News releases

ROME - Today’s agreement to a humanitarian pause in fighting in Gaza is an important and welcome first step. As hunger threatens the lives of nearly every civilian in Gaza, this agreement must be upheld in full to allow food and other life-saving supplies to reach those who so desperately need it.

Rome – To make a dent in spiralling global hunger, the world must rapidly scale up protection for vulnerable people on the frontlines of the climate crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today, a week before world leaders meet in Dubai for the next UN Climate Summit, COP28. Last year alone, climate extremes pushed a staggering 56.8 million people into acute food insecurity.

ROME – Today, Cindy McCain, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) and Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the President of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP28), called for urgent action to scale up climate action in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, Cindy McCain issued an urgent plea from the Rafah border crossing for safe, expanded humanitarian access to Gaza as humanitarian needs skyrocket and critical food supplies reach dangerously low levels.

ROME – In a private audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis received the UN World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain to discuss the urgent need to tackle the food insecurity and humanitarian crises besetting the planet.

Mr. President, thank you for inviting me to brief the Security Council on the vital importance of partnering with the private sector to address humanitarian needs.

Leaders from FAO, IFAD and WFP warn of a deepening crisis in South Sudan without immediate action and investment in resilience.

Juba – The cost of inaction in addressing South Sudan’s complex food, climate, and insecurity crises will be felt in the loss of lives, livelihoods and futures for millions of people across the young nation, the heads of three United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned today as they wrapped up a three-day visit to the country.

ROME/COTONOU, BENIN – The ripple effects of Sudan’s war are impacting hunger and migration across West and Central Africa, rapidly depleting scarce resources, further stressing the already underfunded humanitarian response, and exacerbating inter-communal tensions. The spillover will be devastating for peace and stability in a region already facing climate extremes, insecurity, and economic decline, warned the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain as she concludes a visit to Chad, Togo, and Benin.

Unprecedented hunger and malnutrition threaten lives across the country

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.