Transcripts For ALJAZ Inside Story 20240712

A freshly agreed cease fire the u. S. President s doctor says donald trump has been cleared to return to work but wont confirm the fees tested negative for corona virus that comes after trump addressed a crowd of hundreds at the white house who spoke of a pandemic disappearing and attacked his democratic rival joe biden. And biden has criticized the trumpet ministrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic speaking at a Campaign Event in pennsylvania he highlighted his plans for the economy recovered 19 outbreak has left hundreds of thousands of americans unemployed more than 200000 have died a politician freed from prison by supporters just days ago is now the new Prime Minister of kyrgyzstan the parliament confirmed so dear jumper over after nearly a week of violent protests over a contested election Charles Stratford has more from bishkek. It seems as if yes certainly the situation is a lot calmer here the smalling but there are a whole host of Unanswered Questions with respect to for example the legality the legal status of the new Prime Minister. That are being asked by the opposition here that could potentially jeopardize this car that were experiencing the smalling Going Forward as we try as the country tries to come up with a long Term Solution fellow russian president Alexander Lukashenko has held an unexpected meeting with opposition activists in prison they were jailed for challenging his reelection which triggered weeks of mass protests thousands of israelis have protested against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and be extension of emergency measures that allow the government to limit demonstrations this is the 16th straight weekend of protests across israel against. Headlines the news continues after inside story stay with us. Is there a school is the government taking the necessary action to really address some of the structural issues we listen i still think that travel is the safest mode of travel and to spend that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter. The World Food Program is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yet while it highlights the agencys work on the prize also draw attention to the use of food as a weapon in conflict zones this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im homage and joined this years Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Program a United Nations agency with its headquarters in rome in the public mind the w. S. P. Is often associated with famine relief but its mandate is actually much broader in a moment well bring in our guests and discuss the work the agency does with refugees and in war zones along with a disaster and famine relief its best known for but 1st this report from our diplomatic editor james bass. And so we work with the people in rehabilitation only and with what we call him moves in now the head of the World Food Program David Beasley was on a trip to west africa hed been in bikini a fast so and then was in 2 countries blighted by conflict and hunger when he heard the news i mean this is the 1st time in my life a bit speechless look up to this local legal talk about the most exciting point in time in your life is the Nobel Peace Prize it is because of the w. T. Family theyre out there in the most difficult complex places on in the world with us war conflict climate extremes it doesnt matter theyre out there and they deserve this award and wow wow wow wow mark it will even before the nobel announcement some of predicted the peace prize might go to the World Health Organization but that would have been controversial the agency and its head dr ted ross are at the center of disputes between the u. S. And china with the trumpet ministration pulling its funding instead another part of the u. N. Firmly deeply impacted by coded 19 was chosen for its assets to call. For its contribution to both trying conditions for peace in conflict affected areas. And for acting as a driving force in to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict. The World Food Program has had a major logistical challenge the delivering food this year with large parts of the Global Shipping and Aviation Networks closed instead its had to find alternatives one expert told me w. F. P. Is currently probably the Largest Airline in africa the award goes to the agency for its work and to all its 17000. 00 stone. But executive director David Beasley has been a bold and passionate leader repeatedly linking conflict and hunger in his speeches in the u. N. Security council but it is worth the job has since the 1980 s. Always gone to an american mr beazley is a former republican governor of South Carolina who knows President Trump well hes had a difficult year himself contract encoded 19 early in the pandemic but he ends it with the presentation of the award in december recognition of the agencys ever growing workload james aljazeera of the United Nations is all oh. All right lets bring in our guests from juba in south sudan Matthew Hollingworth the World Food Program south sudan country director from Phnom Penh Cambodia emma leslie director of the center for peace and conflict studies and from paris all they solve on director of partnerships and policy for the Norwegian Refugee Council thank you all for joining us matthew let me start with you 1st let me say congratulations on this tremendous honor to you and all your colleagues with the World Food Program what is this going to mean for you for the World Food Program and for all the people that you know youre trying to help in places like south sudan. Exactly for all of the Family Welfare program around the world and were thrilled and sort of on a by what is this amazing achievement and the recognition of course of the work that weve been doing over the last few years but in particular this year as the world suttons struggles through time and once again and also the recognition of course thats hunger and war and conflict goes hand in hand and the world needs to do