World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos wrapped up a four-day visit to Yemen by calling for increased humanitarian relief for the troubled Middle Eastern country. More than half Yemen’s population are either hungry or on the edge of hunger as the result of a deepening humanitarian crisis on multiple fronts.

Ali Mohamed Ghaleb’s five daughters give him a special interest in supporting the innovative Food For Girls’ Education Programme that WFP has been operating in Yemen since 2007. The 44-year-old retired military officer says it helps him keep them in school.

The three Rome-based UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and WFP - were made honorary citizens of Rome during a ceremony to commemorate the 2,766th anniversary of the "eternal city's" founding.

As Yemen slides into a humanitarian crisis, mothers like Fatima face a daily struggle to keep their families fed. WFP is helping through an emergency “safety net” programme that will provide 5 million people like her with food assistance over the coming months.

In late 2011, WFP in Yemen began giving cash to the poorest families in the Hajjah and Ibb governorates so that they could afford to buy food. The programme benefits 10,000 vulnerable households, comprising around 70,000 people in total. WFP food monitor Ali Al-Homeidy visited the governorate of Hajjah where he met with family heads collecting their vouchers from their local post office.

One of the benefits of school meals programmes is that they encourage parents in poor countries to send young girls to school. This means they get an education and, hopefully, the means to pull themselves out of poverty. Without that incentive, school may not be an option – as Salama and Naima found out recently.

WFP’s Yemen office was an ideal candidate to pilot the organization’s new emergency planning package.  Facing conflict, insecurity, refugees, drought, serious food insecurity , the Yemen operation is a microcosm of all the challenges WFP faces.

Hunger and malnutrition are widespread in the country and require urgent intervention. WFP's recent Comprehensive Food Security Survey found that one in three Yemenis is acutely hungry, making Yemen the 11th most food insecure country in the world.

In May 2010, WFP and the Ministry of Education distributed food to more than 80,200 school girls and their 562,000 family members in poor, rural areas across Yemen. The programme is making a real difference for vulnerable families by helping them meet their food needs and acting as an incentive to send girls to primary and secondary school.

At least 250,000 people fled their homes during the recent conflict in northern Yemen. Many are now in WFP-supported camps such as Al Mazraq, where despite the ceasefire they are too scared to return home. Two women in the camp told WFP’s Abeer Etefa their stories. Video