US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or Fews Net, an essential tool to monitor global food crises, has been suspended in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending foreign aid. The Fews Net website was inaccessible Friday, with a banner across it saying reports and data were “currently unavailable.”
Fews Net, in helping to quantify levels of hunger and eradicate famine, has been instrumental in facilitating the allocation of food aid for humanitarian organizations through vital data. A disruption to this system, such as parts of Sudan experiencing conditions for famine or millions facing starvation in Myanmar, is terrible news.
The tool is life-saving, asserted Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development. It helps respond to food shortages before they can escalate into full-blown famines. Without this early warning system, he warned, global humanitarian efforts will lack the crucial foresight to stop disasters from reoccurring.
Trump’s executive order, signed last January 20, put to a freeze for 90 days all US funding for foreign aids as reviews continue. The country is the largest donor of global humanitarian aid globally, accounting for more than 40% in funding last year. This very sudden move, however, already created a worldwide stir in aid circles, furthering layoffs and project halting and furloughing employees at US Aid.
Fews Net was not exempted, despite granting waivers for some forms of aid, including emergency food assistance and HIV drug distribution. Established in 1985 after a devastating famine in Ethiopia, Fews Net has become the gold standard for famine monitoring. Its suspension threatens the preparedness and resilience of global food security efforts, putting countless lives at risk.
