The U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the largest anti-hunger initiative around the globe, is grappling with the worst funding shortage in its 60-year history and “we are in a desperate situation,” Executive Director Cindy McCain said 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 told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about the reasons behind the lack 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 said.
In September, the WFP said 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 organization has already had to make “significant cuts in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria.”
And yet the US is still donating nearly 4x the second place country (Germany) .
Which is completely surprising, given that the US has nearly 4x the population of the second place.
Ah, how about the fact that the US alone makes up more than 40% of the program’s entire donations?
Or, if population is a factor, how about the US donating 200 times more than China, a country with just as large of a GDP and three times the population?
Are you familiar with the concepts of GDP and GDP per Capita?
Also, why do you interpret the article as a direct attack against you and the US? Isn’t that a tiny bit weird?
Umm … maybe they thought your response was an attack, not the article.
Stating the most obvious explanation for something stated as oddity is not an attack. And if you (or the other guy) think it is, that’s pretty concerning.
Semantics don’t make up for the fact that the United States, which is less than 5% of the world population and 24% of the global economy, is funding nearly half of the “World” Food Programme.
If anything, my comment was an attack against the rest of the world for not stepping up.