Climate change and war limit food supplies. According to its own statements, the federal government is providing 880 million euros this year to alleviate the current global hunger crisis.
A spokesman for Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) confirmed on Monday in Berlin a report by the Funke media group (Montag), according to which the funds have been more than doubled and are to be spent “where the need is greatest because different crises overlap”. . drought and
According to a status report by the Development Ministry, which is also available to the Evangelical Press Service (epd), the war in Ukraine is aggravating existing emergencies. This applies, for example, to the multi-year drought in the East African countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Kenya, as well as to the Sahel zone with countries like Niger, which is particularly affected by climate change and conflicts.
The countries in the Middle East, which are the main place of refuge for Syrian refugees but are also struggling with rising food prices like Lebanon, are particularly affected. Tunisia and Egypt are also mentioned, which are particularly dependent on grain from Russia and the Ukraine and now have to buy it on the world market at very high prices.
According to the information, the ministry uses existing structures for investments in global food security: almost 590 million euros flow through the existing crisis instruments, 250 million euros through the special initiative “One World Without Hunger”. The core contribution to the World Food Program of the United Nations (WFP) will be increased by 42 million euros.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had promised the funds for the fight against global hunger, initially 430 million euros in March at a virtual meeting of the seven largest democratic industrialized countries (G7). In June at the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau, he promised a further 450 million euros, according to the ministry report.
Overall, the G7 states USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Germany announced at the summit that they will provide an additional 4.3 billion euros for fighting hunger this year. According to the Development Ministry, the German funds come, among other things, from the supplementary budget that has already been approved.
It is about “helping people to help themselves,” emphasizes the ministry in the progress report. It is important to make societies more crisis-proof in the long term. The priority is to strengthen the poorest part of the population, to expand the country’s own agriculture, to secure basic social services and to alleviate the social hardship of the price shocks.
“This money arrives and it ensures that the developing countries can become more independent,” said Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) to the Funke newspapers. More sustainable local cultivation is the best way to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin can no longer use wheat as a weapon.
According to the United Nations (UN), around 50 million more people are starving as a result of the war. Ukraine and Russia are among the largest grain exporters in the world.
On Monday, a cargo ship carrying grain left the port of the Ukrainian city of Odessa for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February. According to the UN, the freighter is heading for Lebanon with a cargo of more than 26,000 tons of grain on board.