everything it can alongside through programming of the world through problem alongside them to stop that and break that linkage so its a great honor and i believe that it will it will scare us on in our task in our responsibility emma from your perspective how much does the fact that the International Community has of late repeatedly failed to mediate conflicts and disputes around the world how much has that led to this massive increase weve seen around the world in Food Insecurity. Yeah i think mostly got me thinking back to lessons to our friends and colleagues that their partners at the World Food Program but absolutely i think the Nobel Committee is actually reminding us all that we are living in any era of very complex complicated systemic structural violence conflicts that we actually need to scale up for our commitment and results is to prioritizing the resolution of those but actually that somehow weve also failed and that we really need to review our models of mediation and ill invest heavily in preventive diplomacy and we have spent a lot of the last couple of decades looking at preventing violent extremism and so on but we havent really delved deeper into the sort of analysis of where conflicts that coming from and some of those complaints south sudan require me and my career and ensure theyre also getting swept up in geopolitics economic demand and of course led by very real structural violence causes how much has conflict driven hunger and Food Insecurity increased these past few years how bad is the situation. Well what were seeing is that situation is quite bad you know already at the beginning of this year we saw that you know we saw warning signs and we sort of numbers. That that Food Insecurity wasnt increased in many places in the world east africa is one of the you know the sale is another one and then on top of that we also got colby 19th at the new egypt Refugee Council we did a study recently where we asked people in many other places there where we operate how kobe 19 had and impacted them and we found that many people who were saying that they had lost income because of coke at 19 and about 70 percent of those we interviewed said that they had had they had fewer meals to put on their tables as a result of coffee and 90 so its clear that what weve seen what we saw d earlier than you know the increase increasing or in science around hunger and famine and warns of famine and then you get correct 19 on top of that you know makes us in a very precarious situation right now to be sitting in that sense a very very tiny award and matthew you heard early there now just talk about how precarious the situation has become because of cove in 1000 lets talk about that for a minute i mean what about covert 1000 how has the pandemic exacerbated a situation that is already so dire for so many people so many vulnerable populations in conflict zones that are already on the brink of starvation. We certainly i mean our greatest. Challenge here in south sudan is the fact that conflict is persistent and that conflict has got gotten us where we are today in terms of the enormity of the through security problem here what code 19 has done has just added an additional layer of complexity to that and made our lives a lot harder because its so much more expensive to do our work in south sudan itself and communities are facing very significant shortfalls of of revenue because. Currency is depreciated by 65 percent last year by mary downs or covert but also the price of oil dropping in the world same time over commodities that come into this country and so many people depend on markets of this region its also much more expensive now as well so we now we now face this double challenge of the people who are displaced because of conflict rural areas particularly suffering and now a new urban caseload people who because of code 90 im not making the livelihoods they used may not have dont have the jobs they used to have dont have the revenue to cover their basic needs and of khowst 3 quarters of every everything all the people spend in south sudan is on food so when food prices are high that people really start to suffer and households. Emma you know ive read some of your reporting where you talk about the fact that conversations these days about peace building too often start from the point of covert 19 and that youd like to challenge organizations and groups working toward peace from focusing on it so much and to refocus energy and resources to ending violent conflict how would that be achieved at a time like this. I mean weve seen some really creative and the ships the secretary generals call for safe ios and we say when you discussions around the impact of sanctions in the in the moment of this i mean actually if you took the quran can ensure as an example this would be precisely the time to fast track the end of the war so there are a number of things that we can be doing right now precisely as has been said the cogia it creates these other complication but its not like these conflicts where complicated and protracted for quite some time so i think we need to be very careful that we stay focused on math and that we go back to understanding that conflicts especially at local levels begin by exclusion they begin by policies and constitutions and structures that prohibit paypal from access to their land it begins with displacement and thats precisely why organizations like the World Food Program then have to come in and do the work that they do because people i dont have access to the very basic resources and names that they have and thats why our group submerged so on and so forth so our concern is that while we focus on the pandemic which is obviously important that will lose sight of the fact that these conflicts have been bubbling away there for quite some time and that we need a lot more creativity and very simple things we can do we can end the war on the Korean Peninsula we can change the isolation of some countries we can bring out a stronger efforts for preventive diplomacy but