UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank, the United Nations and partners on Sunday launched the Famine Action Mechanism (FAM), the first global initiative dedicated to preventing famine.

File photos: VCG

The mechanism, with the support of global technology companies, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services, seeks to change the status quo of delayed response and to move toward famine prevention, preparedness and early action, said the the organizations in a joint press release.

The initiative will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding through appropriate financing instruments, working closely with existing systems, they said.

Such a proactive approach can save millions of lives and reduce international humanitarian costs by as much as 30 percent, said the two organizations.

Famine is a fundamental moral issue, said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim at the launch event at UN Headquarters in New York. "The fact that tens of millions of people risk starving to death is a tragedy. And in the 21st century, the fact that we haven't ended famine is a collective failure of shameful proportions."

"Today we are taking a historic step to address these challenges and deliver our commitment to end the vicious cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to famine," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said FAM is an important new tool to help predict and prevent famine.

"FAM will give a more accurate picture of food security in real time, triggering early action from donors and humanitarian agencies that will save lives and prevent further suffering," he told the same forum.

With the cooperation of humanitarian development organizations, tech companies, academia, the insurance sector and others, this initiative is a successful multi-stakeholder partnership, he said.

The mechanism will use state-of-the-art technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to detect correlations between different risks, he noted.

During the spring meetings between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2017, Kim and Guterres committed themselves to zero tolerance for famine. As a follow-up, the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other global partners began to develop FAM.

In 2017, more than 20 million people across northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen faced famine or famine-like conditions. These conditions continue in many parts of the world today, derailing hard-won development gains in chronically poor countries, according to the press release.

Today, 124 million people live in crisis levels of food insecurity, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance for their survival. Over half of them live in areas affected by conflict, it said.