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	Tens of millions at risk of extreme hunger and starvation as unprecedented funding crisis spirals by United Nations World Food Programme   Apr. 2025   The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that 58 million people risk losing life-saving assistance in the agency’s 28 most critical crisis response operations unless new funding is received urgently.   Despite the generosity of many governments and individual donors, WFP is experiencing a steep decline in funding across its major donors. The severity of these cuts, combined with record levels of people in need, have led to an unprecedented crisis for tens of millions across the globe reliant on food aid.   Right now, the organization is facing an alarming 40 percent drop in funding for 2025, as compared to last year. This is having severe repercussions for its food aid efforts globally, particularly emergency feeding programmes that support the most vulnerable.   “WFP is prioritizing countries with the greatest needs and stretching food rations at the frontlines. While we are doing everything possible to reduce operational costs, make no mistake, we are facing a funding cliff with life-threatening consequences,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation. “Emergency feeding programmes not only save lives and alleviate human suffering, they bring greatly needed stability to fragile communities, which can spiral downwards when faced with extreme hunger.”   Today, global hunger is skyrocketing as 343 million people face severe food insecurity, driven by an unrelenting wave of global crises including conflict, economic instability, and climate-related emergencies.   In 2025, WFP’s operations are focused on supporting just over one-third of those in need - roughly 123 million of the world’s hungriest people - nearly half of whom (58 million) are at imminent risk of losing access to food assistance.   Last year, WFP teams helped feed more than 120 million people in 80 countries, delivering urgent food aid to hunger hot spots and frontline crises around the world.   As WFP works to quickly adapt its operations to current low funding levels, it is alerting donors that its 28 most critical crisis response operations are facing severe funding constraints and dangerously low food supplies through August.   The 28 programmes span: Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, South Sudan, Chad, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, DRC, Yemen, Mali, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Ukraine, Malawi, Burundi, Ethiopia, Palestine, Central African Republic, Jordan, and Egypt.   Below are a few examples of these programmes.   Sudan: WFP requires nearly US$570 million to support over 7 million people per month in Sudan where a looming pipeline break will hit as early as April. Famine was first confirmed in Zamzam camp near the embattled city of El Fasher and has since spread to 10 areas across North Darfur and the Western Nuba mountains. In Sudan 24.6 million people do not have enough to eat.   Delays in funding to deliver emergency food assistance, emergency nutrition and emergency logistics will cut a vital lifeline for millions with immediate and devastating consequences for vulnerable populations, who in many cases are just one step away from starvation.   Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): WFP requires US$399 million to feed 6.4 million as escalating violence by militia groups in the east has already displaced more than a million people. Food and nutrition assistance across the DRC is vital to stabilize the region and reach the most vulnerable who have already been displaced by conflict multiple times.   Palestine: WFP emergency response requires approximately US$265 million over the next six months to provide support to nearly 1.4 million people in Gaza and the West Bank.   An additional US$34 million is urgently needed for 3-month shock-responsive cash transfer assistance to support 40,000 families in the West Bank. The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains critical with over 2 million people fully dependent on food assistance – most of them displaced, without shelter and income.   Syria: WFP requires US$140 million to provide food and nutrition assistance to 1.2 million people every month. Without new funding, WFP faces a pipeline break in August which would cut off food assistance to one million of the most severely food-insecure individuals. Any disruption in life-saving assistance threatens to erode stability and social cohesion during a critical moment when millions of Syrians try to return home.   Lebanon: WFP requires US$162 million to feed 1.4 million people as severe funding shortfalls are already disrupting food assistance to vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugees – fostering instability and heightened social tensions. With an ongoing economic crisis and government transition in Lebanon, food insecurity continues to rise with one in three already facing acute hunger.   South Sudan: WFP requires US$281 million to provide food and nutrition assistance to 2.3 million people escaping war, climate extremes, and an economic disaster - plunging them into a severe hunger crisis. South Sudan has also seen more than one million people arrive, fleeing from the war in Sudan.   Nearly two-thirds of the people in South Sudan are acutely food insecure. New funding for WFP’s crisis response activities in South Sudan is needed now to preposition life-saving food ahead of the rainy season.   