World’s largest food program is in ‘desperate situation’ and running out of money

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the largest anti-hunger initiative all over the world, is grappling with the worst investment scarcity in its 60-year historical past and “we are in a desperate situation,” Executive Director Cindy McCain mentioned on Sunday.

“It’s a combination of things — it’s COVID, it’s climate change, it’s conflict and also the cost of being able to do business,” McCain advised ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in regards to the causes at the back of the shortage of money. “Those things combined and, of course, a world that has kind of grown tired of all this. There’s a great malaise right now within countries about foreign aid and giving.”

“The bottom line is those that are going to suffer [are] those who can’t afford to,” McCain mentioned.

In September, the WFP mentioned it “has been struggling to meet the global need for food assistance …. And for the first time ever, WFP has seen contributions decreasing while needs steadily increase.” The group has already needed to make “significant cuts in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria.”

McCain warned on “This Week” that in Afghanistan, for instance, the food program does not “have enough money to even get through October.”

The WFP has been offering a very powerful products and services to the needy in the rustic, which used to be taken over in 2021 by means of the Taliban, who then imposed a wave of restrictions.

“Unless we can build up some funding for Afghanistan, we’ll have to pull it completely out,” McCain mentioned.

Emphasizing the urgency, she mentioned, “Right now, women can’t work. They can’t hold jobs of any kind. And in the case of WFP, we’ve been feeding women, feeding women and children. And if we have to pull out, starvation and famine is going to be the result of this.”

Karl requested, “Who’s not giving money that used to give money? What’s happened?”

McCain mentioned different global conflicts had, in some way, overshadowed the wider wishes of the hungry all over the world on the similar time that citizens have grow to be warier of sending money in a foreign country.

“Ukraine, for better or worse has sucked the oxygen out of the room. And I — we certainly understand the need to support Ukraine. But there’s other hot spots in the world that are deeply and as much desperate as Ukraine is,” McCain mentioned.

“So we have to make sure that we remind the world the importance of taking a look around the globe,” she persevered. “But people are talking to their parliaments, their parliaments are saying no, their constituents are saying no. And we are facing some of the same things here in the United States.”

There have been nationwide safety implications to supporting at-risk communities out of the country, McCain mentioned: “The terrorist groups are feeding people. And it’s primarily a lot of the stuff they steal from us.”

“We have to pay attention to it because we’re either going to feed them now or fight them later. And there’s no way about this. And … as a human being and a humanitarian, we cannot turn our backs on this,” McCain mentioned. “We can’t. If we don’t do it, who will?”

McCain, widow of overdue Arizona Sen. John McCain, mentioned her husband “would be furious” on the present state of affairs.

“I know he’d be traveling the world to make sure that people got the message and understood the importance and the desperation of the situation we’re in,” she mentioned.

Cindy McCain, a Republican, has been vocal about her essential perspectives of former President Donald Trump. But requested by means of Karl about what she concept will be the consequence if he gained the 2024 election, she declined to respond to particularly, bringing up her present paintings with the apolitical WFP.

Still, she mentioned, “We have to consider what’s at stake and why and the influence and impact a single human being can have on this situation.”