Senior UN officials met people on the frontlines of the climate crisis as well as government officials, donor partners, and aid workers to scale up response efforts
With nearly 7 million people in Somalia – or two out of every five people – in need of life-saving assistance this year, and 1.7 million children likely to suffer from acute malnutrition, the deputy heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) went on a field mission to the country to urge continued global support for Somalis suffering the effects of hunger, conflict and climate change.
While in Somalia, the OCHA Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, and FAO Deputy Director-General, Beth Bechdol, met people on the frontlines of the climate crisis – as well as Government officials, donor partners, and aid workers looking to scale up response efforts.
The three-day mission concluded with a joint press conference in Mogadishu.
Musya, Assistant Secretary-General said, “Somalia’s future and the lives of millions of people hang on a very, very tight balance. One in five people in Somalia has so little food that their lives or livelihoods are in immediate danger. Some 1.7 million people face acute malnutrition. This year, we are targeting 5.2 billion people out of 6.9 million people in need. And our mission, our visit here was aimed at actually advocating for more support, international support, to Somalia, on humanitarian, as well as climate and development, and my colleague will speak more about that.”
Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General said, It is so critical in the food and agriculture system that we lift with it women. And it is not just because of the opportunities that are presented to them. It’s because they’re already the backbone. On the African continent, two-thirds of the work that is done in food and agriculture is done by women.
