Almost 200 nations are meeting in Mexico till the end of the week to try to agree steps toward a climate treaty. WFP will be among those watching carefully because climate is intimately connected to hunger and erratic weather threatens to make the poor even more vulnerable to it.
Rome – The connection between climate and hunger was made abundantly clear this summer when torrential rain lashed Pakistan, causing devastating flooding that submerged farmland, obliterated crops and left 10 million people in need of food aid.
Another demonstration was this year’s drought in parts of Russia, which caused a significant reduction in the wheat crop. That in turn contributed to higher wheat prices on international markets and the danger that more people in poor countries will find they are struggling to buy the food they need for themselves and their families.
So, one of the reasons why WFP is interested in Cancun is that climate and climate change affect us directly -- if there are more floods, droughts and other climate-related disasters in the future, our work load will expand.
In fact, climate change is expected to add another 10-20% to the total of hungry people by 2050.
Whatever the outcome of the talks in Cancun, climate and weather-related disasters will continue to be a fact of life for many of the world’s poorest.
But one thing that the world can do is to help people adapt to changing weather patterns, help governments prepare strategies to deal with the shocks that climate can cause.
WFP can help because it has sophisticated tools to help governments and communities watch for early signs of natural hazards, prepare for them and take measures to cushion their impact.
Here are three examples of what we're already doing:
Ethiopia
Working with the Ethiopian government, WFP showed poor farmer Tonkollu Letu and his neighbours how to reverse the vicious cycle of soil erosion and deforestation to make their farms productive again. Thanks to this innovative new project, he and his family are now self-sufficient for food.
Central America
In Central America, one of the world’s most disaster prone regions, WFP has taken the lead in developing an early warning system. The SATCA system enables humanitarian agencies and national authorities to anticipate and better respond to natural hazards.
Bangladesh
It’s hard for poor people to build livelihoods that will allow them to escape hunger if their houses keep getting washed away by floods. Julekha, a poor Bangladeshi woman, has finally raised her house out of the reach of floodwaters thanks to a course run by the government and WFP.
- by Martin Penner, Web editor