Tag: Programme

Transcript: Cindy McCain, World Food Programme executive director, on “Face the Nation,” March 31, 2024


The following is a transcript of an interview with Cindy McCain, World Food Programme executive director, that aired on March 31, 2024.

ED O’KEEFE: We’re joined by the Executive Director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain. Mrs. McCain, it’s great to see you. Thank you for joining us. Simply put– 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WORLD FOOD PROGRAM, CINDY MCCAIN: My pleasure.

ED O’KEEFE: Simply put, right now there are too many people in the world going hungry and you have some critical insights into that, which is why we’re so pleased that you’re with us this morning. I wanted to begin with the situation earning the most attention right now in Gaza and as the war continues, the International Court of Justice this week called for Israel to, quote “take all necessary and effective measures” to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza. What needs to change so that your teams can operate there?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, first of all, thank you for covering this issue. We need access. We need full, unfettered access and right now we don’t have that. We can occasionally get a few trucks in. We can occasionally get up all the way to the north, but it’s not consistent and is- and is not to scale either. All of the other issues regarding maritime and airdrops and all those are all good. We need any- any way to be able to get food in- in any way we can, but they can’t take it to scale. We really need access to the road and we need to be able to get up to the north, all the way without being caught at checkpoints and turned around.

ED O’KEEFE: I read the World Food Program estimates simply addressing the basic food needs will require at least 300 trucks to enter Gaza every day and distribute food, especially in the north, as you mentioned, but you’ve only managed to get about nine convoys of trucks in since the start of the year. That’s nothing, right?

CINDY MCCAIN: It’s nothing. It really is. We were able to yesterday, or today I guess it was, get nine trucks in, period. We also were part of an airdrop today that was 6.1 metric tons. That’s nothing. We just cannot continue this way. As you know, famine is imminent in the north and so unless we can- can really convince our- our diplomatic groups and our political groups around the world to help convince the Israelis that we must get in and we must do it in a- in a sustained and unfettered- unfettered way. We can’t- people are going to die otherwise, and they already are dying.

ED O’KEEFE: When you or your colleagues speak with Israeli officials about getting that access, what is the reason they’re giving you why they’re not letting you in? Do they not understand the situation? Or is there some other reason?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, I’m not really sure where the mistake has been made, but I do know that there’s been accusations that somehow the U.N. isn’t doing their job, which couldn’t be further from the truth. So I think again, it’s politics. I think it’s something that- that we’re, you know, various factions are involved in, all I want, all I need to know is when and where we can take the food in, make sure that we can distribute it. That’s what I want to know from the Israeli government.

ED O’KEEFE: You’re especially concerned as well about what’s happening in parts of Africa, specifically Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad, and you said, this could become the world’s largest hunger crisis. Why is that?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, quite frankly, it’s the forgotten crisis now. Sudan no- is no longer paid attention to in the world media, and- and things haven’t stopped there. People are still fighting, there is no food. We have no access and we’re also fighting a climate change issue there as well. So it’s almost a combination of a perfect storm, with- with 2.2 million refugees across the borders, in various countries, especially Chad and the funding sources that we have right now and our ability to be able to fund, it just isn’t- isn’t meshing. We don’t have enough money and we need to be able to make sure that we can feed the refugees that are across the border, and also get access into Sudan from this- from- from the- the western side, the southern side, through South Sudan, and through the north, we’ve got to get food in there as well, because it can be and will be, I hope not, I pray not, the next- the next largest humanitarian crisis that will- that we will know. 

ED O’KEEFE: And not only humanitarian crisis, you’ve suggested it could be a real national security risk for the United States, right? 

CINDY MCCAIN: Very much so. People migrate, you know, the bad guys get mixed up in all of this. Food is the- is the major element here in being able to keep populations stable and keep- keep them healthy as well. With those two things not tended to, then people migrate, they run, they take their families, they do anything they can to feed their families.

ED O’KEEFE: You’ve made an interesting point that I think is a good reminder to all of us that these hunger crises around the world are not being caused by natural disasters, but by man-made events and conflict. And nowhere right now, perhaps, at least in this hemisphere, where we sit, is that most apparent than in Haiti, what is the situation there, as you understand it?

