Carl Skau (WFP) on conflict and hunger - Security Council Media Stakeout

All right, good afternoon.
We're delighted to have Carl Skau with us, who's known as the acting executive director of the World Food program.
He just briefed the council, will say a few words, and we'll take a few questions.
Thank you, Stéphane.
Uh, today I brought to the council what WFP frontline teams are witnessing every day.
I've also had the opportunity to visit many of those operations, so I spoke to the council about how hunger and conflict really looks in, in, in practice— how that cycle of hunger and conflict looks in practice, drawing from that firsthand experience during my visits.
And that's how this vicious cycle is now escalating, and that waiting for a famine being declared is a total failure of duty.
It should be a wake-up call for all, because when families don't have food to put on the table, they only have 3 choices, or 3 options, and they're all terrible: starve, move, or rebel.
Today I also flagged a new dimension: that the double choking point that many have been spoking— speaking about, the Hormuz and the Red Sea—is now a triple choking point, adding the escalation in the Black Sea.
How many more choking points can the world really muster before it completely suffocates? I also wanted to show, though, what is possible if there is political will.
And I called on the Security Council to take urgent and concrete action to break this cycle of hunger and conflict.
I suggested 5 circuit breakers: first, measures that stop conflict in one region to drive hunger in another; second, to act early, as I said, when famines are declared, it's already way too late; three, to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure; four, to protect humanitarian personnel; and five, and fifth, solidarity with the most vulnerable in the world.
The current funding cuts to our programs are simply not sustainable.
I used to talk about taking food from the hungry to give to the starving, but in some—some contexts right now, we are on the verge of having nothing to give at all.
We all risk becoming bystanders as children starve.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Edie? Uh, thank you very much, Mr.
Skau.
Um, you and I were both here during the last Somali-almost famine and starting, and there was a great outpouring that actually kept it from happening and becoming greater.
Yeah.
You started your speech to the, Security Council talking about the difference in 6 years from the time that WFP won the Nobel Peace Prize until today.
Why do you think the world has become so inured to hunger and really trying to do something to turn the tide back to opening pockets and, coffers to, providing the aid that WFP and others need to really prevent famine and starvation? Well, at WFP, um, we refuse to accept that hunger, is being normalized.
But it is indeed true that we have seen, a dramatic deterioration in the situation.
As I spoke to today, back in 2018, when 2417, this resolution that we today speak to, was adopted, and then in 2020 when WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a lot of hope, you know.
At WFP, a lot of optimism.
We really thought that eradicating hunger—zero hunger— was possible.
But of course, fast-forwarding to today, only 6 years later, we have seen a tripling of needs: almost 300 million people acutely food insecure.
And last year we saw a plummet in our funding, 40% only for WFP.
And on top of that, of course, increasingly dangerous, for our frontline teams.
I spoke today, again, about our team in northern Yemen; 38 of my colleagues there are still in detainment.
Why that is, um, you know, I cannot respond to.
But what I can say is that we refuse to accept, that reality.
You can count on WFP to do whatever we can.
But that's why I was so clear to member states: what they need to do, their responsibility, in trying to break this, this vicious cycle.
Thank you.
Efron? Thank you so much.
Your speech today, Mr.
Skau, said really—it said it all.
A very powerful speech.
It diagnoses the whole problem.
Uh, you spoke also of political will.
When you meet with world leaders and explain to them the situation that's so drastic, what is it that they tell you? How do they—how do you explain? What's your insight into this major disconnect from what's happening on the ground to vulnerable people? Well, in many capitals, um, I think, um, you know, the response is that there are domestic pressures that need to be dealt with.
There are pressures and priorities closer to home in the region that needs to be dealt with.
And of course I come, with a message, a humanitarian message, speaking to the humanitarian imperatives.
But there is a broader story here, of course.
Uh, um, you know, there are, food security and national security is linked, food security and stability, is linked.
And so if the, the world does not wake up, to where we're heading now, you know, we risk seeing more instability, further down the road.
As I said in my opening remarks, a family who don't have food on the table only have 3 choices: it's starve, it's move, or it's rebel.
And that goes then far beyond, of course, the humanitarian consequences of, this increased food insecurity.
Great.
Eric, please.
Uh, thank you, sir.
It's Eric Peters with Kyodo News Agency.
Uh, have you submitted any proposals on reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative? Uh, and if so, what has been the response? We stand ready, to support any initiative like we did back in 2022.
Uh, the Secretary-General leads on this, and we would be supportive, of anything that, would be possible.
Uh, as I spoke to today, the consequences of a further escalation, in the Black Sea would be dire.
One-third, of all wheat export comes through the Bosporus, and so that needs to be avoided.
And, um, and, if there are any ways that, um, that that can be supported, WFP is stand ready.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Carl.
Thank you.