PBS Annapour&Company-Walter Isaacs
2024-01-13 Interview of Cindy McCain Executive Officer of U.N. World Food Program
…There are conflicts in Chad, Ethiopia, and Sudan…
The situation worldwide is desperate were not talking about a few countries, were talking about many countries but many countries don’t have the ability to feed their population, and that is where the WFP comes in.
They have had to make tough decisions because they don’t have the funding. I have had to deal with in my own mind, taking food from the hungry to give to the starving, that is a decision that we have to make every day. Places like Chad, like Haiti, like the DRC Congo, like Somalia. We are spread thin; we don’t have the money. We had plenty of money many years ago, but we don’t have the money now. I have had to make very serious tough decisions. Shorting rations from 1 year to 6 months. Some to 0 Afghanistan we don’t have the money to feed everyone.
In Sudan a pregnant woman was told by a man ur rations are up. I can’t give U anymore. Pregnant with two young children. Continue to raise the flag around the world the importance of why we need to feed, why we need to be there. Why we need the money to do it? The WFP faces a 15-billion-dollar shortfall, We face a shortfall of money because a lot of people and countries I should say are weary. We have seen crisis after crisis, after crisis and their own constituencies are saying enough, we have to pay attention to our own home. I certainly understand that, but it doesn’t make the starving people go away, things just don’t disappear, so I do my very best I can to make sure the people understand what is going on around the world and why it is important to continue to do this because if we are not going to feed them now conflict is going to take over and the bad guys are going to roll in and then we have an even bigger problem. That is why I continue to do what I do. I do hopefully testify at Congress, I am going to Davos this coming weekend to talk about the crisis worldwide and why we need to be extra diligent about what we do and why it is so important that we give even more.
There is a connection between feeding people and national security. I Explain that it is not only a humanitarian issue but a national security issue. For food, people will do anything, and it makes it easier for the bad guy to roll in and that makes it a national security issue for the U.S.A. Look at it from a national security perspective If we don’t feed them the bad guys are going to move in and make sure they do feed them.
Question: The Global Community has said it really wants to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030. What does that mean? How can that be done? Answer: I will work with anyone that can offer something like that. It means that we all have to work together. This is a problem that is on somebody else's doorstep, it is a problem it is on our doorstep. We have to deal with hunger. It is important to have the world work together.
What drives U to do this? What keeps U going? I consider myself to be a humanitarian. I have been one for most of my adult life. What drives me is I know I can do better. I know we can help. What drives me is the people that I see. It is as if our ability as an organization as a world to work together to feed people in desperate situations. That is really what drives me. What keeps me awake is not being able to feed them. That is the most gruesome thing that I face is not being able to feed people. It is twofold. It helps me to continue on and also breaks my heart.