Myanmar: WFP requires US$60 million to provide life-saving food assistance to 1.2 million people. Without immediate new funding a pipeline break in April will cut off one million from all support. Increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs as the lean season is expected to begin in July when food shortages hit hardest.   Haiti: WFP requires US$10 million to feed 1.3 million as brutal violence by armed groups has caused record levels of hunger and displacement. Half the population is facing extreme hunger and a quarter of the children under the age of five are stunted.   More than a million people have been forced from their homes, including a record 60,000 in just one month this year. WFP has been providing hot meals and cash assistance to displaced people, but without new funding, that lifesaving assistance could be suspended in the coming weeks.   Saheland Lake Chad Basin: WFP requires US$570 million to reach 5 million people with life-saving food and nutrition assistance. Without new funding a pipeline break is expected in April. Millions of the most vulnerable people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria in need of emergency support also face dire consequences as the June to August lean season approaches. At current funding levels, five million people risk losing critical support from WFP in the months ahead.   * The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.   http://www.wfp.org/news/tens-millions-risk-extreme-hunger-and-starvation-unprecedented-funding-crisis-spirals http://www.wfp.org/news/persistent-violence-and-displacement-lead-record-hunger-haiti-needs-skyrocket http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-runs-out-food-stocks-gaza-border-crossings-remain-closed http://www.wfp.org/news/conflict-and-rising-food-prices-drive-congolese-one-worlds-worst-food-crises-according-new-ipc http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-calls-urgent-access-preposition-food-sudan-rainy-season-risks-cutting-roads-starving http://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/two-years-since-the-start-of-the-conflict-sudan-is-facing/en http://www.wfp.org/stories/people-south-sudan-deserve-freedom-prisons-conflict-and-hunger http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-warns-rising-hunger-and-malnutrition-ethiopia-humanitarian-needs-outpace-resources http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-calls-urgent-investment-prevent-child-wasting-leaders-convene-nutrition-growth-summit http://www.ipcinfo.org/ http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-november-2024-may-2025-outlook http://www.fao.org/giews/country-analysis/external-assistance/en/ http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-2025-global-outlook http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2025 Visit the related web page
	The global economic model has failed working people. It is time for a New Social Contract by International Trade Union Confederation, agencies   The global economic model has failed working people. The power and greed of global corporations have captured governments, which now act against the rights and security of their own workers and in favour of multinationals.   In global supply chains, 94 per cent of the workforce faces poor working conditions and exploitation due to complex business contracts that make oversight difficult.   The world is richer than ever before, yet 70% of people are denied universal social protection, 84% of people say the minimum wage is not enough to live on and 79% of countries have allowed violations of the right to collectively bargain. This is inequality by design. Corporate greed entrenches inequality, exclusion and despair perpetuating instability for our communities and our planet. It is time for a New Social Contract.   A New Social Contract would ensure rights were respected, jobs were decent with minimum living wages and collective bargaining, social protection was universal, due diligence and accountability were driving business operations, and that social dialogue ensured Just Transition measures for climate and technology.   We reject the concept of workers as just another productive resource to be exploited. Therefore, the New Social Contract comprises six key elements that define social relations in the world of work and place the human dimension at the centre of socioeconomic development.   Jobs: Governments must work for full employment and decent work, including measures that formalise the informal economy and invest in quality, climate-friendly jobs supported by Just Transitions.   Rights: Governments and employers must ensure business complies with fundamental labour rights as enshrined in ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions and declarations. These include freedom of association, collective bargaining, non-discrimination and equal pay, the abolition of child and forced labour, and occupational health and safety. These rights must apply to all workers, irrespective of their employment arrangements or migration status.   Just wages: Governments must ensure minimum living wages to allow workers a basic level of dignity, as well as strengthened collective bargaining at all levels. They must ensure equal pay for work of equal value between women and men and pay transparency.   Social protection: Governments must ensure universal, well-financed, rights-based and gender-responsive social protection systems, as well as vital public services including health, care, and education. Fair taxation is central for funding these services and for reducing income inequality.   