World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

WFP has announced that unless it receives new contributions urgently it will be forced to halt food distributions to 90,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Namibia by the second half of December because of a critical shortage of funding.

WFP has chosen the theme of “Partnering with Men to Achieve Gender Equality” for this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), to stress the importance of the two sexes working together to improve women’s lives around the world.

WFP has warned that despite better harvests across southern Africa, more than three million people will remain short of food because of chronic vulnerability caused by grinding poverty and the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS.

As the “hungry season” between harvests in southern Africa moves into its harshest phase, WFP welcomes the latest generous American donation of food for the region’s most vulnerable people.

Soaring maize prices in several southern African countries are causing WFP serious concern as it struggles to provide food to the most needy people while faced with a huge funding shortfall.

Johannesburg WFP applauds the United States for making an early and generous donation of more than US$50 million to the agency\'s feeding programmes in southern Africa where more than 10 million people are in urgent need of food assistance.

Johannesburg - More than 10 million people will need humanitarian assistance in six countries across southern Africa over the coming year following yet another year of poor agricultural production caused by erratic weather together with late, and in some cases unaffordable inputs, such as fertilizer and seeds, two UN agencies and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) warn.

United Nations, New York With one African in three malnourished, the prevalence of hunger is an accurate barometer for the level of social instability in the continent, warned WFP Executive Director James T. Morris.