With the help of these donors, WFP recently allocated US$180mn to some 60 country operations -while providing a vital and urgent boost to lifesaving efforts in Syria, Yemen, the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. These funds will also surge support to development projects and provide food assistance to refugees and displaced people.

“Flexible funds give us the freedom we need to respond more quickly, save on costs, plan for the longer term and prevent disruptions to our life-saving work,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “To make the most of precious donor resources, we call on more of our government partners to provide funding that is unearmarked, predictable, and usable over multiple years.”

Whether beating back famine in South Sudan or saving lives of the Rohingya in the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis in Bangladesh, WFP is a vital component of the international response to pull people back from the brink of starvation.

Flexible funding allows the food organisation to act swiftly, effectively and efficiently, yet governments that provide this kind of funding are still very much in the minority as many specify how and where the money can be spent.

In 2017, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany led the way in providing multilateral funding to WFP. However, these kinds of contributions to it last year sat at just seven percent of the total resources provided to the organisation, well below a high-water mark of 20% of flexible funding in 2002.

The most recent allocations were made with contributions from Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Contributions from private sector partners were also part of this allocation.

Under the agreement known as the Grand Bargain concluded at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, leading donors committed to progressively reduce earmarking, with an aim of achieving a global target of 30% of humanitarian funding with fewer restrictions by 2020.

Top Ten Multilateral Donors and Funding Sources to WFP in 2017

(To see a full list of flexible contributions to WFP in 2017: https://www.wfp.org/funding/year/2017)

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists 80mn people in around 80 countries.

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday welcomed an additional contribution of €2.6 million from Germany to support food security, resilience building and school feeding activities in Mozambique in 2018. The contribution, channeled through the German Development Bank (KfW), builds on a previous grant of more than €13 million provided by the German Government in late 2016 for WFP operations in Mozambique this year.

“The Government of Germany reaffirms its commitment to help the people of Mozambique build resilience so as to eradicate hunger and poverty, and achieve sustainable development,” said Dr Detlev Wolter, Germany’s Ambassador to Mozambique. “This new contribution provides continuing support to improving food security in the most vulnerable parts of the country and strengthening resilience to extreme weather events. It also aims to reduce absenteeism of children and teachers in schools. Education being one of the priorities Germany shares with the Government and people of Mozambique, this is especially close to my heart.”

The donation will enable  the basic food and nutrition needs of 85,500 people to be met. Of these, 55,500 will participate in the construction and restoration of productive and social community assets. The school feeding intervention will target 30,000 beneficiaries in the south of the country, encouraging children  to return to, and stay in school.

“We are very grateful for the continued support of Germany,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Karin Manente. “This contribution will support vulnerable communities as they regain their livelihoods following last year’s drought and as the lean season approaches, while also keeping a long-term perspective by focusing on their resilience. Keeping children in school is equally important for the communities. Children are able to concentrate and learn better when their energy requirements are met, as is foreseen in the National School Programme”.

In the last five years, Germany has granted more than €2,3 billion to WFP’s work worldwide, placing it among its top 10 donors.

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed an additional contribution of €2.6 million from Germany to support food security, resilience building and school feeding activities in Mozambique in 2018. The contribution, channeled through the German Development Bank (KfW), builds on a previous grant of more than €13 million provided by the German Government in late 2016 for WFP operations in Mozambique this year.

“The Government of Germany reaffirms its commitment to help the people of Mozambique build resilience so as to eradicate hunger and poverty, and achieve sustainable development,” said Dr Detlev Wolter, Germany’s Ambassador to Mozambique. “This new contribution provides continuing support to improving food security in the most vulnerable parts of the country and strengthening resilience to extreme weather events. It also aims to reduce absenteeism of children and teachers in schools. Education being one of the priorities Germany shares with the Government and people of Mozambique, this is especially close to my heart.”

The donation will enable  the basic food and nutrition needs of 85,500 people to be met. Of these, 55,500 will participate in the construction and restoration of productive and social community assets. The school feeding intervention will target 30,000 beneficiaries in the south of the country, encouraging children  to return to, and stay in school.

