On 4 April 2019, the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva co-organized with the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in Geneva a Humanitarian Liaison Working Group (HLWG) session on “Reducing Food Insecurity and Hunger in Conflict Settings”. Over 25 representatives from Member States, UN Agencies and International NGOs took part in a lively discussion on how we can reduce hunger and food insecurity in conflict settings. The event offered the opportunity to discuss concrete steps, including how early warning should trigger early action, and the necessity to look beyond humanitarian and development divide to reduce food insecurity and hunger in a sustainable way.

The discussion was moderated by H.E Michael von Ungern-Sternberg, Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN and other organizations. Mr. Luca Russo, FAO’s Senior Food Crises Analyst gave a comprehensive presentation of the 2019 Global report on food crises. More than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger in 2018 requiring urgent food, nutrition, and livelihood assistance. Mr. Arif Husain, WFP’s Chief Economist and Deputy Director, Policy and Programme Division recalled the numerous challenges of delivering food assistance in conflict settings and stressed the need for early funding to reduce the levels of food insecurity. Ms. Nathalie Olijslager, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands called for improve coordination and cooperation in linking humanitarian, development and peace actors to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2417 on conflict and hunger. Finally, Mr. Zacharey Carmichael, World Bank Team Leader for the Famine Action Mechanism presented this new tool and stressed the importance of preparedness and providing financing for concrete actions to prevent that the affected populations topple into IPC* phase 4 or Emergency phase.