World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Read UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon message to mark World Food Day, which this year promotes the Right to Food.

WFP teams in many countries across Africa are delivering food to people hit by floods across the continent that are the worst in decades in some places. But WFP urgently needs new contributions to cope with the crisis.

WFP has welcomed a cash donation of US$10 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to its operations in West Africa, where many of the poorest people in the world are living under trying conditions.

As harvests roll in across West Africa’s Sahel, WFP has warned that although households are restocking their granaries, millions of children across the region remain threatened by malnutrition.

WFP together with the Government of Niger, will today begin targeted free distributions of staple foodstuffs to the most vulnerable people to ensure that they have enough food through this year’s ‘lean season’ currently underway.

In an address to the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, WFP’s Executive Director, James Morris, has said that globalisation is an economic and social reality that must be managed if it is to become an effective tool to fight hunger.

As household food stocks begin to run low across the Sahel region of West Africa, the United Nations World Food Programme today urged the international community to continue supporting programmes which mitigate the very worst effects of food shortages among the most vulnerable.

WFP calls on the international community to rally strongly behind its efforts to tackle hunger and poverty in West Africa, the poorest region of the world.

With a contribution of a 4 million euros from the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) for Pakistan, the European Commission (EC) provides its largest contribution since 1992 – some 214 million euros - to WFP operations around the globe in its effort to save lives and feed the hungry poor.

The Executive Director of WFP, James Morris, describes 2005 as the most challenging year the humanitarian aid world has faced since World War II, but also warns that the New Year will undoubtedly bring further emergencies and even greater demands on donors.