food crisis

More than 23 million people are being pushed towards severe hunger and destitution across East Africa, international aid agency Oxfam warned today, as it launched an emergency appeal to raise $15 million.

At least 23 million Muslims caught up in conflicts and disasters have been fasting this Ramadan in one of the hardest periods in recent years, with many having little more to eat than bread and water during the 30 days of this holy month and others having nothing to eat at all after sunset.

Oxfam International is participating at the 9th World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil to help tackle the combined effects of the global economic crisis, rising food prices, and the effects of climate change in developing countries.

Leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week should seriously consider how the economic crisis can be a catalyst for new models of growth and a new way of doing business.

Urgent action is needed to prevent hundreds of millions more people slipping into hunger as a result of volatile food prices and increasing energy and water scarcity. Decades of underinvestment in agriculture coupled with the increasing threat of climate change mean the situation could get worse.

High food prices have brought into sharp focus an existing global food crisis that affects almost one billion people.

Based on a survey by Oxfam International and Save the Children

In the Sahel region of West Africa, the ability to access food has become the key issue in terms of food securi