“We are very grateful for the continued support of Germany,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Karin Manente. “This contribution will support vulnerable communities as they regain their livelihoods following last year’s drought and as the lean season approaches, while also keeping a long-term perspective by focusing on their resilience. Keeping children in school is equally important for the communities. Children are able to concentrate and learn better when their energy requirements are met, as is foreseen in the National School Programme”.

In the last five years, Germany has granted more than €2,3 billion to WFP’s work worldwide, placing it among its top 10 donors.

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Board, meeting in Rome, Italy this month, has approved a five-year strategy in Palestine which prioritises food support for the most vulnerable Palestinians, thus ensuring the continuing benefit of WFP assistance.

WFP’s Country Strategic Plan (CSP) will begin in Palestine in January 2018.  The Plan is in line with the Palestinian 2017 -2022 National Policy Agenda and Social Development Sector Strategy, which identified continued assistance for food insecure people as a priority to alleviate poverty. The CSP was developed in close collaboration with the Palestinian Authority, government donors and other humanitarian and development partners following an independent strategic review on Food Security and Nutrition.

The strategy aims to improve, by 2022, the dietary diversity of non-refugees, poor and severely food insecure people in Palestine (primarily in Gaza and Area C in the West Bank). Over the period, WFP will seek to support 314,000 vulnerable Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank with food rations and electronic food vouchers.

As per the independent review, and in the face of declining resources, WFP will concentrate on addressing the greatest needs of those who are especially vulnerable.

This includes all 220,000 severely food-insecure non-refugees, as identified by the National Socio-Economic and Food Security Survey conducted this year; 59,000 of the most vulnerable moderately food-insecure non-refugees living in families headed by women; and 35,000 poor nomadic and semi-nomadic Bedouins and herders living in area C of the West Bank.

WFP’s Country Strategic Plan is also aligned with two of the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals: SDG2 – Zero Hunger, which aims to eradicate hunger by 2030, and SDG17, which promotes both public and private partnerships. WFP’s support to these goals is embedded within the 2018-22 United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and the first multi-year Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in Palestine covering the period 2018-20.

“Effective partnerships will be vital in delivering WFP’s commitments. WFP builds on its achievements and relies on its strong operational partnerships with the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the American INGO Global Communities and the local health NGOs Ard El Insan and Palestinian Relief Society, to meet humanitarian food needs and support national food security objectives,” said Daniela Owen, Representative and Country Director in Palestine. “Sufficient, predictable and flexible humanitarian funds from the donor community will be key success factors.”

As WFP relies entirely on voluntary contributions, Palestine’s CSP, based on projections of donor contributions, is reduced compared with the previous portfolio of assistance, when WFP was assisting almost half a million people from 2015-2017. The cutback is commensurate with the decline in donor funding over the last three years. WFP’s ability to reach its CSP targets will be contingent on receiving sufficient resources.

The CSP also focuses on supporting the national institutions involved in the design and implementation of the National Food Safety Net, and on engaging in new partnerships with the government, UN and NGO partners around the provision and further development of WFP’s voucher platform. The platform, through which WFP’s electronic card delivers assistance, has proven an efficient, flexible and cost-effective tool to address multi-sectoral needs.

Over the coming years, WFP aims to scale up cash-based transfers, including through direct cash-assistance. This will increase delivery of the most adaptable and cost-effective response for greater impact, transparency, choice, value for money and accountability both for the people served, as well as for donors to WFP.

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An acute hunger emergency in conflict-ravaged Greater Kasai could turn into a long-term disaster, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today. While the agency has been working against the clock to help ever more people, the cash is quickly running out.

“We’re letting down those who need us most,” said Claude Jibidar, WFP’s Representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).” A tightly planned surge had made a big difference, Jibidar explained, but WFP had largely funded this from its own meagre resources. “Without immediate donor support, many – particularly women and children – will die.”

The eruption of violence in what used to be a poor but peaceful region has claimed countless lives. Some 1.4 million people have been forced from their homes. Traditionally high malnutrition rates have sky-rocketed.