Equality: Governments must address the inequalities that exist between groups in terms of income, gender and race through robust anti-discrimination legislation and enforcement. Gender biases must be tackled in law and policy to ensure a world of work that is free of gender-based violence and harassment in line with ILO C190.   Inclusion: Governments must ensure all processes are democratic and that social dialogue is embedded in all economic policy discussions so that workers have a say in the decisions that impact their everyday lives.   "Around the world, workers are being denied the basics of life like well-funded hospitals and schools, living wages, and freedom to move, while billionaires pocket record profits and unimaginable power," said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the ITUC. "A system built for the 0.0001% is rigged against the rest of us—but workers around the world are standing up and organizing to take back democracy."   "Workers are demanding a New Social Contract that works for them—not the billionaires undermining democracy," said Triangle. "Fair taxation, strong public services, living wages, and a just transition are not radical demands—they are the foundation of a just society."   Hundreds of thousands of workers rallied in cities and towns across the United States in what the May Day Strong coalition called "a demand for a country that invests in working families—not billionaire profits."   "Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," the coalition said. "This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."   "Just one day after the 100th day of the Trump administration, families nationwide are already facing cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and education—while billionaires reap massive tax breaks and record profits. President Donald Trump's administration has spent the past three months working to secure $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy. They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services and attacking unions " May Day Strong added.   May Day marches and rallies were held in countries including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Greece, the Philippines, Turkey, and Japan..   http://www.ituc-csi.org/a-new-social-contract http://www.ituc-csi.org/May-Day-2025-en http://etuc.org/en/pressrelease/may-day-make-workers-priority http://www.ituc-csi.org/The-greatest-threat-to-democracy-in-80-years http://www.ituc-csi.org/global-rights-index http://www.france24.com/en/business/20250501-live-workers-worldwide-rally-for-rights-social-justice-at-may-day-protests http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/global-ceo-pay-increased-50-percent-2019-56-times-more-worker-wages http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism http://www.socialeurope.eu/democracy-under-siege-trade-unions-rise-as-a-bulwark-against-the-far-right http://peopleoverprof.it/resources/news/new-research-debunks-claim-that-lower-corporate-taxes-create-more-jobs-?id=15858&lang=en http://www.socialeurope.eu/trumps-america-the-new-global-tax-haven http://www.socialeurope.eu/how-the-billionaire-boom-is-fueling-inequality-and-threatening-democracy http://www.socialeurope.eu/how-trumps-tariff-regime-fuels-global-oligarchy http://populardemocracyinaction.org/publication/trumps-corporate-oligarchs-billionaires-cash-in-while-working-people-pay-the-price/   May 2025   Pushed to the brink by heat and injustice, South Asia’s workers demand reparations from fossil fuel corporations, by Amruta S Nair and Sandeep Verma. (Greenpeace India, agencies)   As extreme weather events become the new normal, informal workers across South Asia are bearing the growing brunt of intersecting crises. Labour rights violations and poor social protections are worsening under the climate crisis. In India, amid the ongoing heatwave, we may have come to a boiling point as street vendors, waste pickers, and other informal workers rise in defiance, coming together in solidarity.   Their demands for compensation for losses and other damages are aimed squarely at the coal, oil and gas corporations. In 2023 alone, climate disasters prompted by oil and gas corporations have affected more than 9 million people in Asia, while Big Oil continues to block climate action and spread disinformation, amassing immense wealth.   This International Workers’ Day, a new coalition is forming in Delhi. Informal workers, trade unionists and climate justice campaigners like Greenpeace India, supported by counterparts in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, have launched the Workers’ Collective for Climate Justice – South Asia.   Along with the Collective, groups have signed the Polluters Pay Pact, a global campaign to hold billionaires and polluting corporations accountable for the climate crisis, by demanding that the governments introduce new taxes on fossil fuel corporations to help communities rebuild from climate disasters and invest in inclusive adaptation solutions.   Informal workers in South Asia are no strangers to crises. They have been on the front lines of social marginalisation, and increasingly, the effects of climate change. South Asia, with more than 80 percent of its labour force in the informal sector, is seeing rising temperatures and erratic weather events that are drastically affecting people’s ability to work and survive.   