Global News Post: Hunger

SYRIA: Anticipating Hunger, Food Insecurity as Violent Conflict Escalates

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">BEIRUT (NNN-IRIN) -- The fields in the fertile al Ghab plain stretching across eastern Syria would normally be full of crops at this time of year, but this summer some are lying fallow (www.irinnews.org). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The army has deployed in the fields, and there are checkpoints around our village," said Muhammad al-Ashab (not his real name), a farmer in al Madeeq Citadel. "Sometimes the soldiers let us pass, sometimes they don't." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some farmers, he said, have not been able to plant anything. Others suffered losses as their crops withered, either because they could not access them regularly, or they were lacking the means necessary to attend to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The violent conflict in Syria appears to be hampering agriculture. Farmers are struggling with obstructions due to intermittent fighting as well as soaring prices of farming supplies and shortages of diesel. The fuel is needed not only for tractors and harvesters, but also for pumps to water the fields. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Fertilizers and insecticides have become so expensive that people have had difficulties affording them," said al-Ashab. "Diesel is hardly available, and if we find any, we pay three times as much as we used to." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a result, the farmers in his village harvested only half of the usual amount of wheat this year. "Most families depend on farming, and now many are left with no income. We had to let go of all our workers on our farm because we couldn't pay them any more," he added. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Differing assessments <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A somewhat contrasting picture is presented in a detailed USDA report on June 12 which says that wheat yields look "favourable" despite the conflict. This analysis said food security, especially in urban areas, is compromised more by a breakdown in distribution than a drop in production. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The unknown element in the situation is how the rural community which is dispersed across the extent of the country's grain growing regions is coping, and whether the conflict will in any way affect their ability to successfully harvest and market the 2012 winter grain crop." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile, influential French forecaster Strategie Grains, quoted by Reuters, said it had slashed its harvest estimate for Syria's 2012 crop for soft and durum wheat by 900,000 tons to 2.5 million tons. That compared with a harvest of 3.3 million tons in 2011. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The main producer regions are very much at the centre of the civil war and although it is difficult to evaluate the impact this will have on the harvest, a significant disruption seems certain," the firm said in a May report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the ongoing crisis may be preventing farmers from working, food prices have tripled in parts of seven provinces in Syria, according to a Humanitarian Bulletin published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) covering July 6-19. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Livelihoods at risk <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There are whole groups of rural people, farmers, livestock herders and migrant agricultural workers whose livelihoods are at risk of collapse," said Jens Laerke, an OCHA spokesman in Geneva. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the conflict escalates (the International Committee of the Red Cross last week said it was more and more resembling a non-international armed conflict) food insecurity is spreading throughout the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The problem is big, it is acute, and it is growing", said Laerke. Some one million people have been displaced inside Syria, according to OCHA's Humanitarian Bulletin. The World Food Programme is currently providing food aid to half a million people in the country, and hopes to reach 850,000 next month. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Agriculture is one of the most important industry sectors, making up 30 percent of Syria's GDP," said Samer Seifan, a prominent Syrian economist who used to work as an adviser to the government. "The uprising is spread all over Syria; all major areas of agriculture have been affected," he added. He reckons the wheat harvest will amount to only 1.9 million tons this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Before the uprising, Syria produced an average of four million tons annually and relied on imports to cover its need for 7-8 million tons. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With shops burnt or looted and transport roads blocked, basic food items have been difficult to obtain for months in protest hubs such as Homs or Hama. In Damascus, grocery stores were relatively well stocked till recently. But since rebel fighters infiltrated the capital last week, the surge of violence has also started triggering shortages: "Fighting was less heavy today, so many people ventured outside after more than a week and went to the market," said a young lawyer in the city centre, Ashraf al-Nasr (not his real name). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Milk and yoghurt are not available in many places, and prices have skyrocketed, particularly for fresh vegetables. Cucumbers, for example, used to cost 35 lira, or even less. Now they are about 125 lira," said al-Nasr. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crops burned <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In many rural areas, however, severe problems of supply are approaching a critical stage. People in villages deemed to support the uprising have been disproportionately affected, as their crops have in some cases been burned, activists and farmers in different areas say. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Some of our fields caught fire during the shelling. Some were torched by the soldiers as punishment because we shelter defectors," said Hamid Rasul (not his real name), a farmer from the village of Halfaya in Ghab plain. "I had planted wheat, but my fields were among those destroyed by the fire. I have lost everything, just before it was time to harvest." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The farmers' market in Halfaya is closed most of the time, he said. Many shops have been vandalized or looted, and people are sharing what food they have left. "It won't last long. In summer, we usually store potatoes and wheat for the winter. But now, we have nothing to store. We are anticipating hunger." -- NNN-IRIN</span></div>

SYRIA: Anticipating Hunger, Food Insecurity as Violent Conflict Escalates

BEIRUT (NNN-IRIN) -- The fields in the fertile al Ghab plain stretching across eastern Syria would normally be full of crops at this tim...