CINDY MCCAIN: It’s catastrophic. We- we WFP are still in there and we still are working in the north somewhat and somewhat down towards the center, but it is a very dicey situation. We are continuing our school feeding programs, but once again, as you’ve seen, there have been evacuations of U.N. personnel out of there. It’s just, again, this is a diplomatic solution. This is a man-made crisis, and we need a diplomatic solution to it and we need it now. We need it right now.

ED O’KEEFE: You know, we’d be remiss if we didn’t ask you while we have you about the death of the late Senator Joe Lieberman, who of course, was such a good friend to you and to your late husband, what did he mean to the McCain family?

CINDY MCCAIN: Oh, he was Uncle Joe to my children, he was a friend to my family and- and I had the extreme opportunity of watching two men together, not only navigate the difficulties that the world offered up to them as- as in what they did, but also watch them solve problems together in a way that was gracious and kind and loving towards humanity. And I had the good fortune of being able to call him my friend too.

ED O’KEEFE: Executive Director, Cindy McCain of the World Food Program, thank you for joining us. 

CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you for having me.

ED O’KEEFE: And we’ll be right back.



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Vodafone Germany cutting 2,000 jobs as part of savings programme


Vodafone Germany is cutting and relocating around 2,000 jobs in a bid to save €400 million ($434 million) in the next two years, the company announced on Tuesday.

Vodafone currently employs around 15,000 people in Germany, which means that 13% of employees would be affected by the cuts.

In addition to job cuts, Vodafone Germany plans to reduce material and operating costs, the head of the company, Philipp Rogge, said in a speech to employees.

The measures affect, for example, systems that are outdated or duplicated following company takeovers.

Rogge is leaving the company at the end of March.

Vodafone Germany has been undergoing a process of change for years. Under Rogge’s predecessor Hannes Ametsreiter, many customers recently complained that Vodafone was not able to fulfil its bold advertising promises when it came to landline connections, for example.

Rogge on Tuesday explained that Vodafone has begun to realign itself – and has returned to growth with improved networks and offers in recent quarters. “Over the next two years, Vodafone therefore wants to become even simpler, faster, leaner and therefore more powerful,” Rogge said.

As part of the restructuring, “simpler products and services” are to be developed in future, Vodafone said. Costs are to be reduced primarily by dismantling complex structures and modernizing network elements and IT systems.

Rogge, who only took over the chief executive’s position from Ametsreiter in July 2022, promised that Vodafone would make the personnel changes in a socially responsible manner.

Certain manual activities will be carried out through increased automation in future, he said. However, Vodafone also wants to hire new people in other areas.

Growth areas such as the cloud business and “customer-facing positions, especially in the corporate customer segment” are to be strengthened with experts, Rogge said.



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Russia has not offered UN World Food Programme free grain


By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia has not offered the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) any free grain, WFP deputy chief Carl Skau said on Friday, nearly two weeks after Moscow quit a deal that allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain.

Ukrainian grain is a primary U.N. food aid source.

“We have not been in talks about any free grain so far,” Skau told reporters. “We have not been approached for any such discussion.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders at a summit in St Petersburg that Moscow is able to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa and that he would gift tens of thousands of tons of grain to six countries within months.

Ukraine, along with Russia, is one of the world’s biggest exporters of grain and any interruption could drive up food prices around the globe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that a “handful of donations” won’t correct the dramatic impact of the end of the Black Sea grain deal.

Under the Black Sea export pact, the WFP purchased and shipped 725,000 tonnes of grain to Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen over the past year. The pact has allowed WFP so far to procure 80% of its wheat grain purchases this year from Ukraine, up from 50% in 2021 and 2022.

Overall, nearly 33 million tonnes of grain were exported by Ukraine under the deal, which aimed to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“For our operations the impact will be that we have to look elsewhere, which potentially can be more costly and certainly will have longer lead ways,” Skau said. “One of the reasons why Ukraine has been such an important source for us is the proximity to many of our operations.”

Global wheat prices have spiked about 9% since Russia on July 17 quit the pact, which was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July 2022, and began targeting Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube River. Prices are still about half the record high hit in early March 2022.

“In terms of our procurement we always buy where it’s cheapest and fastest to get to our beneficiaries, and so that’s the principle that will guide us,” Skau said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Leslie Adler)



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