Efforts to fight a global surge in acute food insecurity are being stymied in several countries by fighting and blockades that cut off life-saving aid to families on the brink of famine, warn the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) in a new report issued today.

“I’ve spent most of my life on the canoe fishing, but fish always spoiled and food was never enough”, recalls Deng Abdulai. 

Allowing communities in Rumbek to dream big through new knowledge and agricultural production

From a destroyed field to a bountiful vegetable farm in a few months

Dalia Wang, 39, lives in a village near Maban and is a mother of five who has looked after her children alone since her husband passed away.

Santa Angwech David, 23 years old, lives in Magwi, near the South Sudanese border with Kenya.

Having once fled civil war, RealLifeHero and returnee Ritah Alfred is working for FAO to support livelihoods for her fellow citizens

Initiative seeks to increase self-reliance of vulnerable populations and lay the groundwork for increased agribusiness investment

“My father used to harvest wild honey from anthills and trees; he was an expert in traditional beehives and as young as 15, I had already acquired these vital traditional skills. We learned to work the hard way without protective gear and using fire that killed the bees in order to harvest this honey”. 

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said today that significant gains had been made in the fight against the desert locust upsurge in East Africa and Yemen.