World Food Program

US Tells Russia: Stop Weaponizing Food in Your War on Ukraine

• May 19, 2022

Antony Blinken, the United States Secretary of State, accused Russia of weaponizing food in its fight against Ukraine and creating a hunger crisis in many parts of the world as a result. Blinken made the remarks at an open debate on conflict as a driver of food insecurity in the United Nations Security Council …

Africa, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending March 18

Damilola Banjo

• March 18, 2022

This week, we place the lens on the United Nations itself as the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine surge into the fourth week of war. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting, and other sources. This …

Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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Congolese Refugees’ UN Grants Offer Grocery Lifelines for Poor Zimbabweans

Nyasha Bhobo

• February 21, 2022

HARARE, Zimbabwe — In Zimbabwe’s city townships, where high food prices exact a toll on poor households, grocery shops run by entrepreneurial Congolese refugees defend against hunger. “The Congolese shops, they feed my family!” said Sara Moyo, 27, a mother of two in Stoneridge Park, a suburb in the south of Harare, the capital …

Africa, Refugees

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THIS WEEK @UN

Spoilers of Peace in Yemen; COP26’s First Week; Morale Boosting by Blinken

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 5, 2021

COP26 opens with a foreboding announcement from the UN secretary-general; peacekeepers shot by the presidential guard in the Central African Republic; Mexico’s agenda on the Security Council. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change, General Assembly, Humanitarian Aid, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

The UN Sticks to Afghanistan; Ireland Steers the Security Council; Preying on Mothers’ Fears

Anna Bianca Roach

• September 3, 2021

The UN’s priorities in Afghanistan for now; how certain multinational corporations feed on new-mothers’ fears amid Covid; Ireland’s envoy defends the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

US Delegation to Haiti Cut Short; Risks for the UN Pension Fund?; an Ex-Guantánamo Detainee May Face Torture in Russia

Ivana Ramirez

• July 24, 2021

A US delegation to Haiti returns early; potential risks for the $87 billion UN pension fund; an ex-Guantánamo detainee may face torture in Russia. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. We are inching closer …

Africa, Asia, Human Rights, SDGs, Secretary-General, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

The Rough Road to Gender Equality; a Major Message on Hunger; No Saudis on the Human Rights Council

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 17, 2020

For once, two pieces of good news from the United Nations: The World Food Program receives the Nobel Peace Prize and the Security Council begins meeting physically again in its chamber. But some reality-checking: 25 years after the Beijing conference on women, the road to gender equality is still being dug. Greetings from This Week …

Africa, Health and Population, Human Rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations

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The UN’s 12th Nobel Peace Prize: Our Latest Podcast Episode

Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

• October 16, 2020

Clair MacDougall was reporting on a follow-up story for PassBlue about Lieut. Col. Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro, the first official United Nations peacekeeper to die of Covid-19, when on Oct. 9 she heard that the World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and that its executive director, David Beasley, was in town, so she …

Africa, Development, Humanitarian Aid, US-UN Relations

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As the Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded to the World Food Program, Famines Loom

Clair MacDougall

• October 10, 2020

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, this year’s just-announced Nobel Peace Prize winner, has warned that the number of people facing starvation could double next year, to 270 million, if the agency is unable to raise enough money to cope with the crisis. “2021 is going to be …

Humanitarian Aid, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

Never Underestimate the Grit of Malawians to Survive the Coronavirus

Antonio Menendez de Zubillaga

• May 25, 2020

LILONGWE, Malawi — Ever since an expatriate tourism adviser labeled Malawi the “warm heart of Africa” in the 1970s, Malawians have worn the title proudly, sparing no effort to welcome visitors with open arms. My family and I felt immediately at home here in Lilongwe, the capital. We arrived in April 2018, as part …

Africa, Covid-19

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‘Cowboys’ May Be Running the World Food Program, but Donations Keep Coming

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 27, 2019

The World Food Program may be receiving millions of more donations from the Trump administration than under past presidencies, but its management is skidding around amid complaints of sexual harassment, retaliation, abuse of authority and, most startling, rape, according to a new external survey. Under the leadership of David Beasley, a former South Carolina …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN World Food Program Boss, Mixing Work With Religion?

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 31, 2018

David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, based in Rome, posted a prayer at the top of his Twitter page in early January, reading: “My prayer for 2018: Peace. Our path to Zero Hunger begins with peace.” The page, @dbeasley1, is a hybrid of personal tweets and professional news about his …

Humanitarian Aid, Nikki Haley Watch, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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Financing the UN: Payers, Pipers and Tunes

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• December 7, 2017

GENEVA — Change is in the air again on First Avenue. Among numerous reform options being bandied about, none will be more consequential than those on financing the United Nations system. There are the sledgehammer arguments: drastic slashes in funding by Washington and other donors could precipitate dramatic change. As we have argued in …

UN Agencies

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TAKE A LOOK

America’s Financial Support to the UN: What’s at Stake?

Barbara Crossette

• April 4, 2017

With White House proposals to slash United States assessments and donations to international organizations now in play in the writing of a federal budget for 2018 — as an April 28 deadline approaches — the extent of potential losses to the United Nations is coming into sharp focus. The US, for example, has immediately …

Take a Look, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Message to Trump: The US Needs the UN and Vice Versa

Donald T. Bliss

• December 17, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Strong American leadership at the United Nations would greatly enhance President-elect Trump’s foreign policy agenda. United States investment in the UN is an effective use of taxpayer dollars to serve the US military, diplomatic, economic and national security interests. UN peacekeepers, for example, cost one-eighth the expenses of US boots on …