Obama Announces Food Initiative for Africa

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<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 25.5pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By Kent Klein <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan aimed at lifting 50 million Africans out of poverty in the next 10 years. Private companies from around the world have pledged more than $3 billion toward the effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With the leaders of several African countries watching, the president said Friday that governments, private industries and organizations will work together to improve Africa's food security.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Today, I can announce a new global effort we are calling a 'New Alliance' for food security and nutrition. And, to get the job done, we are bringing together all the key players around a shared commitment," said Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At a food security forum in Washington, the president said ending hunger by making African farms more productive is a moral imperative.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Because of smart investments in nutrition and agriculture and safety nets, millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia did not need emergency aid in the recent drought. But when tens of thousands of children die from the agony of starvation, as in Somalia, that sends us a message that we have still got a lot of work to do. It is unacceptable. It is an outrage. It is an affront to who we are," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The president spoke as he prepared to host the annual economic summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations at the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To emphasize the importance of food security, Obama invited the leaders of four African nations to attend the G8 summit and discuss the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The president of Ghana, John Mills, said making food more plentiful would make societies more secure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When you talk about food security, nutritional security, you are at the same time talking about health security, economic stability, political stability. And without these elements you will struggle with democracy," said Mills.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although some of the G8 countries are dealing with economic austerity, Obama said the "New Alliance" initiative would help ease the burden on some governments.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"That is what I mean by a new approach that challenges more nations, more organizations, more companies, more NGO’s [non-governmental organizations], challenges individuals - some of the young people who are here - to step up and play a role, because government cannot and should not do this alone. This has to be 'all hands on deck,'" said Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Obama said private contributions cannot take the place of a government commitment. He said the United States will continue to make what he called "historic investments" in development.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said government contributions are absolutely necessary for African development.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The role of the private sector can only be to supplement the small-scale farmers. There is the issue of rural roads, water supply systems, irrigation infrastructure - all of these require public investment," said Zenawi.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The new food initiative is intended to build on a 2009 food security effort that brought $22 billion in pledges.---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Obama Announces Food Initiative for Africa

By Kent Klein WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan aimed at lifting 50 million Africans out of poverty in the ...

3 Million Facing Hunger in Afghanistan

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A group of aid agencies has warned that three million people in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> are facing hunger this winter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said Friday a drought earlier year has left communities with very little food.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The agencies said that food prices have soared — causing families to skip meals, borrow money, or migrate. They said schools have closed because children are being put to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The U.N. launched an emergency appeal for $142 million in October to help relieve the situation. Reuters news agency says international donors have funded only 7 percent of that amount.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oxfam's director in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> said there is little time left to provide communities with the help they need before the harsh winter conditions make areas inaccessible. He said snow is already falling in some areas. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

3 Million Facing Hunger in Afghanistan

A group of aid agencies has warned that three million people in Afghanistan are facing hunger this winter. The organizations, including ...

Scoring a try against hunger: Rugby World Cup takes UN message to billions

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon displays<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">his commemorative jersey at the<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">launch of the 2011 <st1:place w:st="on">Rugby</st1:place> World Cup<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">From the scrums on the fields of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New   Zealand</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the current Rugby World Cup is taking the United Nations fight against global hunger, and its fundraising appeal, to a potential audience of 4 billion people in the latest partnership between the world of sport and UN agencies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Via a combination of in-stadium visibility with advertising boards, programme advertisements and public service videos shown in stadia, at Cup “fanzones,” online and via tournament broadcasters, the Tackle Hunger campaign, first launched by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 2003, for the first time directs viewers to a secure donations page on WFP’s website.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“People think that solving hunger is an insurmountable task, but every time someone learns about WFP, visits the IRB or WFP sites, donates to help feed a hungry school child, we are building a momentum to defeat hunger, end malnutrition and help save a generation of young people that otherwise might be doomed to a diminished tomorrow,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Defeating hunger, estimated to afflict more than 1 billion people, is the first of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that seek to slash hunger and poverty, maternal and infant mortality, a host of diseases and lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015, and IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset voiced his organization’s pride in the partnership with WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian agency.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The Tackle Hunger campaign, with the support of rugby fans around the world, can contribute in some way to alleviating the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves and have a real and positive impact on the lives of so many where hunger is present,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The campaign is also using a variety of social media platforms to connect directly with rugby fans across the world, and a recent news release on WFP’s response to the devastating famine in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Somalia</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the rest of the Horn of Africa was sent to more than 1.2 million Rugby World Cup Facebook followers and 46,000 followers on Twitter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The <st1:place w:st="on">Rugby</st1:place> World Cup – which concludes on 23 October – is the third biggest global sporting event after the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup, and a television audience estimated at 4 billion people is expected to tune in during the course of the tournament.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">In May, the tournament’s Webb-Ellis Cup trophy was displayed at UN Headquarters in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> at a ceremony attended by diplomatic representatives of the 20 participating teams. “For seven years, through the Tackle Hunger programme, you have raised awareness and funds that make a meaningful difference in people’s lives,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said then.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Launched at the 2003 event in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> and continued at the next tournament in 2007 in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Tackle Hunger sprang from IRB’s desire to meet its social responsibilities and help the UN achieve the MDGs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The campaign is but one in a whole series of collaborations between UN agencies and world sport, which has seen the likes of football legends Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane scoring goals against poverty, the European Swimming League in “a race against time” to prevent deaths from unclean water and the Cricket World Cup batting for the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the battle against HIV/AIDS.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Similar initiatives have involved <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United   States</st1:place></st1:country-region> football stars, marathon runners and drivers from Formula One car racing.---UN News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Scoring a try against hunger: Rugby World Cup takes UN message to billions

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon displays his commemorative jersey at the launch of the 2011 Rugby World Cup From the scrums on t...