World Food Program
How can we avoid future food crises like the Somalia famine? According to Ali Goldstein from the World Food Programme, we must create long-term food security programs and open up our networks of connectivity and communication.
In the morning newspaper and on the nightly news, the images from the Horn of Africa now coming into your home are hard to ignore. You can tell this time it’s more than hungry children, more than people fighting, more than just a headline. This is a famine.
A family at the Dadaab refugee camp
More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are now in need of humanitarian assistance, and that number could rise. We could find a metaphor to put the number in perspective –- it’s equivalent to the population of this city or that state -– but still the magnitude of need would be incomprehensible. And at the epicenter of this regional crisis lies the famine in southern Somalia.
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David Orr of the World Food Programme talks about cash- and food-for-work projects that put money into the pockets of the Haitians who need it and pave the way for reconstruction.
On a recent visit to Delmas 32, a neighborhood in the heart of Port-au-Prince, I had the opportunity to see Haitians rebuilding their country and their lives firsthand. Here, at one of the 30 food-for-work and cash-for-work projects financed by World Food Programme (WFP), I meet Cassandre Chery, a would-be beautician-turned-rubble remover.
It’s got to be tough digging with a shovel under the hot sun, but Cassandre, 28, is glad to have work. As the mother of two who has been homeless since the earthquake, she is now able to pay school fees and feed her two daughters.
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Martin Kabaluapa works with the World Food Programme’s Purchase for Progress project to help farmers in Kenya grow their own food to feed their own people. In this blog post, he explains how the project works — and why it’s so successful.
Martin Kabaluapa working with a local farmer in Kenya.
As the Purchase for Progress (P4P) Coordinator in Kenya, I tour the country to see how the World Food Programme (WFP) can use its purchasing power to promote agricultural development and improve market access for small-scale farmers.
At the heart of our efforts is a straightforward concept: supporting nations to grow their own food to feed their own people. The opportunities are great. Almost 80 percent of the nearly $1 billion of food WFP buys each year comes from developing countries (See an interactive map of where WFP buys food here). In the past three years alone, we have purchased more than $500 million worth of food from East Africa, a place that is sadly better known for its droughts than its surpluses. Can you imagine if a substantial amount of this money was going into the pockets of small-scale farmers working on an acre or so of land?
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The New York Times has a look at some recent tension between the United Nations and the US regarding aid restrictions in Somalia over growing concerns that the aid is not being responsibly distributed.
UN official Mark Bowden claims that accusations of aid diversions in to the Shabab– who the US government has labeled a terrorist group– are unfounded. The US for its part contends that aid is indeed being diverted, leaving the Shabab to blame for Somalis not getting the aid they need.
You’ll recall that early last month that threats from the Shabab proved to be a serious impediment to the World Food Programme who then had to implement a partial suspension of food distribution in much of southern Somalia.
We’ll keep you posted on any developments.
UPDATE: WFP has provided clips on their site here, but the video players appear to be temporarily broken.
Marking the 1-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the World Food Programme hosted a meeting in Rome this morning to discuss and plan “Haitian-led food security”.
The meeting was convened by Haitian Agriculture Minister Joanas Gue. Cheryl Mills represented the State Department.
I’m in the process of tracking down video from the event– when I find it, I’ll post it here. In the meantime, get the latest on WFP’s work in Haiti at their excellent website here, and check out the State Department’s DipNote blog for some background here.
That’s how much rice the World Food Programme has distributed to quake-stricken Haiti.
According to CNN:
The food distribution plan, coordinated by the United Nations World Food Programme, international aid agencies and the Haitian government, was to hand out food at 16 identified points across the city. But on Sunday, people at only nine of those places were able to collect, Prior said.
More time was needed to prepare ration coupons at five sites, Prior said. The other two distribution points, located in the dense slum of Cite Soleil, were a no-go for security reasons.
“The area has been extremely volatile recently with a significant increase in gang violence, but we are hopeful we will be able to reach them soon,” he said.
Distribution was orderly elsewhere, Prior said.
Only women were given tickets to collect a 55 pound (25 kilogram) bag of rice per family. Forty-two metric tons of rice will be distributed each day over the next two weeks.
At Champs de Mars, the city’s central plaza which has turned into a sprawling makeshift camp for the quake displaced, women formed a long line that snaked up to trucks carrying the rice.
Check out this partner post from the World Food Programme on their Students Helping Haiti campaign.
Since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been delivering emergency food assistance to survivors. But help hasn’t just been on the ground. Students from around the world—the workers, parents, voters, and leaders of tomorrow— have been stepping up to help fight the hunger crisis in Haiti. Find out how you can join them here.
As Executive Director Josette Sheeran noted on Friday from Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s devastated infrastructure has made emergency operations extremely challenging.
“This is the most complex operation WFP has ever been involved in. That’s why opening up the supply chain is so critical,” said Sheeran.
She also noted that the UN food agency is bringing in special boats that will be able to transport humanitarian aid by sea and land directly onto beaches.
“This operation is getting up to scale, but we’re having to rebuild ports and airports.”
WFP began distributing food assistance within 24 hours of the earthquake and has launched a $279 million relief operation to reach 2 million Haitians. They’re also helping to provide logistical and telecommunications support to the entire humanitarian community.
Since the earthquake struck, WFP has delivered 3 million rations, the equivalent of nearly 10 million meals, to nearly 450,000 people. WFP aims to deliver 5-day rations to 100,000 people each day.
-Graham Bell, WFP Youth Outreach
