Martin Griffths, the UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed ambassadors on the eve of the expiration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has allowed nearly 25 million metric tonnes of foodstuff from Ukraine to reach global markets. 

The accord was signed in Türkiye in July 2022, in parallel with a Memorandum of Understanding on Russian food and fertilizer exports. 

“It is vital for global food security that both of these agreements continue and will be fully implemented,” he said. 

Feed the world 

Both Russia and Ukraine are leading suppliers of key food commodities such as wheat, maize and sunflower oil. Russia is also a top global exporter of fertilizer.  

Mr. Griffiths said the world relies on these supplies and has done so for many years. 

“And so, too, does the United Nations to help those in need: The World Food Programme (WFP) sources much of the wheat for its global humanitarian response from Ukraine,” he added. 

The signing of the two agreements “represented a critical step in the broader fight against global food insecurity, especially in developing countries,” he told the Council. 

“Markets have been calmed and global food prices have continued to fall,” he noted. 

Stepping up engagement 

Mr. Griffiths said the UN is doing everything possible to make sure that the Black Sea Grain Initiative can continue, and is engaging with all the parties. 

Additionally, Secretary-General António Guterres and the head of the UN trade agency, UNCTAD, Rebeca Grynspan, “are sparing no effort” to facilitate the full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with Russia. 

“We have made meaningful progress. Impediments remain, however, notably with regard to payment systems. There is more to do and our efforts to overcome these remaining impediments will continue unabated,” he said. 

Staggering humanitarian needs 

The UN relief chief also warned of the threat to sustainable development in the face of an unstable global economy and growing poverty, and with humanitarian needs outpacing resources.  

This year, humanitarians will require an unprecedented $54 billion to support nearly 347 million people in 69 countries. Last year, donors gave a historic $38.7 billion for their operations. 

He said it was uncertain that this level of financing can be achieved so that humanitarians can deliver for the world’s most vulnerable people. 

End the war 

Mr. Griffiths also highlighted the need for closer collaboration between the humanitarian and development communities, and financial institutions, to seek sustainable solutions in the face of spiralling global needs, and new crises on the horizon. 

“More than ever, in this context do we need a political solution to the war in Ukraine,” he said.  “The people of Ukraine deserve peace, first and foremost. They deserve to turn the page on this terrible war, as do we all.”  

At the outset of the meeting, Council members declined Russia’s proposal to allow Daria Morosova, reportedly an ombudsperson of the Donetsk People’s Republic, to brief as a civil society representative. 

The Council is comprised of 15 members. Four countries voted in favour, eight against, and three abstained. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for urgent funding for its operations in the country, where families are battling crisis after crisis, including growing hunger, since the Taliban takeover of 2021.

Catastrophic hunger could become widespread across Afghanistan, and unless humanitarian support is sustained, hundreds of thousands more people will need assistance to survive, the agency said in an alert.

‘Half of what they need’

Due to funding constraints, at least four million people will receive just half of what they need to get by in March. Ss food stocks have run out before the next harvest is due in May, this is traditionally the most difficult time of the year for rural families, WFP said.

The cuts come at a time when already vulnerable Afghans are just emerging from yet another freezing winter. Sub-zero temperatures combined with economic distress has pushed millions into despair, the agency added.

WFP urgently needs $ 93 million to assist 13 million people in April and $800 million for the next six months. Although donors gave record amounts in 2022, since November last year WFP had been warning that funds would run out just as the lean season is reaching its peak in March and April.

‘Last lifeline’

The country is at the highest risk of famine in a quarter of a century, with half of all families living in crisis-coping mode to survive. For millions in Afghanistan, WFP’s food assistance is now the “last lifeline”.

Since August 2022, nine out of 10 Afghan families cannot afford enough food – the highest in the world. Nearly 20 million Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from, and six million of them are one step away from famine.

Levels of moderate acute malnutrition are the highest ever recorded in the country. Two thirds of the population – more than 28 million people – need humanitarian assistance in 2023, almost triple than in 2021.

In response, WFP massively scaled up its assistance across Afghanistan in 2022, thanks to generous funding. The agency supported 23 million people, distributing more than 1 million metric tons of food and $326 million in cash or vouchers to help families survive.

“Brutal” armed conflict has left 10 million children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in need of humanitarian assistance – more than double the number in 2020, UNICEF warned in a new report.

And hostilities spilling over into neighbouring countries, are putting an extra four million children at risk.

“The conflict may not have clear boundaries, there may not be headline-grabbing battles, but slowly and surely things have been getting worse for children, and millions of them are now caught up in the centre of this crisis,” said UNICEF spokesperson John James.

Children living on the frontlines of hostilities between armed groups and national security forces are increasingly in the line of fire, too.

In Burkina Faso, for instance, the number of children killed during the first nine months of 2022 tripled compared to the same period in 2021. Children are also being recruited by armed groups and forced to fight or support militants in backup role, UNICEF said.

School attacks

In addition, armed groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have been directly targeting schools, in an “accelerating attack on education”. According to the UNICEF report, more than a fifth of schools in Burkina Faso have closed as a result of attacks.

“More than 8,300 schools in those three countries – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – are now closed due to violence and insecurity”, said Mr. James. That’s teachers who fled the schools, children who are too scared to go to the schools, families who are displaced – that’s buildings that have been attacked and caught up in the violence”, UNICEF’s Mr. James told journalists in Geneva.

Spillover effect

Hostilities have already spilled over from the central Sahel into the northern border regions of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo where, UNICEF notes, “children have extremely limited access to essential services and protection”.

At least 172 violent incidents, including attacks by armed groups, were reported in the northern border areas of the four countries in 2022.

Climate crisis and food insecurity

UNICEF explained that the central Sahel suffers from severe food and water scarcity, and that armed groups make survival for civilians even harder by blockading towns and villages and contaminating water points.

Fifty-eight water points were attacked in Burkina Faso alone in 2022, close to a threefold increase from the previous year.

Overall, more than 20,000 people in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger face ‘catastrophe-level’ food insecurity by June 2023, according to humanitarian assessments.

Climate change shocks

Climate shocks are a key factor affecting crops, with temperatures in the Sahel rising “1.5 times faster than the global average”, and “erratic” rainfall which leads to flooding, UNICEF said.

The impacts of extreme weather events are an important driver of displacement, with over 2.7 million displaced across the three countries.

The crisis in the Sahel is increasingly mirrored globally: in 2022, over 8,000 children worldwide were killed and maimed by armed forces and groups, more than 7,000 children recruited and over 4,000 abducted, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, told the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

A displaced young woman holds her newborn baby in the north-central region of Burkina Faso.

Chronic underfunding

The UN Children’s Fund underscored that the crisis in the central Sahel remains “chronically and critically underfunded”, with only one third of the required funding received by UNICEF in 2022.

This year, the UN agency has appealed for $473.8 million to support its humanitarian response in the central Sahel and in neighbouring coastal countries.

UNICEF has also called for “long-term flexible investment” in essential social services, and stressed the need to work with communities and young people in the region to ensure a better future for them.