{"id":47273,"date":"2021-12-19T16:17:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T16:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=47273"},"modified":"2021-12-19T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T16:17:02","slug":"what-is-wfp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/what-is-wfp\/","title":{"rendered":"What is WFP?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-aim-to-save-the-planet\/\">discussion<\/a> between Elon Musk and David Beasley highlighted the World Food Programme. Voice of London contacted Jane Howard, a spokesperson of WFP in London, who revealed how this organisation operates.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jane Howard said that currently World Food Programme, along with the world leaders, is aiming to overcome global hunger by the end of 2030, as it is one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfp.org\/sdgs\">17 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>. \u201cIt is&nbsp;a task that goes well beyond the work&nbsp;of&nbsp;WFP&nbsp;alone.&nbsp;It is one for all humanity,\u201d said Jane Howard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of finances, WFP was given US$8.4 billion&nbsp;in funding, which the organisation spent to help&nbsp;115.5 million people in the 80&nbsp;countries.&nbsp;\u201cMore specifically, we put&nbsp;US$2.1&nbsp;billion&nbsp;in&nbsp;cash directly into&nbsp;the hands of women and men to buy food for their families in local&nbsp;markets and&nbsp;distributed&nbsp;US$ 2.4 billion worth of food\u201d, said Jane Howard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>\u201cMore specifically, we put&nbsp;US$2.1&nbsp;billion&nbsp;in&nbsp;cash directly into&nbsp;the hands of women and men to buy food for their families in local&nbsp;markets and&nbsp;distributed&nbsp;US$ 2.4 billion worth of food.\u201d<\/em><\/p><cite>&#8211; Jane Howard<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at history, in 1961, WFP was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfp.org\/history\">founded<\/a> \u201cas an experiment to provide food aid through the UN system\u201d, according to the WFP\u2019s official website. At that time, the world encountered crises such as typhoons in Thailand and war refugees in independent Algeria. In 1962 World Food Programme successfully overcame its biggest challenge: an earthquake in Buin Zahra.&nbsp;For this humanitarian operation of helping the survivors, WFP sent \u201c1,500 metric tons of wheat, 270 tons of sugar and 27 tons of tea\u201d, according to the WFP\u2019s official website. The following year World Food Programme\u2019s first-ever school meal project in Togo was accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1962 Buin Zahra Earthquake\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jFR_hlxmyAA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Earthquake in Buin Zahra 1962. Source: MyFootage.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1965 the World Food Programme was officially acknowledged as the UN\u2019s programme. Twenty-four years later, in 1989, a significant Operation Lifeline Sudan had been started, which required a consortium of UN branches such as UNICEF, and WFP to deliver 1.5 mln tons of food through the sky into the territory of South Sudan. To this day, Operation Lifeline Sudan remains the biggest airdrop in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2021\/12\/Operation_Lifeline_Sudan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2021\/12\/Operation_Lifeline_Sudan.jpg 800w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2021\/12\/Operation_Lifeline_Sudan-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2021\/12\/Operation_Lifeline_Sudan-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>Operation Lifeline Sudan. Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/de:User:Kbreker\">Kbreker<\/a>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/de:\">German Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The new millennium brought for the WFP goals of developing a strategy towards the world without hunger, poverty and similar issues. However, in 2004, the Asian Tsunami stroked, and in 2010 Haiti earthquake happened. Both crises required effective actions, and besides supplying the food, World Food Programme gave cash and vouchers to aid during both natural disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Haiti Earthquake: Thousands Feared Dead\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/faErDWCk8YE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Haiti Earthquake 2010. Source: Sky News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As the technologies continued to develop, WFP improved its services by creating digital platforms that now help to deliver food in hours, which happened during the Nepali earthquake in 2015. In 2020, WFP received the Nobel Peace Prize for its hard work in tackling global hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/UN_News_Centre\/status\/1345822237392330752\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Howard, now there are 42 million people in 43 countries on the verge of famine. \u201cThis number has risen from 27 million in 2019\u2014 a 56 per cent increase\u201d, said Jane Howard. The reasons behind such high numbers of famine victims are conflicts, natural hazards, and the economic issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jane Howard guarantees that the WFP is a reliable and transparent organisation, as it presents financial statements publicly, which can be found on the World Food Programme\u2019s official website. Besides, the public can access WFP\u2019s projects and plans for the budget <a href=\"http:\/\/d-portal.org\/ctrack.html?publisher=XM-DAC-41140#view=main\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people might be doubting World Food Programme\u2019s transparency, but their concerns are not reasonable, as WFP openly discloses its achievements, plans and budget, and remains to be one of the key organisations that solve one of the main society\u2019s issues: global hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Words by: <strong>Daniele Kieraite<\/strong> | Subbing: <strong>Mihlali Sidney<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter discussion between Elon Musk and David Beasley highlighted the World Food Programme. Voice of London contacted Jane Howard, a spokesperson of WFP in London, who revealed how this organisation operates. Jane Howard said that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":47280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,68,82,101,114,145],"tags":[7188,7187,7190,7192,4934,7191],"class_list":["post-47273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-history","category-lifestyle","category-politics","category-society","category-worldnews","tag-un-2","tag-wfp-2","tag-globalhunger","tag-humanrights","tag-politics","tag-socialissues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47407,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47273\/revisions\/47407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}