equally we need to change our models of maybe ation and i think this is something that we havent talked a lot about we have these system of bringing in envoys sort of big men mediation but its really time to review net and think differently about how multitrack diplomacy approaches its time to work collaboratively we need to take out goes out of its time to really not pull down and put some of this to rest because its not good for economy stuff but it has to. Militate not but for the lives of paypal and cute us to the bill committee for making that point by supporting that will fit program whos doing their best to me to say that to hold the front but those of us in mediation pace building complete resolution will have to step it up although lets talk for a few moments about yemen yemen of course is the country that is considered to be the site of the worlds worst humanitarian disaster a manmade disaster as it were now the word Norwegian Refugee Council says that yemeni farms have been hit at least 918. 00 times by airstrikes and shelling in less than 3 years which further exacerbates yemens severe food crisis how close is yemen to famine right now. I mean its clear that we are its in the close your area dangerous situation the point here is also that it is not too late yet and this is this is a point where all parties to the conflict really have to step back and and take measures to make sure that that we dont get to that point and there are many different aspects to this conflict and to most caltex right you mentioned all the airstrikes etc thats why im a bit but we also see in many places that we are as humanitarians often faced with obstacles in terms of delivering humanitarian assistance and this is one other you know reason why i think the way the order to w. If its such a great and timely award what maybe a lot of people dont perhaps know ringback is that in many of these situations if hes actually the backbone of d the humanitarian response in many ways because they provide Logistical Support so when i went to yemen last for example it was by support of it over w. T. F. The peace plan but that has to do with absolutes and it has to do with you know all parties in the open in particular but all of the conflicts as well really have to recognize the humanitarian principles that that humanitarian aid is your troll and objective and really facilitates that in these situations and so there are several aspects to this but its you know i think that in a message on yemen here is that it is an ink stream an extremely preparers situation but its not too late yet to avoid some of the worst consequences there matthew i saw you nodding along to some what all they were saying so let me also talk to you briefly about yemen you know yemen is a country that i used to report to report from quite often i remember doing stories about how bad childhood malnutrition was in 2011 long before this current conflict started when youre hearing ole talk about the difficulties the logistical difficulties of getting aid of getting food of getting support into yemen how tough is it right now especially for the w. S. P. To get much needed support into a place like yemen. I mean whether were talking about yemen or syria or or even here in south sudan vost amounts of energy and resources go in certain shoring that the logistics were that we have every means possible to meet the challenges of access in complex emergencies in human induced emergencies but of course thats the point theyre all man made and the obstacles that have been thrown up being thrown up by you know individuals by people like governments who are brought in during and have pouring and making our operations harder i mean i think this is why its so important on the advocacy side that we recognize that these cant these things can be made and they can be made. And the heart of it all the more expensive the assistance the more expensive the logistics. And the more difficult it is to Resource Operations that could be spending more of the resources on genuinely saving lives and then changing the lives of people in countries you know what we know in most conflicts is that unfortunately conflict you have this conflict trapped in a system long term trapped in areas of crisis and of course theyre part of the reason that happens is because we spend a vast amount of money on the Emergency Response and then when we do in some cases to an absence of conflict or better still some peace. When the windles and the Development Money when bills because of that we go back into concerts and if we can you know if we can actually break that back of recognizing that making things harder continuing conflict for d political purposes and making the aid. Is really it is really going to make it in the long. Response in those. Communities back on its feet im far harder. Again from outside in i can tell you it. Does nothing else look at. Alices absence. I mean again. Things easy we could be spending those resources on more and more assistance at that because thats the same in yemen thats so in syria that all of the complex emergencies but i mean i think its 0. 80 worth of programs resources globally to human induced crisis. And obviously we would rather be spending that money on the longer Term Development kind of activities resilience Building Activities that help communities become selfreliant selfsustaining and not need humanitarian aid to exist it looks very much to me like you might have wanted to jump in and add to what matthew was saying did you. So i mean a plot of this of being is that were just hungry as a planet i would think for some kind of leadership that helps us to step into that space as has been described but i think we really need a goalless values driven collaboration around trying to solve some of these men my problems because we do have Climate Change its predominantly manmade we are in this geopolitical standoff so the particular places in the world and as has been said is that they see things repeat themselves im sitting in cambodia at a country