In 2024, Greenpeace India documented how street vendors face financial loss and health risks during peak summer months, with vendors in cities like Delhi reporting more than a 50% decline in income due to heat waves.   Yet, workers remain largely absent in policymaking. While just five oil majors earned more than $102bn in 2024, informal workers are left to bear the brunt of the crisis.   From the struggles of jute mill workers in Bengal to the tea plantation workers’ resistance across the region – labour organising has secured fundamental rights and labour protection for millions. They were never just about wages, but about dignity, recognition, and power.   Today, that legacy is more important than ever. The climate crisis is fundamentally altering the nature of life and work. These effects are set to worsen under a carbon-intensive scenario, with projections of more than 800 million South Asians living in locations that will become climate hotspots by 2050.   In a strong response, workers are reclaiming the power of collectivising. When workers unite across sectors, castes, genders, religions and ethnicities, they challenge systems of both exploitation and environmental degradation. This movement refuses to flatten their diverse experiences into a single narrative. By connecting the strength of past labour struggles with the urgency of the climate crisis, this collective is not merely reacting, it’s forging a new path forward.   Communities on the front lines of climate effects such as fisherfolk and waste pickers are agents of knowledge and lived experience. They witness real-time ecological changes, gaining an understanding of the risks to their livelihoods that policy briefs are often too slow to capture. Yet, both domestic and global climate policy spaces continue to remain distant, dominated by elite institutions and exclusionary technocratic jargon.   Further, it is well established that in the Global South, non-economic losses such as the loss of culture and community far exceed economic ones. Addressing these losses requires the meaningful involvement of affected communities. Particular attention must be paid to ensuring that Loss and Damage financing is equitable and just, without deepening the existing debt burden or imposing unfair conditions on the very countries already bearing the brunt of the crisis.   Loss and damage from climate change in South Asia are already running into the billions of dollars annually. By 2070, this number could jump to $997bn. Despite the promises made at UN Climate Change Conferences, climate finance has been sluggish, fragmented, and insufficient. Wealthy nations and polluters have under-delivered while continuing to drill for new oil and gas.   The adaptation needs of workers must be met now. They urgently require shade and paid breaks for livelihood and survival. While global climate finance talks stall, adaptation costs and urgency are mounting. This is why the Polluters Pay Pact is so vital. It’s not just a gesture – it demands enforceable commitments. As workers gather in Delhi this May Day, they send a clear message: A just, sustainable future must be led by the working class. By holding oil and gas corporations accountable, climate resilience becomes a right – not a privilege.   * Amruta S Nair, is a Climate and Energy Campaigner working with Greenpeace India; Sandeep Verma, is a Trade unionist working with informal workers, especially street vendors, in India.   http://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/make-polluters-pay-south-asian-workers-demand-climate-tax-on-big-oil-sign-labour-day-pact http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/press/18237/worker-groups-demand-polluters-pay-for-lost-income-amid-deadly-south-asia-heatwave/ http://www.wiego.org/news/may-day-2025-storms-dont-break-us-they-build-us/   May 2025   All States must prioritise adoption of a living wage. (OHCHR)   All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage so that workers are able to meet their basic needs and those of their family.   To date, over one in five workers globally live in poverty despite being employed, and almost one in ten live in extreme poverty. Millions of workers continue to earn wages and incomes that are insufficient for a decent standard of living.   Women, particularly those in low-paid, informal and care-related sectors, are disproportionately represented among the working poor. This is unacceptable and a violation of international human rights laws.   We call for increased social development action, reaffirming global solidarity and ensuring that no one is left behind. This includes considering the gendered dimension of economic injustice and the need for gender-transformative policies. The Second World Summit for Social Development will take place from 4 to 6 November 2025 in Doha (Qatar) and discussions on the Political Declaration to be adopted are expected to be initiated in the coming weeks.   At this pivotal moment, we urge States to make concrete and ambitious commitments within the Political Declaration of the Second World Summit, specifically aimed at ensuring living wages for all workers within their jurisdictions. These commitments must also integrate gender equality, close the gender pay gap, and value paid and unpaid care work. This is a unique opportunity to make the Political Declaration a transformative point for actions towards global social justice.   Living wages are not merely an economic concern, but a fundamental matter of human dignity and rights. They are an essential lever for the eradication of poverty as well as reduction of inequalities, and an essential part of the right to just and favourable conditions of work. Living wages even serve as a powerful deterrent against contemporary forms of slavery by directly addressing one of its root causes – economic vulnerability.   