Topic:
Country: Egypt
Delegate Name: Muskan Rekhani
United Nations Development Programme
Food Instability and Political Crises
The Arab Republic of Egypt
Muskan Rekhani
Forest Hills Eastern
Food insecurity in the United Nations (UN) is becoming a more significant problem as time progresses. In 2021, 828 million people were affected by hunger– 46 million people more than a year earlier and 150 million more than in 2019. Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria are some of the highest-ranked in hunger levels. Most recently, the leading causes are the pandemic (unemployment) and poverty. Another recent leading cause of food insecurity was the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is responsible for a large quantity of maize and wheat exports and the Russian Confederation is responsible for a large export of fertilizer to help production. To decrease and work to eliminate world hunger, the UN has created the Zero Hunger Challenge. The basis of the challenge is to eliminate world hunger by satisfying five major elements: attaining food system sustainability, ending rural poverty, eliminating waste of food, supporting access for anyone, and stopping malnutrition. In addition, the UN provides emergency food rations in humanitarian cases with the World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP delivers relief food items following natural disasters or humanitarian crises. This year, WFP has increased assistance six-fold in Sri Lanka in response to the economic crisis, launched an emergency flood response in Pakistan, and expanded operations to record levels in Somalia as famine looms.
The Arab Republic of Egypt struggles with food insecurity and is open to the United Nation’s support. Compared to the rest of the UN, Egypt is in a moderate state of hunger. Egypt’s main obstacle to food security is safety. Egypt is ranked high in the categories of availability, affordability, sustainability, and adaptation, however, the quality and safety of food are issues. One proposal that Egypt values is the National Strategic Plan for Pre-University Education (2014-2030). The WFP began the plan to feed those in school. However, the flaw is the plan does not feed those who do not attend school. Another plan that led to improvement is the Egypt Vision 2030. The plan includes increasing employment rates, beginning food security initiatives, increasing clean water access, and generating accessible screening and treatment for malnourished individuals. Egypt would achieve this by improving economy size, market competitiveness, human development, quality of life, and anti-corruption. Because Egypt is struggling with world hunger, they have yet to contribute to the United Nations in this aspect. Instead, they have been provided aid in the past by the WFP.
The food instability crisis is in desperate need of action from the United Nations. The Arab Republic of Egypt recommends that other struggling nations adopt aspects of the Egypt Vision 2030. Countries should focus on four main points: increasing employment rates, beginning food security initiatives, increasing clean water access, and generating accessible screening and treatment for malnourished individuals. To attain these areas, developing countries need to improve economic size, market competitiveness, human development, life quality, and anti-corruption. Egypt is also a part of the Roadmap for Global Food Security. This is a guarantee that any country has access to food through the efficient flow of food resources. This can be especially valuable during natural disasters or emergencies that can cause a food shortage.
