News releases

ROME / SEOUL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) thanks the Republic of Korea (ROK) for their recent announcement on the doubling of their annual contribution of rice to the programme next year onwards. The increase will take the annual contribution from 50,000 to 100,000 metric tons, destined for WFP’s life-saving operations globally.

ROME – The World Food Programme (WFP) is rolling out comprehensive, systemic measures to prevent further misuse of life-saving aid in response to the discovery of widespread diversion of humanitarian food assistance in Ethiopia last month. WFP paused food distributions in the Tigray region after finding evidence of significant food aid sales in local markets. WFP immediately began an investigation and is enhancing safeguards and controls to ensure that necessary assistance reaches the most vulnerable women, men, and children.

ROME – As the crisis in Sudan pushes millions into hunger, the World Food Programme (WFP) is immediately lifting the temporary suspension of operations put in place after the tragic deaths of our three team members on 15 April. Distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide the life-saving assistance that many so desperately need right now.

ROME - Cindy H. McCain joins the United Nations World Food Programme as the new Executive Director today, warning that the world is facing an unparalleled food crisis that requires the Rome-based agency to urgently raise more resources, innovate further, and develop ambitious new partnerships.

ROME – The President of the Executive Board of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), His Excellency Artur Andrzej Pollok, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Poland, has welcomed the appointment of Cindy Hensley McCain of the United States of America as WFP’s next Executive Director.

ROME – The Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme David Beasley and Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó met in Rome today to discuss expanded collaboration on supporting vulnerable populations and enhancing administrative efficiency.

DAMASCUS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, arrived in Syria this week and appealed to the world to invest in the Syrian people and communities to get them on their feet and off food assistance.

ROME - Last March I was asked to extend my term as the World Food Programme’s Executive Director for a further year, to navigate the organization through the unprecedented global hunger crisis sparked by a perfect storm of conflict, climate change, COVID-19 and now exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and soaring global food prices.

ROME – It is reprehensible that millions of people will be pushed further into hunger by the resumption of fighting in Northern Ethiopia. In the past few months, the humanitarian truce has allowed WFP and our partners to reach almost 5 million people in Tigray. However, yesterday that lifeline was severed.

NAIROBI – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is expanding assistance in the Horn of Africa as levels of hunger soar after back-to-back droughts and the threat of famine looms. Since the start of the year, nine million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat.

NEW DELHI – The United Nations World Food Programme’s Executive Director, David Beasley, concluded his visit to India on Monday, during which he held high-level discussions with the Government of India and visited the country’s crucial safety net programmes that provide subsidized food to millions of people.

Seoul, Republic of Korea - Son Heung-Min, a prominent English Premier League football player for Tottenham Hotspur, who scored 23 goals in the 2021/22 season, making him one of the top scorers of the season and earning him the Golden Boot, has been announced as the United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) Global Goodwill Ambassador.

NEW YORK – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, addressed the United Nations Security Council today on the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security. Here are selected highlights from his remarks:

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme is today calling for the re-opening of the ports in the Odesa area of southern Ukraine so that food being produced in the war-torn country can flow freely to the rest of the world, before the current global hunger crisis spins out of control.

ROME – France’s Europe and Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Agriculture and Food Julien Denormandie and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič met with David Beasley, Executive Director (ED) of the World Food Program (WFP), to discuss the dramatic consequences of the war in Ukraine on food security, especially for developing countries and the world’s most vulnerable countries.

LVIV – One month into the conflict in Ukraine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is providing emergency food assistance to one million people in the country and has built systems able to deliver food at scale to communities in need. Trucks, trains and mini vans are today delivering food supplies to the most vulnerable people across the country and more convoys are expected in coming days.

Columbia, SC – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley has called on corporations, wealthy individuals, and the public to contribute more to steady a world rocked by war in Europe.

Columbia, SC – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley will announce a major new fundraising drive aimed at billionaires, corporations, and individuals in response to the crisis in Ukraine, and the unprecedented impact on global food security.

RZESZOW, Poland – As the emergency operation in Ukraine moved into high gear today, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) expressed deep concern about the waning ability of families in embattled areas to find food and also warned that the crisis could have consequences well beyond Ukraine’s borders.

ROME – We are deeply concerned about the evolving conflict in Ukraine and its potential impact on access to food for civilians in affected areas and on our operations globally. Our thoughts are with all those who have been caught up in this crisis and we echo the UN Secretary General’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

ROME/MUNICH - There is a ring of fire stretching around the world where conflict and climate shocks compounded by COVID and rising costs are driving millions of people to the brink of starvation - threatening to increase migration and instability globally this year, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley warned today.

WASHINGTON DC/PANAMA: Poverty, food insecurity, climate shocks and violence pushed an estimated annual average of 378,000 Central Americans to migrate to the United States over the past five years, highlights a new report launched today. A high price is paid in human and economic costs, including an estimated $2.2 billion a year to travel regularly and irregularly.

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT – United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley has warned that more Syrians are in the grip of hunger today than at any time during their country’s decade-long conflict, blaming a deadly combination of conflict, climate change, COVID and rising food and fuel costs.

ROME – Golden Globe-nominated actor and director Daniel Brühl was today appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). As conflict, climate change and the impact of the pandemic increase global food insecurity, Brühl joins the world’s largest humanitarian organization in its mission to reach a world with Zero Hunger.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that the number of people teetering on the edge of famine (IPC4/Emergency or worse) in 43 countries has risen to 45 million, as acute hunger spikes around the world. This number has risen from 42 million earlier in the year and 27 million in 2019.