergency assistance has increased to meet growing humanitarian needs, and particularly its relationship to conflicts. We explore the evolution of WFP’s objectives from internationalizing US food aid, as a pilot program in FAO, into a full-fledged, multilateral organization, delivering emergency assistance while addressing the disincentive effects of food aid on domestic food production, with substantial evolution from aid in-kind to cash transfers, and from emergency aid to building capacity of developing countries to address their own emergencies. WFP has filled a void that would have existed had it not responded rapidly and innovatively to meet the growing needs of emergency assistance, now serving the largest displaced and refugee population in the world. The chapter also demonstrates the differences between development aid and emergency assistance. For its achievements, WFP was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Prize has also highlighted the need to address the underlying issues of peace and security, without which, the need for emergency aid will continue to grow. The chapter shows how cooperation across international and bilateral organizations has evolved and where it needs to go in the future.

WFP accord will raise humanitarian hopes in Venezuela

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
World Food ◽  
Content Type ◽  
World Food Programme ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

Significance A breakthrough agreement with President Nicolas Maduro’s government will enable the World Food Programme (WFP) to begin distribution of food to children. A portion of Venezuelan funds frozen in the United States has also been released for payment to the COVAX initiative for 11 million vaccine doses. Impacts For Biden, shifting to a more nuanced engagement will require a complex unpacking of sanctions, strategy and stakeholders. The WFP agreement may facilitate wider humanitarian assistance. Despite encouraging progress in some areas, domestic moves by the government, including against NGOs, are less promising.

scholarly journals The malnutrition bazaar: the case of RUTF

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-118
Author(s):  
Radha Holla
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Food ◽  
Standing Committee ◽  
World Food Programme ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Nations System

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children is life-threatening. Its causes range from lack of access to balanced food, to incorrect feeding practices, lack of access to an efficient health system, to clean potable water and sanitation. However, the present approach to managing SAM is fortified packaged food – a paste made with peanuts or other protein rich food such as chickpeas, milk and sugar, to which micronutrients are added. Currently, a version of the paste with less energy levels is also being recommended for treating even moderate forms of malnutrition, as well as for prevention of malnutrition (World Health Organization (WHO), 2012; WHO/UNICEF/WFP, 2014; WFP/UNICEF/USAID, undated). The large number of malnourished children around the globe furnish the food and pharmaceutical industries with an immense potential market for these fortified food packages.  That the market for ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) is rapidly expanding is primarily due to its endorsement by the World Health Organisation (WHO, the World Food Programme, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition[1] (UNSCN) and UNICEF for treating SAM (World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition and the United Nations Children’s Fund. (2007).). Non state actors like Action Against Hunger (Action Contre La Faim) and Médecins Sans Frontières   have also been working to introduce RUTF treatment in countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Malawi, Yemen, India and Pakistan. In addition, several of the new manufacturers use unethical marketing practices to increase their share of sales. The long-term sustainable solution to reducing undernutrition has to be based on policies that manage conflict, inequity, gender imbalance, food sovereignty and security, infant and young child feeding, basic health services and provision of safe drinking water and sanitation. [1] In 2020, the UN Network for SUN (UNN) merged with the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) to form a new entity, called UN Nutrition. As of 1 January 2021, the UN Nutrition Secretariat, hosted by FAO headquarters, became operational.

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