World Food Programme |
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WFP logo |
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| Org type | UN Humanitarian Programme |
| Acronyms | WFP |
| Head | Josette Sheeran |
| Status | Active |
| Established | 1960 |
| Headquarters | Rome, Italy |
| Website | www.wfp.org |
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger worldwide.[1] WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children.[2] From its headquarters in Rome and more than 80 country offices around the world, WFP works to help people who are unable to produce or obtain enough food for themselves and their families. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and part of its Executive Committee.[3]
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The WFP was first established in 1961[4] after the 1960 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Conference, when George McGovern, director of the US Food for Peace Programmes, proposed establishing a multilateral food aid programme. WFP was formally established in 1963 by the FAO and the United Nations General Assembly on a three-year experimental basis. In 1965, the programme was extended to a continuing basis.
The WFP is governed by an Executive Board which consists of representatives from 36 member states. Josette Sheeran is the current Executive Director, appointed jointly by the UN Secretary General and the Director-General of the FAO for a five-year term. She heads the Secretariat of WFP.[5]
WFP has a staff of 9,139 people (2007) with 90% operating in the field.[6]
WFP strives to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, with the ultimate goal in mind of eliminating the need for food aid itself.
The core strategies behind WFP activities, according to its mission statement, are to provide food aid to:
WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS. Food-for-work programmes help promote environmental and economic stability and agricultural production.
In 2006, WFP distributed 4 million metric tons of food to 87.8 million people in 78 countries; 63.4 million beneficiaries were aided in emergency operations, including victims of conflict, natural disasters and economic failure in countries like Somalia, Lebanon, and Sudan. Direct expenditures reached US$2.9 billion (€2.1 billion), with the most money being spent on Emergency Operations and Immediate Response Account. WFP’s largest country operation in 2006 was Sudan, where the Programme reached 6.4 million people. The second and third largest WFP operations were, respectively, Ethiopia and Kenya. In 2007, WFP's Sudan operation will require some US$685 million, €595 million to provide food assistance to 5.5 million people (2.8 million in Darfur alone).
Not all food aid is international. Sometimes the World Food Program with the help of numerous NGOs organizes food distribution within a country. In Sudan, for instance, the WFP buys about 100,000 metric tons of food – mostly sorghum – from the country's own production in the eastern and central part of the country. That amount constituted one-sixth of the annual requirement of 632,000 metric tons for 2008.[7]
WFP focuses its food assistance on those who are most vulnerable to hunger, which most frequently means women, children, the sick and the elderly. In fact, part of the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake consisted of distributing food aid to women as experience built up over almost 5 decades of working in emergency situations has demonstrated that giving food to women helps to ensure that it is spread evenly among all household members. In 2005, food assistance was provided to 58.2 million children, 30 percent of whom were under five. In 2006, WFP assisted 58.8 million hungry children. School-feeding and/or take home ration programmes in 71 countries help students focus on their studies and encourage parents to send their children, especially girls, to school.
During the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests the United Nations reported that food shipments out of Mandalay Division to half a million people in the northern districts were being disrupted.[8] This problem added the shortage of funding over its three year operation and the poverty caused by the government's eradication of opium farming. Military cooperation with the food shipments was quickly resumed.[9]
WFP operations are funded by donations from world governments, corporations and private donors. In 2006, the Programme received US$2.9 billion, €2.1 billion in contributions. All donations are voluntary. The organization's administrative costs are only seven percent—one of the lowest and best among aid agencies. On 6 November 2006, Josette Sheeran was appointed to replace James T. Morris as Executive Director of WFP by the Secretary-General of the UN and Director-General of FAO in April 2007. Previously, Sheeran served as the Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs United States Department of State and as the managing editor of the Washington Times.
In July 2009, the agency reported that it was forced to cut services due to insufficient funding.[10] These include regions of Uganda, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Guinea. The BBC reports that this shortfall is due to the current economic crisis which has increased the number of people in need and reduced the amount richer nations are willing to donate. The agency says it needs US$6.7 billion, €5 billion in the current financial year. However, UN members have promised only US$3.7 billion (€2.5 billion), and have actually provided only US$1.8 billion (€1.4 billion), barely a quarter of the total the WFP asked for.
