JOINT PRESS RELEASEIFAD and WFP work together to combat hunger in fragile contexts Rome, Italy, March 2024. The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have today launched an action plan to work together in fragile contexts — countries simultaneously affected by economic shocks, and extreme weather, in combination with little or no institutional and government capacity to help people cope.
The UN agencies seek to leverage the strengths and expertise of each organization to enhance resilience in fragile environments and improve food security for those who need it most.
IFAD and WFP will carry out joint assessments on fragility, integrate smallholder farmers into food assistance programmes, invest in rural communities’ climate resilience, and share logistical capacity, data, analysis and expertise, as well as provide technical and operational support. For instance, IFAD’s investments in sustainable agricultural practices, such as the use of climate-resilient crops and climate insurance, will be combined with WFP’s climate-resilient local infrastructure and services.
Ethiopia, Haiti, Mozambique, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia are the initial countries for collaboration to address fragility and food insecurity in addition to geographic areas across the Sahel and Pacific islands. The action plan aims at maximizing impact, being responsive to dynamic challenges, and focuses on tackling some of the main drivers of fragility. The partnership also builds upon the broader collaboration of the three Rome-based UN food and agriculture agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was reinforced with a new five-year partnership agreement signed last August during a joint visit to South Sudan.
Being able to work in fragile contexts is a priority for IFAD’s next three-year cycle (2025-2027), as the UN Fund plans to reach 100 million rural people. FAO, IFAD and WFP cover a spectrum of work that spans from humanitarian responses to emergencies and shocks, to resilience and development activities, aligning with the 2030 Agenda.
The Rome-based agencies are working together on agri-food systems transformation, nutrition, gender equality and women’s empowerment, resilience-building, youth, and climate change to achieving maximized impact and delivering tangible value added to countries and populations. The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, via @wfp_media
Rome, 17 July 2023 – In 2022, despite conflict, climate change and the continued stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic which threatened the food security and livelihoods of millions of rural people, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) invested US$7.96 billion in rural areas in the world’s poorest countries, according to its annual report released today.
“2022 was a particularly challenging year for rural people the world over. Rural communities have acutely felt the effects of this triple crisis on their food systems, which are a critical source of livelihoods – as well as essential nourishment – for them, and for the millions of people who depend on them,” said IFAD President Alvaro Lario in the report foreword.
“We need to support rural people to cope with present crises. But we also need to invest in building food systems that can support and nourish their families and communities, and help feed the world into the future.”
The annual report captures the organization’s activities, special initiatives and new funding sources as well as impact data. Analysis of the 2022 total rural development project portfolio reveals that 90% of core resources went to low-income countries (LICs) and lower middle-income countries (LMICS). IFAD has since committed to increase that ratio to 100% going forward. Data verification also showed that more than 90% of IFAD’s climate finance is invested in initiatives that enable rural people to adapt to climate change. In addition, it showed that more than half of project participants are women.
In 2022, IFAD launched the Crisis Response Initiative to protect livelihoods and strengthen resilience in 22 countries most in need as a consequence of the war in Ukraine. It focuses on tailored interventions to prevent hunger and food insecurity arising, while supporting sustainable food systems.
In 2022, impact data reveals that between 2019-2021, as a result of IFAD’s investments: more than 77 million people increased their incomes; more than 62 million people expanded their productive capacities; more than 64 million people improved their market access and 38 million people strengthened their resilience. IFAD is the only international financial institution that systematically measures the impact of its investments.
Assessments of the Rural Poor Stimulus Facility – IFAD’s COVID-19 response initiative launched in 2020 to help people survive pandemic-caused financial losses while protecting the global food supply – showed that at least three quarters of participants maintained or increased their levels of production and income, despite the impacts of the pandemic.
“Doing more to get more finance is critical; but we also have to continue to ensure that the people who need it most are the ones who benefit. This is another part of what makes IFAD unique, and we are maintaining our commitment to devote 100% of our core funding to the poorest countries,” wrote Lario. For the Silo, Julie Marshall.
IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency. Based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub – IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided more than US$24 billion in grants and low-interest loans to fund projects in developing countries.
For the first time, Burkina Faso tops the list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, according to a new report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Redirection of aid and attention towards Ukraine has increased neglect of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media attention, and a lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives. The crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo ranks second, having appeared first or second on the list every year since its inception seven years ago. Colombia, Sudan, and Venezuela follow in this grim ranking.
