The Rapidly Increasing Number of Emergency Global Food Crises and the Implications for the International Community

• Date: 01 June 2016
• Author: Allan Jury
• Published date: 01 June 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.182

The Rapidly Increasing Number of Emergency Global

Food Crises and the Implications for the International

Community

Allan Jury

The following text served as the basis of remarks delivered at the Second Annual Summit on Global

Food Security and Health at the School of Policy, Government and International Affairs at George

Mason University on October 15, 2015.

KEY WORDS: emergency food needs, humanitarian crisis, refugees

Introduction

The international community is currently facing a rapid increase in global

emergency food needs, largely as the result of the growth in broader humanitar-

ian crises caused by large, protected conf‌licts.

In 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

found that there are now nearly 60 million internally displaced, refugees, asylum

seekers, and stateless people globally—the most ever in history. Nowhere is this

more evident than the Middle East. The crises in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have

contributed signif‌icantly to global displacement now reaching a tipping point.

These disasters have also put incredible strain on both U.N. humanitarian

agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Last year, the United

Nations Off‌ice for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) humanitarian

response plans (HRPs) requested a total of $19.5 billion to adequately address

global needs—the highest estimate in its 70-year history. Total appeal requirements

in 2004 were twice as much as required just 5 years earlier in 2009 and the

percentage of appeal requirements funded has steadily declined from 72 percent in

2009 to just 60 percent of requirements in 2014.

1

Unfortunately, nearly complete data for 2015 show that total requirements

exceed 2014 and that the gulf between needs and funds donated has grown. As of

December 28, the combined consolidated appeals requested by OCHA reached

$19.55 billion, but only 52 percent of that amount has been received. Plans for

inside Syria and refugees in the region have received $3.86 billion in 2015, leaving

a shortfall of over $3.5 billion.

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016

197

1948-4682 #2016 Policy Studies Organization

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