FEEDING people will be harder than ever as the UN World Food Programme warns of a hunger emergency for nearly 14m people worldwide, including Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Haiti, due to slashed global aid. The agency says it “expects to receive 40pc less funding for 2025, resulting in a projected budget of $6.4bn, down from $10bn in 2024”. Clearly, the Western world, led by the US, Britain, France and Germany, is morally broke. It has abandoned all obligation to development and humanitarian support, particularly in countries it spent trillions to destroy. A WFP report, A Lifeline at Risk, forecasts that food aid cuts could send a populace of 13.7m “from crisis to emergency” stages of hunger, a degree away from famine “in a five-level international hunger scale”. According to the programme, some 319m people currently face food insecurity; 44m are in hunger emergency.

Pakistan, too, will battle alarming food poverty. The present scenario is hardly healthy: four out 10 under-five children are stunted, 17.7pc are experiencing wasting and a staggering 28.9pc underweight. An IPC study last year revealed that 2.14m of the country’s children are severely underfed. The government’s cold-blooded attitude and unwillingness to include nutrition in political agendas has brought us to this point. Reliance on foreign aid long meant that the authorities were able to abdicate their duty to provide citizens with food, safety and education. As help from the US dries up, Pakistan cannot be dependent; it must itself provide its children with proper health facilities, accessible and affordable food supplies, including through mobile distribution units, and encourage guided feeding practices. In a dilapidated economy, lowered malnutrition is unachievable without health reforms. This requires international expertise and cooperation. Economic success is unattainable until sustenance and healthcare are guaranteed for future generations.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025