“Tell the world we have suffered. We have suffered a lot. Our neighbours have suffered. Our friends have suffered. Our relatives have suffered. We lost many. Most of them killed. I am thanking God because none of my family was left there, and we are all in safety. I do not want to return, but I am asking God for peace, for peace in this place,” says Halimata (35). Together with her family, she fled fighting in the east of Burkina Faso and sought safety in Kaya.
“Neglect is a choice – that millions of displaced people are cast aside year after year without the support and resources they so desperately need is not inevitable,” said Jan Egeland, NRC’s Secretary General.
“The powerful response to the suffering inflicted by the war in Ukraine demonstrated what the world can deliver for people in need. Political action for Ukrainians has been impactful and swift, borders kept open, funding plenty, and media coverage extensive. Those in power need to show the same humanity towards people affected by crises in places such as Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
More than five times more articles were written about the Ukrainian displacement crisis last year than about all the world’s ten most neglected crises in total. For every dollar raised per person in need in Ukraine in 2022, just 25 cents were raised per person in need across the world’s ten most neglected crises.
The Democratic Republic of Congo continued to make the list this year. Patient* 43, lives with his 6 children in the town of Bule, Djugu Territory, Ituri Province, DR Congo.‘We fled in February 2021. We’ve moved around a lot, and now we are trying to build a new home. During the war, we’ve never had enough to eat, and we have no money to buy medicines if the children get sick. We used to live in a beautiful village, and had a big house. Now, all we have is this shelter. When it rains a lot, the water will come through the roof’. *Name changed for security reasons.
The repeated warnings of increased disparity due to the reallocation of resources to the Ukraine response have now become reality. The redirection of a large amount of aid money towards Ukraine and towards hosting refugees in donor countries means that many crises have seen a drop in assistance, despite growing needs. Total aid to Africa, where we find seven out of the ten most neglected crises, was 34 billion USD in 2022, representing a drop of 7.4 per cent compared to 2021.
The Ukraine crisis also contributed to an increase in food insecurity in many of the countries featured in the report, worsening already dire crises, and increasing the number of people in need.
“The world has failed to support the most vulnerable, but this can be reversed. The lives of millions of people suffering in silence can improve, if funding and resources are allocated based on need, not geopolitical interest, and media headlines of the day,” said Egeland. “Last year the gap between what was needed and what was delivered in humanitarian assistance was 22 billion USD. This is a huge sum of money, but no more than Europeans spend on ice cream a year. We need donors to increase support and new donor countries to step up to share responsibility.”
Burkina Faso’s decline since the crisis broke out five years ago has been swift and devastating. More than 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and nearly a quarter of the population now requires humanitarian aid. Across the country, 800,000 people are living in areas under blockade by armed groups where they have no access to even basic services. The situation is increasingly dire with some people forced to eat leaves to survive.
Maïga Abibou is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) from Wapassi in the North region of Burkina Faso. Because of rampant insecurity in Wapassi, she made her first move with her family to Naoubé, a village in the Center North. A few months later, she fled again with her family to Louda, a village located a few kilometers from Kaya. There, she has been living with dozens of other families out in the open for over a month while hoping to get shelters soon before the rainy season begins in Burkina Faso. “We want the world to know about our difficulties, about what is worrying us now. We fled from far away to come here. This is our second escape. We could not bring anything with us. We moved with our carts; we were in the bush and there were no vehicles,” Abibou said.
“We must do more to end the suffering in Burkina Faso before despair becomes entrenched and it is added to the growing list of protracted crises. That this crisis is already so deeply neglected shows a failure of the international system to react to newly emerging crises, as it also fails those lost in the shadows for decades. Ultimately, greater investment in diplomatic solutions is needed if we hope to pull crises off this list,” said Egeland. For the Silo, Jessica Wanless. Featured image: FILE – Children wait for their turn to buy water from a privately-owned water tower, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Taabtenga district of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, April 3, 2020.
Facts and figures:
Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a list of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive no or inadequate assistance, and who never become the centre of attention for international diplomacy efforts. The report is available here.
The neglected displacement crises list for 2022 analyses 39 displacement crises based on three criteria: lack of funding, lack of media attention, and lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives. Full details on the methodology can be found in the report.
The full list in order this year is: Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Colombia, Sudan, Venezuela, Burundi, Cameroon, Mali, El Salvador, Ethiopia.
Burkina Faso has appeared on this list for the previous four years. It ranked second on last year’s report, seventh in 2020, and third in 2019.
DR Congo is a textbook example of a neglected crisis. It has topped the list three times (2021, 2020 and 2017). It previously ranked second on the list in 2019, 2018 and 2016.
Colombia and El Salvador appear in this report for the first time this year.
