News releases

ROME – The COVID-19 pandemic risks reversing a decade of hard-won gains in global efforts to provide nutritious food to the world’s most vulnerable children through a free daily meal in school, the United Nations World Food Programme said in a report released today.

Harare - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes an additional US$7 million in new funding from Switzerland, through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which will go directly towards assisting families living in Zimbabwe’s urban areas to strengthen their skills and ability to cope in the face of economic and climate shocks.

DUSHANBE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun delivering fortified wheat flour and vegetable oil to the families of vulnerable schoolchildren in the Khatlon Region of Tajikistan, supported by USD 1 million from the Russian Federation.

ROME – Hunger in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has increased almost fourfold over the past two years - from 2.2 million people in 2018 to close to 8 million people in 2021 – a result of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and years of extreme climate events. Of this figure, 1.7 million people are in the ‘Emergency’ category of food insecurity and require urgent food assistance.

TEHRAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a generous contribution of US$875,000 from the Government of Japan towards its assistance programme for refugees in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has the following updates on the facts surrounding the tragic security incident in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on 22 February:

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed its deepest sympathy and condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of three people killed, today, in an attack on a delegation travelling on a field visit in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

ESHPEROV – A pilot greenhouse project to supplement school meals with locally-grown fresh vegetables was launched today at Dogdurov school in Eshperov village of Issyk-Kul province. The programme aims to strengthen the capacity of all Kyrgyz primary schools to prepare and serve fresh and nutritious meals throughout the country.

ROME – The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), a critical lifeline transporting humanitarian workers and lifesaving cargo to some of the most challenging and hard-to-reach locations, urgently requires US$ 204 million to continue existing operations beyond February 2021.

Kathmandu - The Government of Japan has agreed to extend grant assistance of Japanese Yen 364 million (about US$3.47 million / NRs.405 million) to the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP) Nepal for implementing the Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Programme in five vulnerable districts of Provinces 1 and 2.

Lilongwe, Malawi, February 17, 2021 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in the Ministry of Health today welcome a timely contribution of EUR 550,000 (about 515 million Malawi Kwacha) from the Government of Ireland to support interventions that prevent malnutrition in Malawi.

CAIRO – A record 12.4 million Syrians - nearly 60 percent of the population - are now food insecure, according to alarming new national data from the UN World Food Programme (WFP). In just over one year, an additional 4.5 million Syrians have become food insecure.

CAIRO – In support of Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) and in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched today a three-day training to develop counselling and monitoring capacity of MOSS’s community workers.

BANGUI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$1.6 million (JPY 178 million) contribution from the Government of Japan to provide much-needed food assistance to vulnerable people in the Central African Republic, amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Kigali – Today, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it would reduce food assistance to refugees in Rwanda by a dramatic 60 percent, as of March 2021. Some 135,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees in camps in Rwanda rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic food needs each month.

COLOMBO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Sri Lanka welcome a funding of CAD 1 million (LKR 151 million) from Global Affairs Canada to help smallholder farmers cultivate nutritious crops for the National School Meal Programme.

Humanitarian crisis continues to exert a terrible toll on children, warn FAO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO

SANA’A/ADEN/ROME/NEW YORK/GENEVA - Nearly 2.3 million children under the age of five in Yemen are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, four United Nations agencies warned today. Of these, 400,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and could die if they do not receive urgent treatment.

Dili – WFP humanitarian air service in support of the Government’s COVID-19 response will continue thanks to a US$150,000 donation from the Republic of Korea.

BISHKEK – The Swiss Government has contributed CHF2.5 million to boost United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) support to vulnerable Kyrgyz families hit hard by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jerusalem- - The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) signed an agreement to better support the State of Palestine to accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Baghdad - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Bank are partnering on gathering key data on the impacts of COVID-19 on households, including people who are displaced, in camps, and those who have returned to their areas, as well as host communities.

ADDIS ABABA/ROME – The World Food Programme (WFP) affirms the need for strong partnership between the Government of Ethiopia and the entire humanitarian community to rapidly scale up a collective response to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of people in Tigray.

ADDIS ABABA/ROME - Today, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ethiopia, Catherine Sozi, and the Federal Minister of Peace of the Government of Ethiopia, Muferihat Kamil, completed a joint visit to Mekelle in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, aiming to highlight the need for strong partnership to rapidly scale up a Government-led collective response to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of people in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region.

ROME: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is stepping up global co-operation on the use of humanitarian drones, which are a game-changer for fast, accurate, disaster impact assessment and response. With growing threats from famine and climate change, it is hoped a new online platform will help respond to the challenges ahead, as currently being demonstrated in the response to tropical storm Eloise in Mozambique.

KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for funding to provide food and nutrition assistance to over 60,000 refugees who crossed from Ethiopia into eastern Sudan in recent months. WFP welcomes a contribution of US$800,000 from Japan.