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Today's food crisis could worsen dramatically as decades of declining investment in agriculture have constrained the ability of the world's poorest people to cope with climatic and economic shocks, according to a new report released today by international agency Oxfam International.

New Oxfam analysis describes a $27 trillion black hole – accumulating at around $3.9 trillion a year to 2030 – that low-and-middle income countries face to meet climate-related loss and damages, adaptation, and mitigation measures, along with their health, education and social protection needs.

Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said: "This G7 summit will live on in infamy. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world."

As UNGA77 kicks off, Oxfam experts are engaging with a delegation in New York along with remote participation. Oxfam experts will be focused on issues including Hunger and the Global Food System, Climate Justice, the crisis in Yemen, Ukraine, COVID-19 recovery, Inequality, Education, and more. 

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

Oxfam calls for a radical shake-up in the way the world deals with food crises in Ethiopia and beyond. The agency rounded on what it called a “knee-jerk reaction” to food crises which is dominated by sending food aid.

The international development agency said global food prices will more than double within 20 years as a new age of crisis forces the collapse of our broken global food system, said Oxfam today.

Family farming and small-scale agriculture play an important role in food production. However, limited access to resources such as land, water, seeds, and finance can be a barrier for these farmers to access markets under equitable conditions. 

Commenting on the failure of EU Energy Ministers to reach agreement on EU biofuel policy today, Marc Olivier Herman, Oxfam’s biofuels expert said:

The leadership of a handful of countries is masking the failure of the majority to deliver on their overseas aid promises, said Oxfam today in response to the publication of new figures for overseas aid spending by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  “While total cash flows have plateaued, overseas aid has, yet again, fallen in real terms over the last year and less of this money is finding its way to the poorest and most vulnerable…