WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide



UN Agency Acts On Somali Food-aid Claims (Mar 11)
The UN's food agency has blacklisted three contractors named in a UN report which alleged that food aid in Somalia was being diverted. The World Food Programme said it would not engage in any new work with the contractors and welcomed the report.


WFP Welcomes Any Probe Into Somalia Aid (Mar 11)
A U.N. food agency said Thursday it will cooperate with any independent probe into its food operations in Somalia, after a report found that up to half the food aid intended for the nation's hungry people does not reach its destination. (..) ''The integrity of our organization is paramount and we will be reviewing and investigating each and every issue raised by this report,'' WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.


Visit to Russia by Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (Mar 11)
UN World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran was on a visit to Russia from March 2-6 as a guest of the Government of the Russian Federation. (..) In these meetings, they discussed the dynamically evolving relations between Russia and the WFP and prospects for further cooperation in the formation of a new architecture of global food security, including achieving one of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).


Millions of Yemenis starving as donors fail to meet pledges, says UN (Mar 11)
Millions of Yemenis are starving while the international community focuses on security issues and tackling al-Qaida, according to the United Nations. (..) "They are in a total poverty trap," Gian Carlo Cirri, WFP country director, said. "Most of the time they are illiterate, they have no access to land or water. The children are not attending school and the probability of having a malnourished child in the family is extremely high."


Afghanistan: Talking to the Taliban (Mar 11)
The insurgents in Afghanistan have shown interest in negotiating with the UN and aid agencies on humanitarian access and aid distributions (..). “We work closely with local communities to ensure that WFP food assistance reaches the people it is intended to help. In a few areas, if the transporters request it, we ask the Afghan National Police to escort convoys of commercial trucks carrying WFP food,” Challiss McDonough, a WFP spokeswoman in Kabul, told IRIN.


Indonesia: Farming For Alternative Livelihoods (Mar 11)
Young unemployed men are finding opportunities in a project that also aims to introduce sustainable farming methods to Indonesia's agricultural sector. (..) And with more than half the country's 245 million people living on less than US$2 a day, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), many quit school early to contribute to the family income.


Poor harvest likely to raise food prices (Mar 11)
The poor summer harvest, which led to a grain deficit of up to 400,000 metric tons representing around 7.5 per cent of the total cereal grain requirement, is likely to result rising food prices until the next winter harvest. (..) In the markets regularly monitored by the World Food Programme and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the average price of coarse rice in February was Rs. 31 per kg as compared to Rs. 32 during the previous month.


Gunmen kill five in attack on World Vision office in Pakistan (Mar 11)
Suspected Islamic militants stormed the offices of a Christian charity in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing five local staff in an attack that will further complicate aid work in the volatile region. (..) In October, five aid workers were killed in a suicide bombing at the UN's World Food Programme office in Islamabad.


UGANDA: One doctor for 16,200 refugees (Mar 11)
Inadequate healthcare is just one of many challenges facing the 16,200 refugees in this sprawling camp in western Uganda, which is served by a single doctor. (..)The situation is dire, especially for those Rwandans who have been in Uganda longer than two years, as they no longer receive food rations from the UN World Food Programme (WFP).


New maps guide African truckers to AIDS clinics (Mar 11)
African trucking routes, long known as pathways for spreading HIV across borders, have been drawn in new maps that also direct drivers to clinics that treat AIDS (..). The North Star Alliance Foundation initiated the project, (..) North Star Alliance is a partnership originally between courier company TNT and the UN World Food Programme.