Our Work

WFP sees the human face of climate change up close. Every day we see the effects of weather-related disasters on the poor and vulnerable. We are there helping them prepare, assisting during the disaster and helping them put the pieces back together after the event.

Changing climate patterns are already having an effect on world food production. This is another reason why the future of climate change and the future of food security are intrinsically linked.

How is WFP responding to climate change?

WFP has been responding to emergency and disaster situations since it opened its doors. In recent years, many of these situations have been attributed to climate change. Since the mid 1990s, the number of natural disasters has almost doubled.

Working with governments, national and regional institutions and other partner organizations, we engage in three ways:

• Before the crisis, we predict emerging natural disasters using sophisticated tools and buy time to cushion their impact.
• During the crisis, we react with emergency food and nutrition assistance.
• After the crisis, we help communities rebuild and recover from disasters, and help them adapt to climate change, reduce vulnerability, increase resilience. 

Deep field presence, sophisticated tools

WFP has a uniquely deep field presence which allows us to identify the most vulnerable communities and to assist those most affected by climate change to adapt. We do this by helping communities to become more food independent and secure, planting trees, building wells, reinforcing river banks and more.

We also have a set of sophisticated tools to predict emerging disasters. We have Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM), Early Warning Systems, Emergency Needs Assessments and Weather-based Insurance that can be used to allow protective measures to be put in place.