World Food Programme
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the humanitarian branch of the United Nations (UN), established in 1961 to provide food aid to those in need globally. Initially proposed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the WFP began its operations by delivering essential food supplies to countries facing crises, such as Iran, Sudan, and Thailand. As the organization evolved, it expanded its mission to include development programs aimed at addressing the root causes of hunger, such as poverty and corruption, in addition to emergency interventions. The WFP's approach is multi-faceted, focusing on health and nutrition, efficient farming practices, and reducing food waste.
By 2019, WFP programs had supported 97 million people across 88 countries. The organization operates a vast logistical network involving trucks, ships, and aircraft to deliver food supplies, and it works in partnership with a multitude of national and international NGOs. Funded primarily by voluntary donations, the WFP’s efforts have significantly impacted global food security and well-being. Its critical work in alleviating hunger and promoting stability earned it the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, recognizing its vital role in fostering food security worldwide.
World Food Programme
The World Food Programme (WFP; spelled World Food Program in the United States) is a humanitarian branch of the United Nations (UN) formed at the suggestion of US president Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961. The goal of the WFP was to provide food aid to people in need throughout the world. Even in its first few years of existence, the WFP provided urgently needed food aid to a variety of countries including Togo, Iran, Thailand, Sudan, and Algeria, saving thousands of lives. In subsequent years, the activities of—and demands on—the WFP would continue and increase. Amid new projects in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, West Africa, Haiti, Nepal, and elsewhere, the WFP began to undertake development programs as well as emergency interventions. Through these efforts, WFP officials hope to eradicate the underlying causes of hunger and avoid hunger-related crises in the future.
Brief History
Despite many great scientific and technological advances of the modern era, hunger remains a significant problem in many parts of the world. Overpopulation, war, migration, drought, corruption, ineffective agriculture, and other factors have created major obstacles for the production and distribution of food to all people. According to UN estimates, 690 million people worldwide struggle to get enough food. In 2019, 135 million people in 55 countries faced severe food shortages.
Hunger is a severe problem by itself, but ongoing hunger can lead to malnutrition and an array of problems. Malnourished people can become sick and lethargic, and even die. On a broader scale, malnourishment can hurt larger systems such as economies and education, weakening societies and breeding strife and injustice. The quest to end hunger worldwide is an enormous one, but one which has been undertaken by many organizations, including the World Food Programme.
Following the ravages of World War II (1939–1945), leaders of many countries posited that the only way to prevent future wars was to form a worldwide overseeing body that would monitor countries and address problems before they could become conflicts. In 1945, fifty governments designed the UN, which replaced the League of Nations, a former and unsuccessful attempt to create an international, intergovernmental organization for world peace and security.
Although the main aim of the UN would be to foster international cooperation and avoid war, many leaders quickly saw its potential to address problems that transcended national borders. Among the most pressing of these concerns was world hunger. In 1961, US president Dwight Eisenhower proposed a new department of the UN that would focus on providing food aid to people in need across the world. In response, leaders of the UN formed the World Food Programme (WFP).
Overview
Although UN leaders initially viewed the WFP as a temporary experiment, the usefulness of the organization soon became apparent. An earthquake in Iran in September 1962 killed thousands and left thousands more homeless. The WFP responded quickly by sending tons of wheat, sugar, and other needed foodstuffs to the survivors. The WFP also sent aid to typhoon victims in Thailand, refugees in Algeria, hungry students in Togo, and struggling villagers in Sudan.
By 1965, UN officials recognized that the WFP was a valuable organization that provided a badly needed service, and chose to make it an ongoing program. The WFP continued to address new hunger problems while monitoring ongoing food-aid projects. WFP officials became known for their resourcefulness, their networking with other organizations, and their determination. One of the WFP’s most notable projects took place in 1989, when a fleet of WFP planes delivered 1.5 million tons of food to starving people in South Sudan.
In the following decades, amid new emergencies in places such as Rwanda and Yugoslavia, the WFP began to devote more effort to development programs, rather than just interventions in times of crisis. These programs stemmed from the idea that the problem of hunger was rooted in other ills, such as poverty or government corruption. By addressing these underlying problems, hunger might be avoided instead of just remedied. WFP officials identified five main steps to ending hunger: focusing on the people most in need first, emphasizing the health and nutrition of young children, encouraging efficient modern farming, improving transportation and distribution of food, and reducing wasted food.
The urgency of ending hunger, and the practice of viewing worldwide problems as interconnected, contributed to the drafting of Millennium Development Goals in 2000. This document set out a plan for fixing many deeply seated troubles in the global community, ranging from war and poverty to pollution and injustice. The plan also involved an unprecedented level of cooperation between UN departments, participating countries, and countless government and nongovernmental organizations. Even as they set about on this ambitious plan, officials faced new hunger-related crises in Haiti, Nepal, West Africa, and many other lands.
The work of the WFP increased further in the twenty-first century, due both to more hunger-related problems and increasingly ambitious goals, including ending hunger and food insecurity by 2030. The WFP continued to alternate between emergency intervention and a wide variety of proactive programs that help people in struggling areas provide, store, and distribute their own food. In 2019, WFP programs benefited 97 million people in 88 countries, according to WFP figures. Some 5,600 trucks, 30 ships, and almost 100 aircraft carry WFP food supplies toward people in need each day.
To accomplish these enormous tasks, WFP employs a governing board of thirty-six members and twenty thousand staff members, and partners with more than one thousand national and international nongovernmental organizations around the world. Billions of dollars in voluntary donations help to fund this effort each year. The combined effort of the WFP and its allies has saved countless thousands of lives and brought better health and security to humanity in general. In recognition of this work, the Nobel Committee declared in October 2020 that WFP was that year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Bibliography
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“History.” United Nations World Food Programme, 2020, www.wfp.org/history. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.
“Overview.” United Nations World Food Programme, 2020, www.wfp.org/overview. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.
Shaw, D. John. The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
“World Food Programme.” Relief International, 2020, www.ri.org/partners/wfp/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5PGGrbyA7QIVGm-GCh25-AAiEAAYAiAAEgK8CfD‗BwE. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.
“World Food Programme (WFP): The Nobel Peace Prize for 2020.” United Nations, 2020, www.un.org/en/sections/nobel-peace-prize/world-food-programme-wfp/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.
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