Over Six Million refugees could face food ration cuts within the next year

• Many adult refugees are receiving less calories per day than that recommended for a four year old child
• 659,000  displaced people World Vision served had their rations cut between October 2020 and  June 2021  

Wednesday, 8th December, 2021 - Over six million hungry and desperate refugees and displaced people will face serious food ration cuts without immediate funding increases, that is the stark warning by international aid agency World Vision in the lead up to the UN Global Humanitarian Policy Forum.  

The child-focused NGO, who is the World Food Programme’s largest partner, recently carried out a review of its beneficiaries across 5 countries (DRC, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) and found that 659,000 have had their food rations cut by an average of 36.34% between October 2020 and June 2021. Based upon these figures, the NGO  predicts that an additional 6,345,620 forcibly displaced people across all of World Vision’s humanitarian food security programmes targeting forcibly displaced populations could face similar ration cuts within the next year.  

“The impact of COVID-19 has led to donor governments recently reducing food aid funding for the world’s poorest and hungriest people. At the same time, need is spiraling: 45 million people are now on the brink of famine. This number has risen from 42 million earlier in the year and 27 million in 2019. Because of food ration cuts, we are now being forced to take from the hungry to feed the starving. Once again the world’s most vulnerable bear the brunt of a global crisis. Families, who have been forced to flee their homes often because of conflict or climate change, are now dependent on food aid to survive. And that very basic food aid is being cut and will continue to be cut unless the international community delivers on previous food aid promises.” said World Vision international’s Global Humanitarian Director Justin Byworth   

In June 2021, the leaders of the G7 endorsed their Global Compact on Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crises, pledging US$8.5 billion to meet the most urgent needs in the most at risk countries. Unfortunately, those commitments have been slow to materialise as resources in the hands of those that desperately need them. This means WFP is being forced to make difficult decisions such as redirecting food assistance from one vulnerable group to another, even more, vulnerable group, in order to stretch limited resources.  

 “The aftershocks of COVID-19 have the potential to exact a greater toll on the world than the virus itself. The pandemic has been devastating for everyone, but even more so for the world’s poorest, including refugees.It has led to job losses and lower incomes. This, combined with the impact of conflict and climate change, has created the perfect storm - leading to what could be the worst hunger crisis in generations. And the most vulnerable, including refugees are at greatest risk.” said Byworth  

“We are seeing the devastating impacts of hunger in countries like Afghanistan, where millions of children are currently experiencing starvation. Many have been forced to flee home, but they are at risk of facing hunger wherever to seek refuge.  There is enough food for everyone. If funding is not made available to protect the most vulnerable from severe hunger and starvation, then we will be responsible for a catastrophic moral failure. We cannot allow a further six million desperate people have essential food rations cut. We call on the international community to prioritise and preserve this most basic right.”  

ENDS.   

Note to editor  

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organisation dedicated to working with children, families and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.  For more information, please visit www.wvi.org or follow us on Twitter @WorldVision   

• 71.6% = “Average yield” of WFP projects in FYQ1-Q3.  This was calculated by comparing the number of actual bens vs ‘planned’ bens (Life of Project bens in the FLAs for FYQ1-Q3) and finding an average 
• The “Average yield” was then applied to all the LOP bens in WV’s WFP programmes that primarily targeted forcibly displaced populations in FYQ1-Q3 to arrive at the total figure 7,004,620. I then subtracted the total number of bens (659,000) affected in the 5 country in-depth research (see below) to arrive at a total of an additional 6,345,620 bens living in forcibly displaced contexts are at risk of ration cuts if current trends continue   
• Concurrently, using the in-depth research on the 5 countries where we had formal confirmation from WFP that ration cuts were due to funding shortages, I calculated 2 figures: 

1. The average % ration cut across the 5 countries (36.4%), using “cumulative cuts to FLA’ column 

2. The total number of bens affected by ration cuts in these 5 countries (659,000)