World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The World Food Programme (WFP) says that it is running out of food for at least five million Ethiopians who rely on its help. The crisis had been exacerbated by the Ethiopian government's decision to prioritize fertilizer imports before food aid at the crowded Djibouti port, according to it. (..) Barry Cane of WFP in Ethiopia said that the problem had been exacerbated by the difficulty of actually getting food into Ethiopia. Currently, there is little prospect of food supplies arriving at the Port of Djibouti for the next five months. "We have a small refugee population here and their ration is being cut by half beginning this month. We have run out of food and people will be very hungry," claims Cane.

The UN has warned that it has run out of food to provide for nine million Ethiopians who rely on its assistance. (..)The UN World Food Programme says breast-feeding mothers, children and refugees will be among those worst hit. It warns after it hands out final rations this month there will be no further deliveries until September or October. (..) "We have a small refugee population here and their ration is being cut by half beginning this month. We run out of food and people will be very hungry," WFP's Barry Came told the BBC.

The United Nation's World Food Program (WFP) said on Friday it was to launch 5th "Walk-the-World" event in Addis Ababa. It said the walk was being organized as part of a larger advocacy and fundraising strategy consistent with WFP's commitment to end child hunger and the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal- to halve hunger by 2015.

Ambassador Sheila Sisulu is the Deputy Director of World Food Program. Before joining the WFP she was the Ambassador of South Africa to Washington and before that she worked for the state of South Africa in Education. The last sixteen years she is working in the area of food security in WFP. Walta Information Center has got an opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with her while she was visiting Ethiopia recently. Q: Could you brief our audience the major objectives of WFP? A: We work globally but we implement our programs locally.

Saudi Arabia has announced the arrival of the first food crop harvested in Saudi-owned farms abroad, in a sign that the kingdom is moving faster than expected to outsource agricultural production. Rice, harvested in famine-hit Ethiopia by a group of Saudi investors, was presented to King Abdullah recently and comes as other countries are still in the early stages of investing in overseas farms. The Ethiopian origin is likely to raise concerns about the trend to outsource food production to poor African countries, some of which suffer from chronic hunger. In the past year the United Nations World Food Programme has helped to feed 11m people in Ethiopia, which has suffered crop failures and food distribution problems. Some analysts argue that foreign investment in agriculture, even if earmarked for export, could ultimately help poor countries, providing them with employment, infrastructure, access to agricultural technology and export tax revenues. However, western agriculture officials familiar with the Saudi plans say they are sceptical that the kingdom's investment in food production overseas will help poor countries such as Ethiopia.

Beneficiaries of food aid in Ethiopia could face tougher times unless supplies that are stuck in Djibouti port arrive quickly in the country, sources said. Officials blamed congestion at Djibouti port, land-locked Ethiopia's main access to the sea, but insisted the situation was improving. [...] "A large quantity of WFP's [UN World Food Programme] food is at the port," Paulette Jones, WFP spokeswoman in Addis Ababa, said. "These [food] commodities are needed urgently to assist beneficiaries who are still suffering from the impact of the drought, high food prices and [low] global food stocks."

Mulualem Tegegn bought a donkey last year – a proud achievement for this 58-year-old grandfather in the Amhara highlands of Ethiopia. Several years of drought, coupled with skyrocketing food prices, had stolen his livelihood; him and his family have been forced to eat seed that would have been planted, and sell livestock that was his source of income. [...] A few years ago, Tegegn got involved with a land rehabilitation program, offered by his government and assisted by the World Food Programme (WFP). In a land where rain has many names (depending on the season), the Productivity Safety Net Programme (PSNP) showed him how to harvest it whenever, and wherever, it fell.

[...] The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently reported that drought and high food prices [in Ethiopia] have pushed 12 million people into hunger. For struggling families, knowing that their child is ensured a meal at school is an important safety net in times of crisis. As part of a long-term strategy to eliminate the high poverty rate in the country, school feeding is essential. The World Food Programme is working to help make sure every child in Ethiopia can receive a school lunch. Jakob Mikkelsen, a WFP representative in Ethiopia, talks about the importance of school feeding.

A camp to accommodate thousands of Somalis fleeing violence in their country is to be set up in south-eastern Ethiopia, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said. An estimated 10,000 asylum-seekers have arrived at the border town of Dolo Ado, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, since the beginning of the year, according to Save the Children and UNHCR. [...] Last week, UNHCR dispatched six trucks carrying relief items, including mosquito nets, blankets, jerry cans, kitchen utensils, plastic sheets and mats from Addis Ababa to Dolo Ado. The UN World Food Programme also sent food rations, enough to last 10,000 asylum-seekers two weeks, and was airlifting high-nutrition biscuits from its emergency stock in Tanzania.

Ethiopia said on Friday that 4.9 million of its people will need emergency food aid in the first six months of 2009 due to drought and appealed for $390 million from donors to pay for it. That figure represents a fall of 1.5 million from last October, when the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said 6.4 million people needed urgent help to stave off hunger. Friday's statement said poor rains and high global commodity prices had triggered food insecurity in the huge Horn of Afric country last year, but lamented that there had been only a "limited response" from the international community. Many Africans fear the global credit crunch will mean rich nations send less aid to the world's poorest continent.