Hello from Uganda! I’m here on a reporting trip, so keep your eyes out for my articles in the coming weeks.
But this week I bring you our top story from inside the World Food Programme, where staffers are expressing desperation at the horrifying choices they’re being forced to make — all because the agency doesn’t have enough funding to meet rising global needs. Dish readers know that hunger levels are alarming and moving decidedly in the wrong direction. The compounding crises from climate change to economic shocks to conflict are leaving WFP to dramatically cut back the number of people it can help because donors are not rising to the moment.
“The delta between needs and available funding is just the worst it's been,” John Aylieff, WFP regional Asia director, told me on a recent swing through Washington to make his case to U.S. officials.