WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide



UN asks donors for $7.7 billion to meet humanitarian emergencies in 2012 (Dec 14)
The United Nations on Wednesday asked donor nations to give $7.7 billion to pay for humanitarian emergencies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe next year, significantly less than the global body has requested for 2011. (..)The 2011 appeal is significantly lower than the $8.9 billion that the global body requested for the current year. But requests to U.N. donors are revised throughout the year to respond to unforeseen disasters, which this year included floods in Pakistan, the civil war in Libya, and the ongoing conflict in Yemen.


Haiti shows why poor communication stalls relief –report (Dec 14)
Aid agencies working in Haiti need to do a better job of talking and listening to the people they are trying to help in order to boost relief efforts and dissipate tensions, experts say. (..) In response, the WFP decided that the best way to improve its food distribution and food-voucher system was to ensure people understood how it worked.


SAHEL: Act now to avoid another crisis, say aid agencies (Dec 14)
Aid agencies are warning donors to act now to avert a drought and food security crisis that could mean over 11 million people sink into further food insecurity, poverty or malnutrition. (..)“The intervals between these crises are getting smaller, so there is a very small amount of time to recover in between them,” Thomas Yanga, regional director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters at a press conference last week.


SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN: Refugees stream into Upper Nile state (Dec 14)
At least 1,000 refugees are arriving daily in South Sudan's Upper Nile state, fleeing conflict in Blue Nile state across the border, according to aid agencies. (..)"There's a shortage of food in Maban County in general as well. The WFP [World Food Programme] is now bringing the food but the food basket is incomplete. As you see now, people are just distributing beans and salt.


BANGLADESH: “Invisible hazard” of groundwater depletion (Dec 13)
Experts warn rapid depletion of Bangladesh’s underground water table could jeopardize food and water security for millions throughout the country and also endanger the biodiversity of one of the world’s largest mangrove forests within the next two decades.


Ivory Coast: refugees still fear returning home (Dec 13)
Eight months after this country's post-election violence ended, hundreds of thousands of people still have not returned home. (..) Many risk hunger if they leave a camp without humanitarian assistance. The World Food Program is therefore offering food not only to those displaced but also to returnees. They plan to reach some 170,000 people at risk of food insecurity until the end of the year.


Hunger Looms In Niger As Food Prices Spike (Dec 13)
A poor harvest in the West African country of Niger has caused food prices to shoot up at a time of year they would normally be at their lowest. Concerned that the bad harvest could lead to a full-blown hunger crisis, WFP is planning an urgent scale-up of operations to reach as many as 3 million people with food aid.


More than 9 million in Sahel face food crisis-Oxfam (Dec 13)
More than nine million people in five countries in Africa's Sahel region face food crisis next year, following low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances from migrants, aid agency Oxfam said on Monday. (..)The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) estimates between five and seven million people are affected by what it called climate-related crisis and are in need of urgent assistance, with at least a million children in the Sahel facing malnutrition next year.


New 'Pick and Mix' Early Warnings Service Launched (Dec 13)
Get exactly what you want – and none of what you don’t. That’s what WFP’s Early Warning, Analysis and Support team is offering with a new service which allows WFP's partners in other agencies to personalize and customize exactly what information they receive. The service incorporates the team's expanding monitoring and analysis work and is based on feedback received from staff and partners.


WFP Raises Alarm At Unseasonal Food Price Increase In Drought-Hit Niger (Dec 13)
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is deeply concerned by an unseasonal rise in grain prices in Niger and is planning an urgent scale-up of food assistance operations -- aimed at as many as one million people in vulnerable households.


Help still needed after record-breaking year for disasters (Dec 12)
Relief organizations have been working year-round to provide emergency aid when disaster strikes and long-term assistance in the months and years that follow. (..) The World Food Programme is aiming to feed 11 million people in East Africa. The organization is currently reaching almost 8 million. "It's crucially important that especially the children and nursing mothers get highly fortified supplementary foods. For $10 you can feed a woman or a child for three weeks," said WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher.


Comic artists donate to WFP (Dec 12)
During live art sessions, various artists auctioned off their artworks and decided to give part of the proceeds to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). (..) WFP will use this donation to provide approximately 12,000 hot, nutritious meals to school children in conflict-affected areas of Central Mindanao through its school feeding program.


HIV project in Lao PDR wins award for South-South Cooperation (Dec 9)
 A WFP-supported project to provide better HIV treatment and care in Lao PDR has received an award in recognition of excellent South-South Cooperation.


Special Operation - Ethiopia (Dec 9)
 t


SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN: Humanitarian crisis warning as thousands flee fighting (Dec 9)
Aid agencies must now plan for worsening humanitarian conditions in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states where ongoing conflict pitting the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has resulted in the mass displacement of civilians towards South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states and into neighbouring Ethiopia.  


UN agency: Food prices ease a bit, still down from last year’s peak; cereals prices dip (Dec 9)
A U.N. food agency says global food prices have eased marginally, with wheat prices dropping by 3 percent. (..) The agency said a “significant” upward revision of the global cereal supply estimate for 2011-2012 — thanks to better crop prospects in Russia and some Asian countries — put downward pressure on cereal prices.


At least five million in Sahel facing food shortages: UN (Dec 9)
Meagre rains and diminished harvests have left between five and seven million people in Africa's Sahel region facing food shortages, the United Nation's World Food Programme said Thursday. "The crisis is already here, all we can do is try to mitigate its impacts on the population," said Thomas Yanga, regional head of the food programme's west Africa operation.


MasterCard and WFP Team Up to Enable Customers to Feed Hungry in Horn of Africa (Dec 9)
ROME – The UN World Food Programme (WFP), MasterCard PayPass and Poland’s Alma supermarket chain have launched a new campaign to provide meals to hungry children suffering from drought in the Horn of Africa.


A Road To Market Opens Up For Farmer In Rural Nepal (Dec 9)
Raj Bahadur Malla, a farmer in western Nepal, has often seen his surplus rice and vegetables go to waste when he could have sold them at market if only there were a road to get them there. Soon there will be, thanks to an EU-supported project providing him and his neighbors with food while they clear a road to a nearby town.


A Displaced Libyan Family Finds a Temporary Haven (Dec 8)
A two-income, urban, coastal family find themselves living in a secondary school classroom near the vast Sahara desert. Hannah and her family of eight now live in a school in the southern Libyan town of Shatti, 60 kilometers north of the regional capital Sabha.