The Fast Information Technology and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team (FITTEST), is a group of technical specialists within the IT (information technology) division of the World Food Programme (WFP).[11] FITTEST provides IT, telecommunications and electricity infrastructure to support humanitarian aid operations anywhere in the world.
Humanitarian emergencies demand rapid interventions that are efficient, coordinated and effective. FITTEST responds to emergency requests and ensures staff are on the ground and ready to operate within 48 hours.
FITTEST is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The geographical location of this city facilitates the team’s deployment to emergencies around the world.
Operating on a cost-recovery basis, FITTEST is a unique cell within the United Nations system. Receiving no direct contribution from Governments or other humanitarian donors, FITTEST ensures its sustainability by operating in a similar way to a commercial company. The team operates on a limited margin (7.5%) which it uses to cover costs and initial training for its members. Such a method of operating ensures the application of very high service standards as FITTEST only survives if its 'clients' continue to utilise its services.
WFP coordinates and cooperates with a number of official partners in emergencies and development projects. These partners include national government agencies such as DFID, ECHO, EuropeAid, USAID; UN agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); non-governmental organizations such as Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services and Norwegian Refugee Council; as well as corporate partners such as TNT N.V., YUM! Brands, DSM N.V., and Cargill.[12] You can also donate grains of rice by answering questions at www.freerice.com. For each question you get correct you donate 10 grains of rice.
Actor Drew Barrymore is Ambassador to the World Food Program and donated $1 Million US dollars in 2007.
In 2007, the World Food Programme joined forces with YUM! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company, to launch the first annual World Hunger Relief Week, a global campaign to increase awareness about hunger, engage volunteers, and raise critically needed funds to help WFP serve the world's areas of greatest need. World Hunger Relief Week 2007 leveraged the power of nearly 35,000 restaurants around the world, sparking a global movement to end hunger and generating an overwhelming outpouring of support from millions of customers, employees, franchisees and their families. Nearly one million Yum!, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All American Food employees, franchisees and their families volunteered close to 4 million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide, while helping to raise $16 million throughout the World Hunger Relief Week initiative for the World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies around the world.
In 2004, the WFP tasked Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, US, with heading the first student-led War on Hunger effort, after a 2002 Northwestern University pilot. Auburn founded the Committee of 19, which has not only led campus and community hunger awareness events but also developed a War on Hunger model for use on campuses across the country.
WFP has launched a global advocacy and fundraising event called Walk the World. On one single day each year, hundreds of thousands of people in every time zone all over the world walk to call for the end of child hunger. In 2005, more than 200,000 people walked in 296 locations. In 2006, there were 760,000 participants in 118 countries all over the world. This event is part of the campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, specifically to halve the number of people who suffer from hunger and poverty by 2015.
A growing number of grassroots global events and celebrations such as International Day of Peace, World Party Day participants, and Peace One Day recommend WFP on radio broadcasts as an immediate reach out action, putting help within reach of anyone with the information that a quarter feeds a child for a day. Fill the Cup campaign takes just 25 US cents to fill one of the "red cups" that the World Food Programme uses to give hungry children a regular school meal of porridge, rice or beans.[13][14][15] Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore and Sean Penn are among notable celebrities who endorse WFP.[16][17]
In 2006, the Committee of 19 hosted a War on Hunger Summit at which representatives from 29 universities were in attendance. At this summit, the model for a student-led War on Hunger initiative was presented with strong support.
World Food Program USA (formerly Friends of WFP) is an advocacy and fundraising charity that supports the WFP in the United States.[18]
The World Food Program is now working in the Horn of Africa by streaming food into the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Uganda. These nations were subjected to a severe drought situation, declared a famine situation by the UN on 20 July 2011. This drought has been declared as the "worst drought" of the Horn of Africa in 60 years. Approximately 12 million people are in danger of death due to starvation. The Program aims to feed one hungry person for a day in this region with just 50 US cents or 35 eurocents.
Critics claim the World Food Programme to be harmful to the aided countries. Kenyan economist James Shikwati says in an interview with Der Spiegel: "aid to Africa does more harm than good". According to him, the food aid increases corruption as local politicians steal some of the aid to bribe voters and/or sell the aid in the black markets killing the local agriculture. He claims that the WFP people as an organisation "are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment where hunger actually eliminated". He suggests that WFP answers too easily to the calls of the corrupted governments, and supplies too much of food aid leading to reduction of the production of local farmers as "no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program".
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