World Food Programme

Updated: September 14, 2008 | Hunger and Poverty Relief |

The World Food Programme is the United Nations’ food assistance branch, working to fight hunger around the world.

It was formed in 1962 to help those in desperate need of food because of disaster and poverty.

As the food assistance arm of the UN, WFP uses its food to:

* meet emergency needs

* support economic & social development

The Agency also provides the logistics support necessary to get food to the right people at the right time and in the right place.

WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry.

Who do we help?

* Victims of natural disasters like the 2006 East Africa drought, the Pakistan earthquake and Hurricane Stan in 2005, the tsunami disaster and Bangladesh floods in 2004, the Iran earthquake in 2003 or Hurricane Mitch, which affected one million people in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatamala in October 1998.
* Displaced People — both refugees and internally displaced persons to leave towns and villages in places like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.
* The world’s hungry poor, trapped in a twilight zone between poverty and malnutrition.
* WFP also believes that women are the first solution to hunger and poverty. Women not only cook food. They sow, reap and harvest it. Yet, in many developing countries, they eat last and least.

Where?

* WFP is the world’s largest international food assistance organisation combating hunger in underdeveloped nations with severe food shortages. The frontline stretches from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Latin America and Asia & the Pacific.

How do we fight hunger?

* Rescue: WFP stands on a permanent state of alert, ready to mobilise food assistance for delivery to natural and man-made disaster areas.
* Rapid Reaction: WFP’s rapid response team draws-up contingency plans designed to move food and humanitarian assistance fast into disaster areas.

WFP works closely with the other members of the UN family, governments and NGOs, offering its logistics expertise to guarantee the delivery of all kinds of humanitarian assistance.

* Rehabilitation: WFP food also serves as a means to get disaster-affected regions back on their feet.
* Deterrence: Malnutrition gnaws away at the most valuable asset in any country’s development: its children and its workers. Food assistance is one of the most effective deterrents against long-term poverty.

WFP kick-starts development by paying workers with rations to build vital infrastructure and offering children nutritious lunches as a reward for going to school.