News releases

TUNIS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) are launching a study to discover how best to adjust national policies for the economic and social empowerment of rural women and girls, especially in times of crisis such as the pandemic COVID-19.

ROME – The number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance has hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises, an annual report launched today by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) - an international alliance of the UN, the EU, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises together - has found. Conflict, economic shocks – including due to COVID-19, extreme weather – pushed at least 155 million people into acute food insecurity in 2020.

BEIRUT – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received a generous €1 million contribution from the Italian Cooperation in support of its school meals program. As schools remain closed in Lebanon, WFP is providing monthly assistance in the form of food parcels for nearly 133,000 vulnerable people.

The online public consultation will feed into the organizations’ strategic outlooks and provide a platform to share ideas to accelerate achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have launched an online public consultation to obtain inputs on how the UN agencies can collaborate in key areas in the coming years.

This is a summary of what was said by WFP Senior Director of Operations Amer Daoudi – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

GENEVA - I’m currently in Madagascar. I arrived a couple of days ago to see first-hand the deteriorating humanitarian situation in southern Madagascar. The issue is no longer about how bad it is - it is extremely bad.

YEREVAN – With funding from the British Embassy in Yerevan, and as part of the “Wholegrain Wheat Value Chain” project to boost nutrition, WFP organized interactive practical training sessions for 200 participants from 30 communities in Tavush to increase knowledge about whole grain wheat bread and bakery production.

ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR – The unrelenting drought in southern Madagascar is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). With acute malnutrition rates continuing to rise, urgent action is required to address this unfolding humanitarian crisis.

SUVA, Fiji – On 26 April, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) flew vital medical supplies to Kiribati via the Pacific Humanitarian Air Service, which WFP manages on behalf of the humanitarian community. This air delivery demonstrates WFP’s continued support to the COVID-19 response in the region.

Dili – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), with support from Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), has conducted a series of assessment flights on behalf of the Government to determine the extent of agricultural and infrastructural damages caused by Cyclone Seroja that hit the Timor-Leste early April.

ROME/PARIS – The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and World Food Programme (WFP) have launched a global partnership to engage the business community and foster strategic collaborations at regional and national levels in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 2: Zero Hunger

YANGON, Myanmar – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is to mount a new food assistance operation, targeting up to 2 million vulnerable people in the poor townships in Myanmar’s main cities and other areas where population displacement has recently taken place.

PEMBA, CABO DELGADO – Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is in the grips of a spiralling crisis as thousands of people flee their homes amidst violence, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

JERUSALEM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) started delivering fortified wheat flour for 72,000 people of the most vulnerable families in Gaza and the West Bank people for nine months, thanks to a US$4 million grant from the Russian Federation.

CAIRO - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched this weekend a Ramadan campaign on social media to raise awareness on the suffering of 690 million hungry people around the world.

PANAMA CITY– The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reached an agreement to commence operations in Venezuela with the priority of serving the most vulnerable children.

ROME – The visit to Central America by WFP Executive Director, David Beasley renews WFP’s commitment to working with vulnerable communities, offering them sustainable livelihoods and food security in their villages, giving them reasons to stay at home and reducing migration. During his visit Beasley met families affected by climate change coupled with job losses and rising inequality, a fallout of COVID-19.

DAKAR – Millions of families in West and Central Africa are growing more hungry and desperate by the day as food prices skyrocket – stoking a widening hunger emergency in a region engulfed by conflict and the socioeconomic fallout from COVID-19, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today, noting that immediate action is required to prevent a catastrophe.

JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes contributions totalling US$345 million from the United States through USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance to support WFP food assistance in South Sudan, where rising food insecurity has pushed 60 percent of the population into hunger and poverty.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) Chief of Staff, Gresham Barrett, this week visited joint Government and WFP programmes in the city of Luxor, looking at projects promoting women’s economic empowerment, rural development and education.

TRIPOLI – Thanks to a EUR 370,000 contribution from the Government of France, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Libya will support 3,500 crisis-affected people in the Fezzan region in the south of Libya through agriculture and livelihoods projects

BAGHDAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a 250,000 Euro contribution from France towards agricultural resilience-building activities in Basra governorate – in the south of Iraq, that will support 7,500 people and their families.

JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is cutting food rations for refugees and internally displaced people in the country due to significant funding gaps.

Over 27 million Congolese – one in three people - now critically hungry

Kinshasa/Rome – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the food security situation remains dire with one in three people – a record high - suffering from acute hunger, two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.