The total funding to the Burkina Faso humanitarian response plan was 339 million USD in 2022, of the 805 million USD requested – making the response just 42 per cent funded (OCHA).
In 2022, 3.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in Burkina Faso – by the end of the year this has skyrocketed to 4.9 million people. This is a 40% increase and nearly equal to 1 in 4 Burkinabè (OCHA).
There are almost 2 million internally displaced people in Burkina Faso (IDMC).
800,000 people are living in 23 blockaded towns and cities in Burkina Faso, unable to access aid regularly. Half of them are in the city of Djibo (Access Working Group).
The average humanitarian appeal was just over half funded in 2022, while the Ukraine appeal was almost 90% funded (OCHA).
The gap between the total humanitarian appeals by the UN and partners and the money actually received amounted to 22 billion USD in 2022 (OCHA).
Total aid to Africa was USD 34 billion in 2022 (overseas development assistance, including development aid and humanitarian), representing a drop of 7.4% compared to 2021 (OECD).
Collectively the world’s most powerful donor countries used more of their aid on the reception of refugees at home than on overseas humanitarian assistance in 2022 (OECD).
The European Ice Cream Market was estimated to be valued at $21.7 Billion in 2021 (Research and Markets).
212 USD was raised per person in need inside Ukraine, while 52 USD was raised per person in need across the world’s ten most neglected crises in 2022 (OCHA).
In total, 375,000 articles were written in the English media about the world’s ten most neglected displacement crises last year, according to statistics from Meltwater. In comparison, 1.98 million articles were written in English about the displacement crises in Ukraine during the same period (Meltwater).
New York – Through an innovative, children-led campaign delivered by the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), crisis-impacted girls and boys worldwide are sharing “Postcards from the Edge” to call on world leaders and public and private sector donors to make good on promises to ensure education for all by 2030 as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.
These first-person accounts and drawings offer inspiring and thought-provoking portraits of the challenges facing girls and boys caught in conflict and protracted crises around the world.
“They are inspiring and compelling stories of hope and an incredible resilience in the face of adversity and testaments to the amazing power of education to transform lives. We must listen to the world’s children. They deserve their human right to an education. Their voice must speak to our decency, they deserve to be heard,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.
To date, more than 50 letters, drawings and videos have been received from crisis-affected girls and boys supported through ECW-funded programmes across more than 20 of the world’s toughest country-contexts.
ECW’s strategic partners – including Educo, Plan International, Save the Children, Street Child, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF, World Vision and many others – continue to collect these first-person accounts to highlight the singular power of education to end violence, hunger and poverty, and build a more peaceful world for generations to come.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lucas*, a 14-year-old refugee from the Central African Republic recounts the story of seeing his mother murdered and his village burnt to the ground.
Through a multi-year resilience programme delivered by UNHCR with funding from ECW, the boy is now back in school and dreams one day of becoming a doctor.
In his postcard, Lucas makes an impassioned plea for world leaders “to think of us refugee children and provide funding to let us finish our studies.”
Worldwide 222 million girls and boys like Lucas are having their futures ripped from them by the converging impacts of conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises. Girls and children with disabilities are especially at risk.
Several letters were submitted from girls and boys in Afghanistan. With new rules banning girls from education and denying women their human rights, it is not clear if Zehab* from the Uruzgan Province will be able to continue her education. But for now, with the support of ECW and Street Child, she is still able to attend a non-formal community-based learning programme.
“I want to get education and become a well-known doctor. But I am wondering that I might not achieve my dreams, as girls are not allowed to attend schools in Afghanistan,” she says in her postcard. “I call on the world leaders to help us and give us the opportunity to learn and lead our future.”
Leaders across the globe will come together at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference on February 16 and 17 in Geneva, Switzerland, to make good on commitments to ensure every child, everywhere, is offered a quality education.
Throughout the event, youth advocates and global champions will read the Postcards from the Edge to ensure the voice of the world’s most vulnerable children are heard.
Education Cannot Wait is calling on donors, foundations and high-net-worth individuals to mobilize US$1.5 billion over the next four years. With this funding, ECW and its strategic partners will reach 20 million children and adolescents with the safety, hope and opportunity that only quality education can provide.
*Names have been changed for privacy purposes.
