European Development Ministers, meeting in Brussels in the aftermath of the G7 Development meeting in Berlin, discussed on Friday 20 May the looming global food crisis in the context of the war in Ukraine - with particularly severe consequences in vulnerable poor countries - and the global refugee and displacement crisis.
According to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, who chaired the Foreign Affairs/Development Council meeting, they stressed the importance of coordination between Member States, the Commission, national and EU financial institutions, using a ‘Team Europe’ approach as part of a coordinated global response.
“The dramatic rise in food and fertiliser prices is threatening the food supply of millions of people in many parts of the world, and Russia is the main culprit”, said Mr Borrell after the session he chaired.
The day before, at the UN Security Council, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had used similar language, accusing Russia of “using hunger as a weapon of war”, which the Kremlin refutes.
The number of people at risk of hunger could rise from 276 million to at least 323 million worldwide, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
Referring in particular to the famine in the Horn of Africa, Mr Borrell stressed the need to mobilise more money to combat food insecurity “mainly through Member States’ contributions”, as resources from the EU budget could only be redirected. This reorientation will be done for Africa, to make sufficient food a priority, but without cutting into the amounts that are allocated to the continent, he assured.
On the sidelines of the Council meeting, German State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth told the press that he had called for as many Member States as possible to join the Global Alliance for Food Security, launched the day before at the G7 in Berlin - a platform for joint and coordinated work “between international institutions such as the WFP, countries, the private sector, civil society”. It will be able to do “joint analysis and forecasting to identify bottlenecks in the supply chain, act together and ensure that food gets through”. According to him, the transport from Germany of Ukrainian grain blocked in Black Sea ports “would be too slow”.
Don’t forget other refugee crises around the world.
The Ministers also stressed that, in addition to the refugee crisis in Ukraine, other major crises in the world should not be forgotten, especially as the consequences of the war in Ukraine are having an impact on already vulnerable countries, with a worrying risk of riots.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, invited to a working lunch, pointed out that the war in Ukraine has left 7 to 8 million displaced people in the country and 8 million refugees in third countries and that this year “the threshold of 100 million refugees and displaced people in the world could almost be reached”, according to the High Representative.
“If you have countries getting into unrest and into political fragility, we may see more displacement. So, it is very important as we respond to Ukraine to also pay adequate attention to crises in Africa, crises in the Middle East, crises in Latin America, crises in Asia and so forth”, Grandi told the press, announcing his departure the same day for Bangladesh.
He also noted that UNHCR had recommended to the OECD that aid to refugees should not be counted as official development assistance (ODA), but that this was a decision for the OECD. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)