Gaza: Every day, more and more people are on the brink of famine-like conditions – FAO – Interview

Rome- Conflict and hunger are inextricably linked to one another. Conflict often leads to severe humanitarian crises, resulting in heightened levels of hunger in specific regions. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) plays a crucial role in addressing these challenges, often operating on the front lines alongside other UN and stakeholder partners to preserve lives and livelihoods.

In an interview with FAO Newsroom, Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol, who oversees the Organization´s work in emergencies, provided insightful updates on FAO’s efforts in conflict-affected regions, including Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine, shedding light on the challenges faced and the progress made in addressing food insecurity and promoting stability.

She also discussed FAO’s largest work program in Afghanistan and delved into the impacts of El Niño in Latin America, highlighting the organization’s multifaceted approach to tackling complex issues and fostering resilience in vulnerable communities.

What does FAO’s work entail in an emergency context?

Beth Bechdol: We are in these difficult places to address malnutrition and food insecurity –to deal with unique responses to support the most vulnerable populations. We must also ensure that in these contexts, we are working to rehabilitate agricultural production and agrifood systems. There’s a critical role tied to FAO’s very core mandate.

The balance between immediate emergency assistance and long-term agricultural development is a unique value proposition of our Organization. We often start by providing very important inputs to farmers like seeds, fertilizers, animal vaccines, and animal feed – to help them produce or protect their sources of food. That’s the first line of defense, protection and support in these situations – whether it’s the result of conflict, whether it’s the result of a climate crisis or other disasters.

But FAO’s full technical support in the space of resilience and rehabilitating agrifood systems and agricultural production comes alongside… whether it is seed system delivery, attention to fisheries and aquaculture production to the work that we do on nutrition and food safety, soil health and water management or climate adaptation and mitigation.

These are all critical areas of technical work in resilience-building that FAO is uniquely positioned to provide support for, offering immediate and longer-term solutions together.

Animal inventories in Gaza are declining. Photo: FAO/Marco Longari

What is the current state of food security and damage to the agrifood sector in Gaza?

There are unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, hunger, and near famine-like conditions in Gaza. It’s an unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in. We have categories for how we measure acute food insecurity known as the IPC phase classifications, IPC 3, 4, and 5, which take us from emergency to crisis, to catastrophe. All 2.2 million people in Gaza are in these three categories.

We’ve never seen this before in the analysis and the review that the IPC structure takes on in countries all around the world. Very concerningly, we are seeing more and more people essentially on the brink of and moving into famine-like conditions every day. At this stage, probably about 25% of that 2.2 million are in that top-level IPC five category.

So, with every passing day of not finding a solution to the conflict itself, having a ceasefire or some other end to the hostilities, more and more people are simply going hungry and having less accessibility to food, nutrition, water, and medical services that are so needed there.

We are in a position where we have staff in Palestine, in the West Bank, and are watching all of the circumstances that are unfolding. Sadly, it’s difficult for us to be on the front line to provide any kind of agricultural production support because most of it has been significantly damaged, if not destroyed.

Before the conflict, the people of Gaza had a self-sustaining fruit and vegetable production sector, populated with greenhouses, and there was a robust backyard small-scale livestock production sector. We’ve recognized from our damage assessments that most of these animal inventories, but also the infrastructure that is needed for that kind of specialty crop production is virtually destroyed.

We’re moving now into a space where we are using geospatial technologies, remote sensing, and people on the ground in the best ways we can to try to understand what the rehabilitation reconstruction needs of the people of Gaza will be. If and when we find a time, we can return to that as a response.

We are looking to support as best we can our other U.N. partners. We’re concerned about issues related to sustained funding from many donors to U.N. partners; this is a very sensitive issue. We know that there are certainly politics at work here, but making sure that people can get in to provide this kind of humanitarian support is fundamentally critical today.

We have focused in these last few months on prioritizing potential animal feed deliveries through one or two of the remaining open border crossings where food distribution is taking place. And we’ve encountered some challenges in trying to get those trucks across the border. What we have tried to convey to the Israeli authorities is that providing animal feed, if you have the animals there, is not just sustained livelihood or an economic asset for the families involved. It’s a source of protein, it’s a source of nutrition, it’s a source of milk for children in a family. If you have a few small backyard chickens or two sheep and a few goats, I know that’s considered an economic asset to a family. But I think more importantly, it’s a part of ensuring that there is sustained nutrition.

Sadly, we are realizing with each passing day, though, that animal inventories are declining. So, we’re monitoring this and we’re working closely with the government authorities and those who are trying to coordinate and organize. Right now, the highest priority is making sure that food, water, and medical supplies are the highest prioritized deliveries that are going into Gaza.

Are there any FAO plans to monitor and respond to developments in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in the Red Sea?

We are following very closely all the implications that could be coming. The tensions in the Red Sea, as we’re seeing the attacks that are coming on shipping vessels and in important transport lanes, means that we must be monitoring the safety, security and implications of what happens in global markets and global supply chains when you have shipping lanes close.

We’ve seen some of this before with the war in Ukraine and with the Black Sea corridor, having challenges in bringing shipments to and from key markets.

The ripple effects of the hostilities can move into some of these other places. We have staff and programs in the West Bank and in Lebanon, and we are focusing very much on the implications for global disruptions to either commodity markets or prices.

We’ve come out of so many difficult months of elevated food prices and commodity prices at record levels. We need to make sure that we advocate as best we can to keep the safety and security of these lanes open for everybody.

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