联合国世界粮食计划署(WFP)是全球最大的反饥饿组织与其60年历史上最严重的资金短缺作斗争执行董事辛迪·麦凯恩周日表示，“我们正处于绝望的境地”。
麦凯恩告诉美国广播公司“本周”节目主持人乔纳森·卡尔缺钱背后的原因时说:“这是多种因素的结合——这是COVID，这是气候变化，这是冲突，也是做生意的成本。”。“这些因素加在一起，当然，这个世界已经有点厌倦了这一切。现在，各国内部对外国援助和捐赠都有很大的不满。”
麦凯恩说:“最重要的是，那些将要遭受痛苦的人是那些承受不起痛苦的人。
9月，WFP表示，它“一直在努力满足全球粮食援助需求....WFP有史以来第一次看到捐款在减少，而需求却在稳步增长。”该组织已经不得不“在阿富汗、孟加拉国、刚果民主共和国、海地、约旦、巴勒斯坦、南苏丹、索马里和叙利亚等热点地区大幅削减支出。”
麦凯恩在“本周”节目中警告说，例如在阿富汗，粮食计划“甚至没有足够的钱度过十月”
WFP一直在为该国的贫困人口提供至关重要的服务，该国于2021年由塔利班接管，随后实施了一系列限制。
麦凯恩说:“除非我们能为阿富汗积累一些资金，否则我们将不得不完全撤出。”。
她强调了事情的紧迫性，说:“现在，妇女不能工作。他们不能从事任何工作。就WFP而言，我们一直在为妇女、妇女和儿童提供食物。如果我们不得不撤出，饥饿和饥荒将是结果。”
卡尔问，“以前给钱的现在不给钱了?发生了什么事?”
在这张2023年1月5日的资料照片中，美国大使辛迪·麦凯恩，前亚利桑那州共和党参议员约翰·麦凯恩的妻子，微笑着抵达凤凰城州议会大厦参加活动。
罗斯·富兰克林/美联社，文件
麦凯恩说，在选民对向海外汇款变得更加谨慎的同时，其他国际冲突在某种程度上掩盖了世界各地饥饿人口的更广泛需求。
“不管是好是坏，乌克兰已经把氧气吸出了房间。我-我们当然理解支持乌克兰的必要性。但是世界上还有其他热点地区像乌克兰一样极度绝望。
“所以我们必须确保提醒世界放眼全球的重要性，”她继续说道。“但人们正在与他们的议会交谈，他们的议会说不，他们的选民说不。我们在美国面临着一些同样的事情。”
麦凯恩说:“恐怖组织正在给人们提供食物。主要是他们从我们这里偷的很多东西。”
“我们必须注意这一点，因为我们要么现在就喂饱他们，要么以后再打他们。这是不可能的。和...作为一个人和人道主义者，我们不能对此置之不理。“我们不能。如果我们不做，谁会做?”
已故亚利桑那州参议员约翰·麦凯恩的遗孀麦凯恩说，她的丈夫对目前的事态“会大发雷霆”。
“我知道他会周游世界，以确保人们得到消息，并理解我们所处情况的重要性和绝望性，”她说。
共和党人辛迪·麦凯恩一直直言不讳地批评前总统唐纳德·特朗普。但当卡尔问她，如果他赢得2024年大选，她认为会有什么结果时，她拒绝具体回答，列举了她目前在不关心政治的WFP的工作。
尽管如此，她说，“我们必须考虑什么处于危险之中，为什么，以及一个人对这种情况的影响和作用。”
World's largest food program is in 'desperate situation' and running out of money as quickly as October
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the largest anti-hunger initiative around the globe, isgrappling with the worst funding shortage in its 60-year historyand "we are in a desperate situation," Executive Director Cindy McCain said on Sunday.
"It's a combination of things -- it's COVID, it's climate change, it's conflict and also the cost of being able to do business," McCain told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl about the reasons behind the lack of money. "Those things combined and, of course, a world that has kind of grown tired of all this. There's a great malaise right now within countries about foreign aid and giving."
"The bottom line is those that are going to suffer [are] those who can't afford to," McCain said.
In September, the WFP said it "has been struggling to meet the global need for food assistance .... And for the first time ever, WFP has seen contributions decreasing while needs steadily increase." The organization has already had to make "significant cuts in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria."
McCain warned on "This Week" that in Afghanistan, for example, the food program doesn't "have enough money to even get through October."
The WFP has been providing crucial services to the needy in the country, which was taken over in 2021 by the Taliban, who then imposed a wave of restrictions.
"Unless we can build up some funding for Afghanistan, we'll have to pull it completely out," McCain said.
Emphasizing the urgency, she said, "Right now, women can't work. They can't hold jobs of any kind. And in the case of WFP, we've been feeding women, feeding women and children. And if we have to pull out, starvation and famine is going to be the result of this."
Karl asked, "Who's not giving money that used to give money? What's happened?"
McCain said other international conflicts had, in a way, overshadowed the broader needs of the hungry around the world at the same time that voters have become warier of sending money overseas.
"Ukraine, for better or worse has sucked the oxygen out of the room. And I -- we certainly understand the need to support Ukraine. But there's other hot spots in the world that are deeply and as much desperate as Ukraine is," McCain said.
"So we have to make sure that we remind the world the importance of taking a look around the globe," she continued. "But people are talking to their parliaments, their parliaments are saying no, their constituents are saying no. And we are facing some of the same things here in the United States."
There were national security implications to supporting at-risk communities abroad, McCain said: "The terrorist groups are feeding people. And it's primarily a lot of the stuff they steal from us."
"We have to pay attention to it because we're either going to feed them now or fight them later. And there's no way about this. And ... as a human being and a humanitarian, we cannot turn our backs on this," McCain said. "We can't. If we don't do it, who will?"
McCain, widow of late Arizona Sen. John McCain, said her husband "would be furious" at the current state of affairs.
"I know he'd be traveling the world to make sure that people got the message and understood the importance and the desperation of the situation we're in," she said.
Cindy McCain, a Republican, has been vocal about her critical views of former President Donald Trump. But asked by Karl about what she thought would be the outcome if he won the 2024 election, she declined to answer specifically, citing her current work with the apolitical WFP.
Still, she said, "We have to consider what's at stake and why and the influence and impact a single human being can have on this situation."
