In Somalia, needs will be highest among IDPs and the pastoral destitute when the lean season approaches in October.

In focus

• Recent or ongoing harvests are generally contributing to greater food security in most parts of East Africa, West Africa, Central America and Asia while food insecurity levels are reaching their annual peak in Southern Africa.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. The Price Watch provides an update on trends in selected urban centers. Prices for key markets and commodities monitored are made available in the Price Watch Annex.*

Commodities boom may be fuelling global hunger, warns Christian Aid

Pension funds and other institutional investors that have poured billions of pounds into commodity index funds could be unwittingly fuelling a rise in global hunger, says a new report from Christian Aid.

Such investments in indices of commodities bundled together have become increasingly popular in recent years following deregulation and the bursting of the dot.com bubble.

Report to Congressional Committees

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY

Highlights of GAO-10-352, a report to congressional committees

What GAO Found

The U.S. government supports a wide variety of programs and activities for global food security, but lacks readily available comprehensive data on funding. In response to GAO's data collection instrument to 10 agencies, 7 agencies reported funding for global food security in fiscal year 2008 (see figure below) based on the working definition

El estado de la inseguridad alimentaria en el mundo 2009 es el 10.=BA informe de situación de la FAO sobre el hambre en el mundo desde la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación (CMA) de 1996. En el informe se destaca el hecho de que, incluso antes de que se produjeran la crisis alimentaria y la crisis económica, el n=FAmero de personas que padecían hambre había aumentado lenta pero constantemente. Sin embargo, el inicio de estas crisis provocó el incremento pronunciado del n=FAmero de personas que padecen hambre en el mundo.

Como resultado de la crisis económica

(Fuentes: FAO, Federación Internacional de Sociedades de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja, Cruz Roja Española).

- A comienzos de 2008, los precios mundiales de los alimentos y del petróleo se dispararon. Entre las posibles causas de esta subida vertiginosa se encontraban los efectos del cambio climático, la crisis financiera, continuadas malas cosechas en países exportadores o la producción de biocombustibles.

Los efectos fueron inmediatos. Se desencadenaron disturbios en más de treinta países y comenzó una grave crisis alimentaria

The bulletin covers 56 countries over the period from March to June 2009 .

Highlights:

- Overall: Prices of main staple