Humanitarian chef José Andrés and 28 current and former World Food Prize laureates are calling for a doubling of investments in emergency food assistance and sustainable agricultural development as the world falls behind on the goal of ending hunger.
Their public letter, released Wednesday, comes as official development assistance is rapidly declining. The United States, long the world’s biggest food aid donor, has cut emergency food aid along with longer-term agricultural innovation programs such as USAID’s Feed the Future that were aimed at improving poorer countries’ food security and reducing their dependence on aid.
Meanwhile, around 700 million people go hungry each day, 2 billion people lack reliable access to food, and a quarter of children are stunted by malnutrition, the letter’s signatories point out. And this year, the world has seen two simultaneous famines, in Gaza and Sudan.
About the author
Tania Karas@TaniaKaras
Tania Karas is a Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development and humanitarian aid in the Americas. Previously, she managed the digital team for The World, where she oversaw content production for the website, podcast, newsletter, and social media platforms. Tania also spent three years as a foreign correspondent in Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon, covering the Syrian refugee crisis and European politics. She started her career as a staff reporter for the New York Law Journal, covering immigration and access to justice.
