The international community needs to make sure everyone has access to food. Photo / 123rf
The international community needs to make sure everyone has access to food. Photo / 123rf
Opinion by Amanda Rives
Amanda Rives is senior director of external engagement and resource development, disaster management for World Vision.
THE FACTS
Global funding cuts are severely affecting humanitarian food aid, worsening the refugee crisis.
Armed conflict and insecurity are primary drivers of food insecurity, affecting millions in conflict zones.
The international community must urgently commit to ending the hunger crisis and supporting refugees.
This World Refugee Day, as global conflict, economic instability and climate hazards devastate lives and livelihoods and lead to a staggering refugee crisis, the need for humanitarian food aid is more vital than ever before.
Global funding cuts across the humanitarian sector are decimating the safety net thatmany households in crisis depend on.
As of May, funding for the food security sector totalled $1.9 billion for 2025 compared to the $12.4b required to meet global humanitarian food security needs.
The food crises ravaging communities, in particular refugee communities, today are not natural phenomena, but point to a collective failure on the part of the international community.
Global climate negligence and diplomatic failures continue to put people in fragile contexts at risk. International legal frameworks designed to protect civilians in conflict, preserve the right to food, and ensure access to humanitarian aid are increasingly violated with impunity.
At the same time, global aid cuts are creating gaps in the emergency services designed to support vulnerable communities when other systems collapse.
A World Vision report released for World Refugee Day finds that displaced people in 13 fragile countries are wrestling with the compounding implications of hunger as global aid cuts hit home.
The findings highlight the devastating impact of rising food insecurity.
The laws of aid
The need to address the widespread and growing scale of global hunger is underpinned by numerous legal frameworks.
The 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enshrined the fundamental right of every human being to be free from hunger, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child similarly states that all children everywhere have a right to adequate nutritious food.
In 2018, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2417, which unequivocally condemns the use of starvation as a weapon of war. In a sweeping declaration, the resolution calls on parties to armed conflict to “protect civilians and take constant care to spare civilian objects, including objects necessary for food production and distribution.”
Despite the negligence evident today, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) also recognises the right of the civilian population affected by armed conflict to receive humanitarian assistance and requires parties to conflict to ensure unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.
Protecting civilians, providing humanitarian assistance, and promoting food security are therefore not simply altruistic gestures. They are established legal obligations fundamental to fulfilling the rights of people in crisis.
Armed conflict and insecurity remain the primary drivers of food insecurity. In 2024, nearly 140 million people in conflict zones faced high levels of acute food insecurity.
Armed conflict affects food supply systems and the vulnerable go hungry. Photo / Getty Images
War causes starvation
Famine was confirmed in Sudan in 2024 and remains imminent in other conflict-affected places such as Gaza, Haiti, Mali and South Sudan.
Armed conflict wreaks havoc on food systems, civilian infrastructure, and the environment, destroying harvests, assets, and food reserves, disrupting supply chains and damaging roads, homes and community buildings.
As a result, many children and families are left homeless, on the run, reeling from loss, afraid for their safety and cut off from resources.
Food assistance is designed to support just these sorts of vulnerable communities, who may not have other options for obtaining food due to restrictions on movement, destruction of food supplies in an area or barriers to employment for refugees.
Children and families living in refugee camps, in camps for internally displaced people or those sheltering in war zones often depend on food and cash assistance for survival in the absence of other options.
Ration cuts, however, exacerbate dependency. Support that was already barely enough to ensure survival is now far from the minimum level required.
As a result, many families are forced to make short-term choices that could compromise the long-term wellbeing of their children to keep them alive.
The international community must renew our commitment to end the hunger crisis for refugees.
Today on World Refugee Day, we should reflect on New Zealand’s role in the refugee crisis. When international actors fail to deliver on their obligations, both for protection and humanitarian aid, people at the frontlines of crises – far from diplomatic negotiations and decision-making spaces – suffer.
And sadly, it is children who face the greatest risk.
The international community must renew its commitment to humanitarian aid, to supporting refugees, and to ending the hunger crisis. We must act with urgency and boldness to resolve the underlying drivers of hunger, protect civilians in conflict zones, build food system resilience and realise the right to food.
