Sir, – In a stark warning, the UN’s World Food Programme predicted the Covid-19 pandemic could trigger a global food crisis that would double the number of people suffering from severe hunger to 265 million people, or 53 times the population of Ireland.
The poorest and most vulnerable people will not be able to cope with this pandemic. Here in Europe, Covid-19 is stretching our health systems and economies to their limits. For the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, rising unemployment, rising food prices and strict lockdowns will make it impossible for families to find food each day. As President Michael D Higgins noted in a speech this week, for the world’s poorest people a lockdown is “an invitation to starve”.
According to António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, “we must redouble our efforts to defeat hunger and malnutrition. We have the tools and the know-how. What we need is political will and sustained commitment by leaders and nations.”
Ireland is suffering enormous economic and human loss. Despite this, the country should be commended for not losing sight of the need for the world to fight this crisis together.
The Government has increased its funding for the World Health Organisation and, through Irish Aid, has committed vital funds to protecting the world’s most vulnerable people from this virus.
People who have little to spare are donating what they can to Trócaire and other NGOs. But there is more that we can do – indeed, there is more that we must do.
The world’s poorest people worry less about whether Covid-19 will kill them in a month’s time than about whether their children will have enough to eat today. – Yours, etc,
CAOIMHE DE BARRA,
Chief Executive,
Trócaire,
Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Sir, – As the head of the UN World Food Programme warned this week of “famine on a biblical scale”, it is important to remind readers that while the threat is very real, the outcome is far from inevitable. In 2017, when 20 million lives were at imminent risk of famine, catastrophe was largely averted.
Though delayed, an intense response mounted by the humanitarian community helped overcome the threat. Irish NGOs, Irish Aid and the Irish public were a key part of that.
This time, as Covid-19 spreads and food supply networks collapse further, that threat is suddenly far deeper and it comes at a time when our own solidarity will undoubtedly be tested. As a nation we now face into an uncertain economic outlook, but we must remind ourselves that the threat of the pandemic cannot be tackled in isolation.
Where a pandemic exists anywhere, it can strike again everywhere.
Never before have our obligations and our interests converged so immediately. – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC MacSORLEY,
Chief Executive,
Concern Worldwide,
Camden Street, Dublin 2.