#PostcardsFromTheEdge – Letters from Children
POSTCARDS
“For me, #education is the only hope I have left to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor.”~Lucas, 14, 🇨🇫 refugee in #DRCongo. Read how @EduCannotWait+@UNHCR_DRC help children like Lucas achieve their dreams!👉bit.ly/3XTpzEf#PostcardsFromTheEdge
Darline, 14, from #Haiti🇭🇹 demands change & an #education! @EduCannotWait’s #PostcardsFromTheEdge Campaign amplifies the voices of girls & boys like Darline ahead of #HLFC2023.Read Darline’s powerful letter📨http://bit.ly/3ixhKoX @UNICEFHaiti#222MillionDreams✨📚
“I want to be an architect in the future to help build & reconstruct my country #Syria🇸🇾 & all the countries that are affected by war & destruction.” ~Kamil, 12, refugee in #Iraq. Read @EduCannotWait’s #PostcardsFromTheEdge delivered w/@SavetheChildren.📨 http://bit.ly/3kui6Nt
“I aspire to be a #teacher because I feel I have a heart to care, ears to listen, time to give & ideas to share” ~Huma, #Pakistan🇵🇰. Read her #PostcardsFromTheEdge to hear how @EduCannotWait+@UNICEF_Pakistan is making #222MillionDreams✨📚 come true.📨bit.ly/3R7l4UE
11-year-old Zawad, a refugee in #Bangladesh🇧🇩, wants his community and family to prioritize education. With support from @UNICEFBD+@EduCannotWait his dreams are coming true. Learn more in his inspiring #PostcardsFromTheEdge 👉bit.ly/3DcFl5s
“I call on the world leaders to help us and give us the opportunity to learn and lead our future.” ~Zehab, #Afghanistan🇦🇫. Read Zehab’s @EduCannotWait’s #PostcardsFromTheEdge 📨https://bit.ly/3CTEpmh Like & retweet if you agree #EducationCannotWait for #Afghan girls!
NEW YORK, February, 2020 – Gucci, one of the world’s leading luxury fashion brands, has joined The Lion’s Share Fund, a unique initiative raising much-needed funds to tackle the crisis in nature, biodiversity and climate across the globe.
Led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a coalition of businesses and UN partners, the Fund aims to raise over $100 million per year within the next five years for animal conservation, biodiversity and climate by asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal is featured in their advertisements.
https://youtu.be/qnT8yDfrP5M
Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, said: “This partnership with Gucci marks the continuing evolution of this innovative fund, which provides a unique opportunity for brands across all industries to join forces and help preserve and protect biodiversity across the globe. Wildlife populations are half the size they were just 50 years ago, and their habitats and ecosystems are destroyed at an unprecedented rate due to human activity. Lion’s Share is an idea that is as innovative as it is simple – and it makes a real impact on wildlife conservation.”
Achim Steiner
Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci, said: “The Lion’s Share Fund is an important addition to our conservation strategy. Nature and wildlife provide Gucci with inspired creation that is an integral part of our narrative through our collections and campaigns. With the increasing threats to the planet’s biodiversity, groundbreaking initiatives like The Lion’s Share Fund have the potential to be transformative by organically connecting the business community with direct action to protect our natural habitats and most threatened species.” Bizzarri continued “In a similar way, since 2018, Gucci has been totally carbon neutral across our supply chain and we offset our remaining emissions every year through REDD+, which protects critical forests and biodiversity around the world.”
Marco Bizzarri
Launched in September 2018, the Fund is already having an impact, providing a grant to improve critical radio systems for law enforcement officers protecting wildlife in Mozambique’s Niassa Nature Reserve and helping reduce the elephant poaching rate to zero, and providing a grant to help secure land for endangered orangutans, elephants and tigers in North Sumatra in Indonesia.
Animals appear in approximately 20 per cent of all advertisements in the world, yet despite this, animals do not always receive the support they deserve.
The Lion’s Share gives brands the opportunity to take urgent and significant action and play their part in protecting our planet.
Founded in Florence in 1921, Gucci is one of the world’s leading luxury fashion brands, with a renowned reputation for creativity, innovation and Italian craftsmanship.
Gucci is part of Kering, a global Luxury group managing the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, Jewelry and Watches.
For further information about Gucci, visit www.gucci.com
About The Lion’s Share Fund
The Lion’s Share was established in June 2018 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with FINCH, Mars, Incorporated, Nielsen and BBDO as founding members. The fund tackles the crisis in biodiversity and climate by asking advertisers worldwide to donate 0.5 percent of their media spend for each advertisement that features an animal. Those funds are pooled and distributed to projects globally that have a significant impact on animal conservation, habitat loss and the climate crisis. The Lion’s Share contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN’s universal call to action to end poverty and protect the planet.
About the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP partners with people across societies to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. For more information on UNDP, visit undp.org.