that has a small country it makes difficult decisions about which power it sits way then how does it make its needs so i think were in this moment in history yet again 2020 where we may well conflict is complex and people are left out and its not always about economics its more often about exclusion about identity about dignity and people getting access to land basic land what they can feed themselves i think theres a very fundamental simple things but its going to take that kind of leadership which will take us forward into the post 2020 era and be able to solve some of these things although if we could pick up a bit on what emma was saying the conflicts are complex especially right now on the one hand wars and conflicts can lead to conditions of Food Insecurity we know that but then there are also scholars and analysts who say that Food Insecurity can also give rise to violence and political conflicts so in some sense it becomes a bit like a catch 22 does it not. I mean its clear it is a sightless right where you know it hit routine security hunger d is a result of a conflict but its also it unilateral resources d and lack of access to land and that access to truth is also d fueling competition and fueling that even conflicts and we also see in some cases that you know hunger and access to food and ringback humanitarian assistance is years very politically and even as a weapon of war in several cases you know i think there are 3 main things that we need to be doing now and one is really you know a recognition of the threats and increased hunger that receiving we need to make sure that we continue serving humanitarian support humanitarian assistance to both address the immediate need but also looking at sort of more the longer term needs and looking at the systems looking at the food and i think cultural systems etc to make sure that we address those and the 2nd issue is really to look at these access issue we need to be able as humanitarian actors to have access to those who are most in need those are hardest to reach as i hear there is a role and responsibility both d for the Armed Conflict parties whether theyre not nonstate our group spittles of governments in some cases that are putting a lot of obstacles in our way but also for International Bodies such as the Un Security Council to really take this seriously and 3rd i think you know its right what am i saying that we need to be looking at that the long term drivers and the trigger is a conflict we need to invest more in preventative measures and like renewed thats occurring at 19 perhaps you know if it is a bigger destruction from some of the underlying causes at this point i think organizing is also an opportunity here you know the u. N. Security council has asked for a cessation of hostilities they need to follow up on that and we need to have renewed efforts. Make sure that were d able to address some of these humanitarian needs and so will these situations in the long term perspective as well matthew the Nobel Committee said that the world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Program and other Food Assistance organizations do not receive the Financial Support they have requested the w. S. P. Of corps is so heavily dependent on donations to do its critical work around the world at a time of such vast wealth how frustrating is it for you that it is so difficult for the w f p and for other Food Assistance organizations to get the funds that they need from the International Community. I mean i think. Youve answered my question it is incredibly frustrating particularly when you see you know the well that does exist in the world you know the trillion and billionaires that control so much wealth when there are families that we work with on a daily basis who for whom a meal is a luxury and so. We are we are very well funded i should say on donors are enormously in particular donor governments are enormously generous with their assistance they are generous with that systems also because they recognize the Global Security global stability is also part and parcel of the hunger equation as the justice conflict and hunger olympics so is global stability and global prosperity and now our issues is that we simply do not have the resources to cover all of the needs in the world today there are 60690000000 people who are hungry when they go to sleep and we say is the World Food Program around 100000000 people a year in over 80 programs and 80 countries in the world we know that were not getting to as many people as should be and we know that Global Hunger is on the increase. I mean in south sudan itself for example the best case that we can we can actually to come in terms of the 5000000 people that we support in south sudan is that we can give them 50 percent of the ration that they need to have a healthy life but we give that 50 percent rushing because thats all d we can results and you know if we let the spread the crime and hes going to them that then we start to question whether we can have a genuine impact on on peoples nutrition needs or meeting peoples nutrition that. This is not the only country with a. Case so it is frustrating but at the same time we have to recognize the right donor governments in amazing jobs yes but more could be done and i think there is obviously a need for really looking and i think as was mentioned at the way we were and actually trying are the difference of. Where its not only donor governments that have been a member or to our kind of work but also individuals and companies as well private sector needs stability needs prosperity its a Global Market is to help them continue they also need to take on some of this responsibility as well all right well we have run out of time so were going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all our guests Matthew Hollingworth emma leslie and Ollie Solvang and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. Inside story for me my mage and join the whole team here but for now. 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