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WFP's message at Davos was that good nutrition is crucial for the well-being of the next generation of the world's inhabitants. Starting with quake-hit Haiti, building the future depends on people getting the right foods at the right time.

You can find out what were the key events for WFP by scrolling through our Davos 2010 blog below.

Davos: 70 Leaders Discuss Haiti and Nutrition

The snow was falling as about 70 guests arrived for WFP’s annual dinner-discussion forum with international leaders at the World Economic Forum at Davos. The event was sponsored and co-hosted by Peter Bakker (photo below) the CEO of the global transport company TNT. 

Guests came to listen to a Haiti update from WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, and to discuss ways to improve nutrition and response to both chronic hunger and emergency operations. 

She praised the global response to the Haiti emergency, with more than $190 million contributed by governments, more than $50 million from the private sector and about $3.5 million from members of the public through WFP’s website. 

And she thanked the people who had contributed to talks on improving nutrition in WFP’s food for children with an eye to the future: “In an era where we expect we could see more urban crises, we need to prepare to respond,” Ms Sheeran said. 

Mr. Bakker told the gathering that his company TNT was joining with UPS and Agility to set up a pre-emptive disaster relief structure for logistics companies to support rapid response to emergencies like Haiti. 

Simon Maxwell of the Overseas Development Institute said economic development is fundamental to helping countries prepare for and bounce back from natural disasters. “We need to move countries from the Haiti column to the China column,” he said, referring to the devastating earthquake in China last year, when the country was badly hit, but still able to respond to the crisis.

Brazil’s Celso Amorin urged business leaders to go to Haiti and invest in local industries.

 

Authored on 29 January 2010

Davos: YUM! Brands Is WFP's Partner Of The Year

WFP’s Tent at Davos was packed on Thursday night for the annual dinner-discussion forum with international leaders.

At the start of the evening, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran announced WFP’s Partner of the Year: Yum! Brands. (see photo left, copyright: WFP/Rein Skullerud).

The global company, with 36,000 restaurants around the world, has raised $30 million for WFP over the past three years through their World Hunger Relief campaign, helping to change the lives of millions people in 27 countries.

“This partnership has galvanized everyone throughout our company,” said Graham Allan, President of Yum! Brands International. “I have gone to El Salvador and Guatemala to visit WFP’s programmes and I’ve seen the statistics brought to life on the people’s faces … We’ve made a long-term commitment to ourselves and to WFP. With WFP, people have a chance for a better life.”

Yum! is also helping to raise donations for WFP’s emergency response in Haiti, with a Public Service Announcement taped by their global spokesperson Cristina Aguilera and boxing legend Mohammed Ali.   After the Haiti earthquake, the company directed $500,000 from its own charitable foundation and $500,000 from the World Hunger Relief campaign to WFP’s emergency operation in Haiti.

WFP also received a $100,000 donation from the employees and management of the World Economic Forum, presented to Ms Sheeran by Robert Greenhill, managing director of the WEF.

Authored on 29 January 2010

Davos soundbites: "Public-private partnerships are vital"

Public-private partnerships are going to be crucial in the fight against hunger and malnutrition -- this idea has really been reinforced for me here at Davos, says Perry Yeatman, Senior Vice President (Corporate Affairs) Kraft Foods Inc.

Hunger is a huge and extremely complex issue with many facets. The only way we are going to be able to address it is through a multi-stakeholder approach that brings together and catalyses public and private expertise, she said.
 

Authored on 28 January 2010

Davos soundbites: "Malnutrition is solvable"

If you look around the world there is concrete evidence that malnutrition is a solvable problem, says Simon Maxwell, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute in the UK. 

Although it’s entirely solvable, malnutrition remains one of the biggest challenges we face, Maxwell added.

“In some countries we have 30 and 40 per cent of children who won’t grow properly, who won’t have intellectual development, who won’t be able to work fully as adults, who will die early, who will suffer more illness. That’s a problem that will have to be solved,” he said.

 

Authored on 28 January 2010

Davos: 5 Key Facts on Malnutrition

During Davos, WFP is aiming to get more public and private players engaged in the battle against malnutrition. Through informal conversations and scheduled events, we will explain that malnutrition is a truly global challenge.

There is more and more research showing the devastating, permanent effects of child undernutrition.

Here are five things we want leaders here to understand:

  1. UNICEF reports that the number of children  around the world that chronically undernourished, or stunted, has risen to nearly 200 million, and  that 130 million children are underweight. Undernutrition is responsible for more than one-third of all deaths for children under five.
  2. Lancet tells us that chronic undernutrition in the first two years of life leads to irreversible damage in adult life. Addressing nutrition in this critical window of opportunity is vital to prevent irreversible impairments in physical growth and cognitive development.
  3. World Bank says that scaling up nutrition programmes in high burden countries would cost just US$11.8 billion a year.
  4. We know that preventing moderate malnutrition is affordable: US$200 to treat severe child malnourished versus just $40-80 to prevent it. (World Bank, 2009)
  5. Leading economists, including Nobel laureates, declared in the 2008 Copenhagen Consensus that five of the top ten most cost-effective solutions for development focus on malnutrition.

The research is clear, this battle is winnable. The question is not can we, but will we?

Authored on 28 January 2010

Davos: Keeping Hunger On The Radar

Copyright: WFP/Rein SkullerudWFP is participating in the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland, to ensure that hunger  -- and nutrition in particular -- remains on the radar of global leaders.

The gathering brings together people of significant influence in all sectors – from presidents and prime ministers to chief executives and heads of international agencies – to consider solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems.

This year, alongside the ongoing emergency operation in Haiti, our main theme will be nutrition and the need for the private sector to help provide innovative solutions on this front.

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran will be joining the forum for part of the meeting, which runs 27-31 Jan. Our Dutch corporate partner TNT is helping to cover WFP's costs, which include the setting up of a WFP food aid storage tent (see photo above by Rein Skullerud) where a number of major meetings will be held.

Key WFP-led events are:

  • A breakfast brainstorming session on affordable nutrition in developing countries with CEOs from the private sector, mainly from the food industry.
  • A  nutrition summit with 30 leaders from business, academia, NGOs and governments to begin consultations on how to collaborate in the area of nutrition.
  • Josette Sheeran and Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT, will co-host an event for 70 government leaders and CEOs. At this sixth annual event, we will provide an update on WFP's work in Haiti and encourage private and public-sector leaders to collaborate on lasting solutions to world hunger and malnutrition. 
  • Josette Sheeran will also take a lead role in two other events: the Redesigning a Healthy Start panel, which focuses on the repercussions of malnutrition before the age of two and asking what changes are needed in economics, healthcare and education to eradicate malnutrition by 2015; and an informal gathering of world economic leaders entitled Food Security Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture: An Agenda for Action.
     
Authored on 27 January 2010
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About Davos

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, often referred to simply as Davos after the Swiss town where it is held, is attended by leaders from industry, government and civil society. It’s a forum where leaders can talk about the difficult challenges facing the world and discuss ways to address them.

 

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran recorded this message for Davos while in Haiti last week.

 

During the Davos summit, Josette Sheeran spoke to the BBC about the situation in Haiti in this interview.