World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

United Nations agencies have united to issue a joint appeal for more funding to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Africa (..). United Nations agencies- FAO, OCHA, UNICEF and WFP-, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have all warned of the dire conditions. Donors have contributed millions of dollars, allowing agencies to undertake therapeutic feeding to children, food aid as well as veterinary products and seeds distribution, food-for-work and cash transfer programmes, with the sole aim of saving lives and livelihoods.

The United Nations sounded the alarm over drought-stricken Niger on Tuesday as the World Food Programme (WFP) doubled aid operations and the U.N. appeal for the west African country was raised to $371 million. (..) OCHA, the U.N. agency which is coordinating the aid effort, announced it was raising the target of the global appeal to $371 million. Less than a week ago it upgraded the original appeal size to $253 million from $191 million, citing a growing risk of disease and death.

U.N. officials are pleading for immediate economic assistance for four African countries where people are facing malnutrition in the wake of a drought last year. (..)"We're in the long stretch between last year's harvest and the one coming up," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, via telephone from Niger. "We have now six weeks until it is agreed we will be out of the severe danger zone and the ramp-up has to happen not in a few weeks but now, before this very difficult time," Sheeran said.

Over the past six months, the levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel belt of West Africa have increased at alarming rates, putting over 10 million people at risk across the region - particularly in Niger and Chad. (..) Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), who is currently in Niger, called in to the U.N. Headquarters to make a further appeal. "Donor support is crucial at this stage," she stressed.

The executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, arrived in Niger on Tuesday at the start of a tour of three African countries where the agency is carrying out humanitarian programmes. A WFP statement said the visit was on emergency food assistance in Niger, money and food distribution in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and support for small peasant farmers within the framework of an initiative called 'Buying for progress' in Uganda.

The United Nations' emergency food agency said Tuesday it was stepping up aid to Niger, describing drought in the Saharan country as an "unfolding catastrophe" for millions. "We are struggling against time to scale up quickly enough to reach the escalating number of hungry," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the Rome-based World Food Programme.

The United Nations World Food Programme is nearly doubling aid operations in Niger to feed 8 million people who have lost crops and livestock in a severe drought. "The drought in Niger is an unfolding catastrophe for millions of people," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said on Tuesday.

Agency urges international community to take urgent action on the crisis In response to an announcement by the World Food Programme (WFP) today (July 20th) that it is scaling up its operation to provide aid to 8 million people in Niger, Kirsty Hughes, head of advocacy for Oxfam in Dakar, said: “This move by the World Food Programme underlines the sheer gravity of the food crisis gripping Niger and the rest of the Sahel, but concerted efforts are needed to ensure these plans are implemented urgently and aid gets to those that need it most.

Despite the ongoing massive humanitarian calamity, there has been scant attention paid to the food crisis in Niger. So, I thought a discussion about the Niger food crisis might be a good opportunity to kick off a new multi-media interview series in which I talk to experts about under-the-radar news items. Moments ago, I spoke with Anna Horner at the World Food Programme's regional bureau in Dakar, Senegal. She describes the nutrition and food crisis in Niger, how it came about, and what can be done to stave off further disaster.

The United Nations rural development arm is helping to improve agricultural programmes in West Africa’s Sahel region, especially in Niger, which is currently in the throes of a growing food crisis. (..) Earlier this month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it was scaling up its operations in the country. “We’re doubling the size of our operations and ramping up already significant interventions, to take even swifter action to protect these children,” said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the Rome-based agency.