Funds low to feed world's growing hungry: WFP

The rock stars are again singing against poverty and the G8 has put it at the top of its agenda, but, away from the headlines, many of the hungry are getting hungrier as cash shortages force aid agencies to cut rations. The world's biggest food aid agency, the World Food Programme, said it faces critical funding shortfalls in many regions, sometimes due to donor apathy, sometimes due to politics, but often because the needs are growing faster than the cash.
"The problem this year is that our needs are continuously increasing," said Jean-Jacques Graisse, senior deputy executive director at the Rome-based United Nations aid agency, which feeds around 90 million people in more than 80 countries. "Is this the worst year? Probably, yes."
The WFP needs $3 billion this year, but half way through the year has only received $1.1 billion, a figure that masks the fact that funding for some regions is drying up completely.
While governments and private donors were quick to find cash for victims of the Asian Tsunami, many less spectacular but equally devastated disaster areas are neglected.
In southern Sudan, still dealing with the aftermath of a civil war, the WFP faces a funding shortage, Graisse said.
Ironically, in the western Darfur region, where militia violence has forced more than 2 million people from their homes, the WFP has already received 65 percent of its funding needs for the year and the aid warehouse are full.
"Are people going to go from southern Sudan to Darfur to eat? I don't exclude it," said Graisse. "That would be an absurdity."
The irony illustrates one of the main challenges for aid agencies like WFP - aid will often flow in for a high-profile natural disaster or war zone, but donors often neglect less visible cases of mass hunger.
"Iraq, Afghanistan and the tsunami did get immediate funding because of media attention or politics," said Graisse. In less high-profile countries, the number of starving people needed to be huge to attract attention, he said.
"You have to have at least one million (people). In Niger there are 400,000 (hungry) people. It doesn't look big enough. In Ivory Coast it's 920,000 - not big enough yet."
In North Korea, where the WFP seeks to feed 6.5 million people, the lack of funds is hardly due to lack of numbers or media attention.