WFP Assistant Executive Director: Qatar Key Supporter of WFP, Our Partnership Continues to Grow -2-

In regard to the impact of escalating conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa region, and the challenges facing the WFP, Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations WFP Rania Dagash Kamara said that the MENA region is facing an unprecedented hunger crisis driven by a toxic combination of socio-political instability, economic downturns, climate shocks, and protracted refugee crises. By the end of 2023, 45.6 million people were food insecure across the region, with 11 million of them mostly displaced persons, refugees, and asylum seekers experiencing emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC 4 and 5) in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza, she noted. Kamara pointed out that climate change has further compounded these challenges, explaining that prolonged droughts, decreased rainfall, and extreme temperatures have reduced agricultural productivity in conflict-affected countries like Iraq and Syria, deepening food insecurity, while Yemen, already devastated by war, is also suffering from cyclones, floods, and droughts, which have disrupted farming and increased food insecurity. WFP is doing everything possible to address these challenges, she said, adding that, in 2024, the program aims to reach over 33 million people across 15 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe (MENAEE) region, although the operations are facing a severe funding gap. In 2023, WFP's funding for the region dropped by 43 percent, forcing drastic cuts to food assistance programs, she added. On the region's biggest challenge, Assistant Executive Director of the WFP Rania Dagash Kamara said that the region's biggest challenge is the gap between funding and soaring needs, indicating that the program requires USD 7.2 billion in 2024 -37 percent of its global requirements- to support the 33.4 million people in the MENAEE region. However, funding shortfalls have forced WFP to prioritize only the most vulnerable, leaving millions at risk of hunger, she said, adding that WFP's ability to provide food rations and cash assistance, the cornerstone of its operations, has been severely compromised, with further cuts on the horizon if funding does not increase. Source: Qatar News Agency