Latest Stories


Students And Teachers
12 August 2009

Donkeys Deliver Food And Business to Somali Refugees

Somali refugees living in northern Kenya are starting small businesses thanks to an income generation initiative launched by WFP and CARE International.
Responding to Emergencies
6 August 2009

Food Airlift : Critical Lifeline To Sudanese Victims Of Violence

The World Food Programme is stepping up food airlifts to Southern Sudan's Akobo County, where ethnic clashes have killed 185 people and where many face malnutrition and food shortages.
Nutrition
6 August 2009

Funding Crunch May Disrupt Nutrition Programme In Guatemala

A fortified food blend called VitaCereal™ has been a mainstay for young children and mothers in Guatemala, where almost half of all children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition. But the nutrition programme may be suspended for lack of funds.
Responding to Emergencies
5 August 2009

Hillary Clinton’s Africa Trip And WFP Operations

ROME – During her tour of Africa, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited four countries – Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Cape Verde -- where the World Food Programme is working to address urgent hunger needs and improve the lives of people struggling to meet their daily nutritional requirements. Below is a brief summary of WFP’s activities in each of these four nations:
Food For Assets
5 August 2009

Hope, Courage And Football In Afghanistan (Staff Profile)

Rahmatullah Mowahid is a young and enthusiastic WFP field monitor working in Afghanistan. Despite all the challenges faced by people, he believes that changes are taking place and the future will be better…
Food For Assets
4 August 2009

Women’s Tree Project Takes Root in Central Afghanistan

Poised on the edge of Bamyan town’s imposing rock formation, Dara Azhdar is no ordinary Afghan community. Not only is its only Shura, or local council, a women’s Shura, but these women have launched a tree planting project, aimed to improve their community and the environment, with help from the World Food Programme.
Food For Assets
31 July 2009

Kono Residents Find Gems In Jobs and Education

Battered by Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war, residents of the diamond-rich Kono district are getting back on their feet thanks, in part, to World Food Programme-sponsored work and training programmes.
Responding to Emergencies
30 July 2009

World Struggles To Meet Urgent Hunger Challenge

With a billion people on the planet going hungry every day, the world’s response to the urgent hunger needs of the most vulnerable is flagging, with the result that critical food assistance is already being cut.
Responding to Emergencies
29 July 2009

WFP's Funding Shortfall in 2009

WFP is funded entirely through voluntary contributions, most of which come from governments. When we calculated the cost of feeding 108 million hungry people in 74 countries in 2009, we set a budget of US$6.7 billion. Taking into account forecasts and money already received, we now expect to end the year with US$3.7 billion.
Nutrition
29 July 2009

Darfur: Nutritious Food Helps Displaced Family Face ‘Hunger Season’

With the next harvest still a couple of months away, food is scarce in north Darfur. This is a time when children can slip into malnutrition. But Fatima, who has two kids in the crucial under-five age range, is getting the support she needs to steer her family through the hunger season.
Media Center Icon

latest media

Worth reading

Thought-provoking articles that deal with hunger and the issues involved in meeting the hunger challenge.

  • BBC News

    Hard choices over food versus education in Malawi

    Food or education? Public spending choices are never easy. But in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, the choices are particularly stark. The government has made "food security" - which means making sure people have enough to eat - the top priority for government spending.
  • New York Times

    No Shortage of Blame as Haiti Struggles to Feed Itself

    With its rich delta soil and a year-round growing season, Haiti's famous agricultural region seems capable of feeding the entire Caribbean. But Haiti is a net importer of food, spending about $400 million last year on purchases from abroad. The World Food Programme runs child nutrition and "food for work" operations.
  • Reuters Alertnet

    Solutions to global hunger are within our reach

    Technological advances in rice production have enabled China to feed an additional 60 million people per year since 1978, while investments in agriculture by farmers in Niger have revitalised an estimated 5 million hectares of land and improved access to food for at least 1 million people.
  • Reuters

    Special report -The fight over the future of food

    At first glance, Giuseppe Oglio's farm near Milan looks like it's suffering from neglect. Weeds run rampant amid the rice fields and clover grows unchecked around his millet crop. Oglio, a third generation farmer eschews modern farming techniques -- chemicals, fertilizers, heavy machinery -- in favor of a purely natural approach. It is not just ecological, he says, but profitable, and he believes his system can be replicated in starving regions of the globe.
  • Associated Press (AP)

    Devastating Drought Alters Life For Kenya Nomads

    When 64-year-old Jimale Irobe was a young man, he guided his herds of cows and camels through knee-high grass. These days the scrubby blades barely reach his ankles even in the rainy season, and there is never enough grass to go around. The cattle cannot feed, and the nomadic families that depend on them for milk and meat cannot survive.(..) Aid agency Oxfam says 23 million people need food aid this year after the drought that swept across eastern Africa and the Horn region. Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit. And a September report by the International Food Policy Research Institute predicted that the worldwide effects of climate change will lead to twenty-five million additional children becoming malnourished by 2050.