Established in 1961 by the United Nations and headquartered in Rome, Italy, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organization dedicated to eliminating world hunger. It costs 25 cents to feed one person for a day in the developing world. The WFP’s mission is to be the United Nation’s link to eliminating poverty with the ultimate goal being the elimination of the need for food aid globally.

Furthermore, food aid will help support economic and social development as well as providing immediate needs when emergencies arise.

In 2009, the WFP direct aid brought 4.6 million metric tons of food to 101.8 million people in 75 different countries. More than 1 billion people in the world are food insecure and are hungry on any given day because of the scarcity or high cost of food sources. Of the 101.8 million people receiving aid by the WFP, 84 million were women and children. Women are critical for food aid because they are more likely than men are to use the aid to support the whole family including the children.

The WFP has 30 ships, 70 aircraft, and 5,000 trucks that can be used to facilitate emergency relief needed following natural disasters. In 2009, the budget of the WFP was $4.2 billion. The WFP is slowly shifting away from presenting foreign food for assistance and moving toward giving cash and vouchers so the people in need can support the local farmers and stores with their purchases. In 2009, WFP provided meals in schools for 21 million children and focused on the motto of providing “the right food to the right people at the right time.”

In 2010, the WFP was able to obtain food valued at $1.25 billion from 96 countries and purchased 2.6 million metric tons from local suppliers in developing countries. The WFP partners with more than 3,500 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in facilitating the distribution of food to those in need.

In 2011, the WFP provided cash and voucher programs in 25 countries and was also developing nontraditional methods such as using debit cards, using vouchers texted to mobile phones, and online systems to aid in the distribution of money needed to buy produce from the local farmers and stores.

In 2013, the WFP gave food assistance to 80.9 million people in 75 countries, which resulted, in part, in the reduction or stabilization of the undernutrition of 7.2 million children under the age of 5. A total of 18.6 million school children received meals in school and/or were given take-home food rations in 2013.

The WFP provided 3.1 million metric tons of food to areas in need. WFP responded to four Level 3 emergencies in Syria, the Philippines, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. A Level 3 emergency is the highest category classified by WFP. A Level 3 emergency requires the mobilization of global and corporate resources because of the severity of the emergency. In 2013, the WFP received $4.38 billion in aid from numerous countries.

WFP Initiatives

One of the WFP’s newest initiatives, started in 2009, was a focus on chronic malnutrition. Instead of using the “one size fits all” strategy of providing food rations, the WFP developed customized individual programs to serve the specific nutritional needs in different parts of the world. This was also integrated with its program to enhance the nutritional value of food that is delivered to people in need. Another initiative that was started in 2008, Purchase for Progress (P4P), focused on using WFP’s buying power to stimulate production and small farmers in local areas that WFP is serving. In 2009, WFP bought 30,000 metric tons of crops from 80 farming organizations located in 13 countries.

Nutrition

The WFP has a number of initiatives that enrich the nutritional value of the food. By fortifying the food with additional nutrients, the WFP can provide those in need with food that provides high caloric and vitamin intake in a relatively small amount of food. The challenges of this task are enormous. Approximately 200 million children under the age of 5 are stunted or undernourished in developing countries. Furthermore, an additional 130 million are underweight, and an estimated 3.5 million children die each year primarily because they are undernourished. The WFP has developed micronutrient powders that can be added to cooked food to increase the amount of vitamins and minerals in the food. Other examples of nutritionally enhanced food include micronutrient-enriched high-energy biscuits and Supplementary Plumpy, which is similar to peanut butter fortified with minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids, which are all essential to quicken the ability of the child to recover from undernourishment. In Egypt, the WFP has set up a program that enriches all the flour used to make the country’s basic bread with iron and folic acid. The result was that in 2009, more that 70% of the flour used for the bread has been enriched from the participation of more than 500 millers in 106 mills.

The 1,000 Days Plus Program

The curse of hunger knows no boundaries. It can start in the womb of the mother. The first 1,000 days are critical in the development of every child. If the child is malnourished during this period, the undernourishment can cause permanent damage to the child’s mind and body. A child who is undernourished is more likely to be sick and find it more difficult to concentrate at school. Furthermore, mothers who were undernourished as children are 40% more likely to have children who die before the age of 5. Mothers who do not have enough nutrition run a higher risk of death while delivering a child. This cycle of misery, the intergenerational undernutrition cycle, can be difficult to stop without external aid from organizations such as the WFP. As an incentive to the child and the family, school meals and take home rations help in the growth and development of the child and are incentives for the family to send the child to school. This is especially critical for girls who are usually assigned to do chores at home during school hours. The direct link between education and financial security is indisputable. The WFP estimates that every year of primary school results in an increase of a girl’s pay by 10% to 20% and if the girl reaches secondary school, each year adds 15% to 25% to the wages of the girl.....

Questions

1. What should the role of corporations be in helping the WFP’s mission? Explain.

2. Identify as many possible stakeholders of the WFP as you can. Comment on each group’s involvement with the WFP.

3. Does it take a village to solve problems like hunger? Explain. How effective can organizations such as the WFP be in solving world hunger without the support from other NGOs? Explain.

4. Should issues such as world hunger be on corporate agendas? Explain.