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Africa: Ending Conflict Is ‘Number One Thing’ to Reduce World Hunger, New WFP Chief Says

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Africa: Ending Conflict Is ‘Number One Thing’ to Reduce World Hunger, New WFP Chief Says


Reducing conflict is the single most effective way to tackle global hunger, the new head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Luke Lindberg, said on Wednesday, noting that conflict drives two thirds of the acute food insecurity affecting 266 million people worldwide.

“Conflict is a man-made situation. It is something that we can solve,” Mr. Lindberg told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York in his first press conference since taking office earlier this week.

“The number one thing we can do to reduce hunger in the world is to reduce the amount of conflict that is happening all around the world.”


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On top of that, El Niño is set to push 49 million more people into acute food insecurity, while chokepoints in global supply chains are exacerbating the problem further, he said.

‘Big platitudes’

Mr. Lindberg said WFP did not need “big platitudes or big announcements” but execution, built on three priorities: protecting staff, strengthening donor partnerships and improving operations “a little bit better each and every day“.

More than 700 humanitarians have been killed in the last few years while trying to save lives, he said. “Nobody should lose their life trying to save somebody else’s.”

He also pledged to keep investing in preparedness ahead of disasters, including through tools such as artificial intelligence, and to “go big” on school meals.

First trip to Sudan

Mr. Lindberg said his first trip as Executive Director would be to Sudan in a couple of weeks, to thank frontline staff working in “the most challenging places on Earth”.

Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia are the three operations where WFP is currently focusing, he said. “In the short run, it’s no more famines.”

Asked about Gaza, he said the number of people going hungry there was unacceptable, adding that while WFP has access to deliver food, it is cutting back because of funding shortfalls.

He pledged to stand up for WFP employees wherever they are located. “If anywhere in the world there are people attacking humanitarians, I will absolutely do what I can to protect them,” he said.

‘All-of-the-above approach’

On funding, Mr. Lindberg said the United States remains WFP’s largest funder, while the private sector is now its fifth-largest donor. “There is no one nation, no one entity that can do this alone,” he said.

Asked whether he saw himself as Washington’s representative at the UN, Mr. Lindberg called it “an unfair characterization”, saying his mandate from the Secretary-General is to end hunger and that he would be a “team player” across the UN system.