Living wages play a crucial role in facilitating access to the rights to education, food, housing, development and social security by ensuring that individuals and families have the financial resources necessary to meet their basic needs. They also contribute to creating a conducive environment for the respect by business of workers’ rights. Living wages advance women’s autonomy and bolster combatting gender-based risks and discrimination.   As required by the international human rights norms and standards, including Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States must close the critical gaps in minimum wage adequacy, enforcement, and coverage.   States should guarantee a minimum wage in legislation, corresponding at least to a living wage, indexed on the cost of living. They should ensure that labor inspectorates are equipped to enforce such legislation and they should extend this protection to informal workers.   We also call on business enterprises to provide a living wage to workers across their value chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.   Building upon the principles of social justice and equitable development laid out since the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, the importance of ensuring adequate wages, revaluing care work, constructing substantive gender equality and redistributing power and resources fairly, have gained increasing recognition in various global initiatives.   The 2025 World Summit for Social Development presents a critical opportunity to spotlight the necessity of living wages and drive transformative action.   http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/04/04/joint-statement-all-states-must-prioritise-adoption-of-a-living-wage-ahead-of-the-second-world-summit-for-social-development/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/02/achieving-global-social-justice/ http://actionaid.org/news/2025/imf-spring-meetings-fall-short-amid-push-more-heartless-public-budget-cuts http://actionaid.org/publications/2025/who-owes-who http://gcap.global/news/call-to-mobilise-economic-justice-in-the-jubilee-year-2025/   May 2025   Convergence alone won’t fix global inequality by 2050 without ambitious redistribution. (World Inequality Database)   What will global income inequality look like in 2050? Will the economic catch-up of developing countries lead to a more equitable world? Or will the rise of top incomes maintain or even exacerbate today’s high levels of inequality? What measures can governments implement to influence future global inequality dynamics?   In a new study, Philipp Bothe, Lucas Chancel, Amory Gethin and Cornelia Mohren address these questions leveraging on a new dataset that includes WID distributional data, UN projections and climate change projections through 2050. They outline diverging pathways for the future of global income inequality horizon 2050.   Key Findings:   In a business-as-usual scenario, overall global income inequality will remain largely unchanged in 2050 compared to today. Without significant changes to current redistribution policies, rising within-country inequality will continue disproportionately benefit the global top 1% who will continue to receive 17% of worldwide income. Meanwhile, rapid growth in developing countries will only slightly increase the average income of the world’s poorest 50%, with their share rising from 10% to 12%.   Progressive “post-tax redistribution” policies, in the form of taxation and cash transfers at a country level, are important but will most likely have a limited impact on the global income distribution on their own.   On the other hand, “pre-tax redistribution”, through measures reshaping the distribution of labor and capital income (e.g. increased government spending on public education and health, and minimum wage policies), will play an essential role in reshaping future inequality.   If all countries aligned both their pre-tax inequality and post-tax redistribution policies with those of the most progressive country in their region, the global bottom 50% income share could double by 2050, reaching nearly 20%. Such policy convergence could be sufficient to offset the effect of four decades of rising within-country inequality.   Climate change is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities further. In a high climate impact scenario, the bottom 50% of the world population could see their income share fall to levels not seen since 1980. This group stands to bear the brunt of climate-related shocks, absorbing nearly three-quarters of total relative income losses.   http://wid.world/news-article/global-inequality-by-2050-convergence-redistribution-and-climate-change/ http://wid.world/news-article/new-version-of-the-global-wealth-tax-simulator-released-at-international-taxing-billionaires-conference/ http://wid.world/world-wealth-tax-simulator/ http://wid.world/news-article/unequal-exchange-and-north-south-relations/ http://inequalitylab.world/en http://www.taxobservatory.eu/joint-press-release-conclusion-of-the-international-conference-on-taxing-billionaires/ http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/a-blueprint-for-a-coordinated-minimum-effective-taxation-standard-for-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals/ Visit the related web page
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