Pope Leo XIV urges faster food aid as wars outpace hunger relief

Rome,UPDATED: Jun 22, 2026 18:34 IST

Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged governments to strengthen resources to fight hunger, saying wars are being sustained more easily than people are being fed. Speaking to the governing body of the UN World Food Programme in Rome, he called for quicker and freer delivery of aid at a time when food assistance funding has fallen sharply.

His appeal comes as the World Food Programme faces a severe funding gap despite rising need. Leo said political and administrative barriers were slowing humanitarian work even as military spending continued without similar obstacles, and warned that the global system was now reproducing the conditions that drive hunger.

Addressing the meeting, the pope asked governments to cut red tape and remove hurdles that stop help from reaching people in need. Echoing a warning first made by late Pope Francis during a WFP visit a decade ago, Leo criticised political and administrative barriers that delay aid. “Whereas forms of aid and development projects are obstructed by involved and incomprehensible political decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers, weaponry is not,” he said. “In effect, conflicts are fed more readily than people are nourished.”

According to a recent WFP report, funding for food assistance has dropped by about 59 per cent since 2022 even as needs have risen. There was some positive news last week when the United States pledged USD 800 million to the WFP. The agency said the contribution would help more than 38 million people in at least 37 countries at a time of unprecedented global need. Even so, the WFP’s appeal of more than USD 10 billion for 2026 remains severely underfunded.

For years, the US Agency for Development was the backbone of humanitarian aid worldwide. But last year, the Trump administration abolished the agency, cutting USD 60 billion in overall assistance. Under a reset in December, the US restored funding to the WFP and announced USD 218 million in assistance to UNICEF.

Leo said today’s crises, from conflict to climate pressures and economic strain, had become “persistent realities”. He said the international order was fractured by mistrust, with countries putting national interests ahead of cooperation even as hunger fuelled instability, migration and conflict. Urging leaders to place human dignity at the centre of decision-making, he said, “Every human person possesses an inherent and inalienable dignity that remains intact regardless of circumstance, condition or social status.” In his remarks, the pope linked the hunger crisis to both falling aid and a wider failure of international cooperation.

With PTI Inputs

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