UN agencies, EU launch joint network for response to food crisis

UN agencies and the European Union (EU) on Monday launched a joint network to achieve joint global food-security assessment and promote responses to food crises, a UN spokesman said here.

The Global Network for Food Insecurity, Risk Reduction and Food Crises Response was launched in Islanbul by The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) as well as the EU.

It will produce reports based on key analyses and containing timely response options, Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here. "This will prompt coordination among stakeholders and promote joint planning and joint responses to food crises."

The Global Network will pave the way for enhancing the impact of future responses to food crises at the global level by regularly producing, in real time, joint reports based on key analyses and containing timely response options, according to a press release of the FAO.

This will prompt coordination among stakeholders and promote joint planning and joint responses to food crises. In addition, it will improve learning from past crises and increase the level of transparency and availability of crucial analysis of global needs, the release said.

The Global Network and its outputs are public goods, available for everybody. It covers 70 countries affected by a food crisis in 2015, including chronically vulnerable countries at or above Phase 2 of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

At present, 240 million people in 70 countries are in a food stress situation, including 80 million people in food crisis, the spokesman noted, adding that nearly half of those people are in countries affected by the El Nino phenomenon.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointments of Mary Robinson of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya as his special envoys on El Nino and Climate. Endit