A total of 274 million people worldwide will need emergency aid and protection in 2022, a 17 per cent increase compared with this year, the UN has reported.
A “toxic cocktail” comprising the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and “increasingly severe and protracted” violent conflicts is contributing to the reversal of progress in eliminating hunger, according to the 2021 Global Hunger Index.
The number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance has hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises, according to the findings of an annual report by the Global Network Against Food Crises.
Imagine what could be achieved if just a portion of the money spent on military expenditures were pooled into a global fund, and redirected towards ending hunger and massively investing in public health systems.
The latest figures of rising arms expenditures by some of the big powers makes a mockery of the UN’s longstanding pleas for cutbacks and diversion of funds from the military into sustainable development.
UK campaigning organisations are urging the government to rethink its military spending decisions in the light of the pandemic and the climate emergency.