With 3.2 million people desperately short of food, WFP has stepped in with emergency assistance.  A lull in fighting has allowed more staff to be deployed. Aid workers have fanned out into the Kasai countryside. WFP has co-ordinated multi-agency logistics and humanitarian flights. As a result, the number of people assisted has grown rapidly – from 42,000 in September to 115,000 in October and 225,000 in November. Last month, 13,500 children were given special fortified foods.

But donors’ reluctance to commit to Kasai is jeopardizing this effort. While WFP plans to feed almost half a million people in December, so depleted are the agency’s coffers that only half-rations can be distributed.

Hunger not only puts lives at risk: it forces people into prostitution and increases the risk of sexual violence, Jibidar stressed. “Government partners must do all in their power to spare Kasai from the kind of decades-long humanitarian catastrophe that has plagued other DRC regions.”

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The World Food Programme (WFP) has successfully sent a first convoy to deliver food assistance from Sudan to the north-western South Sudanese city of Aweil in Bahr El-Ghazal region. It plans to send enough food down the new route in 2018 to feed 1.7 million people for 10 months.

A total of 19 WFP-contracted trucks loaded with 500 metric tons of sorghum left El Obeid in central Sudan on 22 November and arrived five days later in Aweil, after driving 830 kilometres (515 miles). This is the third overland route to open between the two countries since 2014.

The convoy carried a total of 500 metric tons of sorghum – enough to meet the emergency food needs of 30,000 people for a month. WFP plans to use the new route regularly to deliver 30,000 metric tons of life-saving assistance into South Sudan in 2018 if it receives donor support to buy the food.

“WFP thanks the Governments of Sudan and South Sudan for providing a third humanitarian corridor at this crucial time,” said WFP South Sudan Country Director Adnan Khan. “This strengthens our ability to move large amounts of life-saving food assistance by road into South Sudan.”

WFP is now able to reach three locations in South Sudan by road from Sudan: Renk, Bentieu and now Aweil.  This enables WFP to deliver life-saving assistance more swiftly and efficiently and makes it easier to pre-position food before the rainy season, which cuts road access to many communities.

WFP has assisted a total of 4.6 million people in South Sudan so far this year with 208,000 metric tons of food and US$24.5 million in cash. In October, WFP and its partners assisted a total of 2.6 million people.
From October to December, an estimated 25,000 people face famine conditions in Western Bahr El Ghazal and Jonglei regions at a time when the harvest is coming in and food should be relatively plentiful. Last year, no one faced famine conditions during the harvest period.

WFP, its partners and donors have proven humanitarian assistance saves lives in South Sudan. Given access, it is possible to reverse famine and stop it spreading. However, humanitarian assistance can only do so much. The only way to save South Sudan is to end the protracted conflict.

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The US$1 million contribution will be used to purchase fortified wheat flour, sunflower oil enriched with vitamins, lentils, rice and sugar for food distributions among Afghan and Iraqi refugees living in settlements across Iran. The commodities will be locally purchased to ensure speedy delivery and conformity with Iranian standards.

Each month, WFP provides 30,000 of the most vulnerable refugees with food assistance that includes bread, rice, sugar, lentils and oil. In addition, WFP provides a take-home ration of sunflower oil to 3,000 refugee schoolgirls and their female teachers in 20 settlements across Iran, which help to promote girls’ education and bridge the gender gap.

“WFP is very grateful to the Government of the People’s Republic of China for its contribution that will enable us to address the basic food needs of Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Iran, strengthen their livelihoods and provide food security,” said WFP Representative in Iran Negar Gerami.

Chinese Embassy in Iran said: “As part of the implementation of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund declared by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, efforts are being made to achieve food security of the most vulnerable Afghan refugees in Iran. The Chinese government and people are together with those brothers and sisters who are in difficulty. We appreciate the efforts and efficiency in implementing this project by our WFP and Iranian colleagues.”

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a donation of AUD 120,000 from the Government of Australia, which will enable WFP to continue its support to Bhutan’s National School Feeding Programme. The funds will allow WFP to feed 12,000 students for a full month during the 2018 school year.

“Bhutan has made significant progress in expanding its National School Feeding Programme that provides more and more meals for students who were previously supported by WFP,” said Piet Vochten, WFP Bhutan Head of Office. “School feeding has been and continues to be a critical element in ensuring students are able to attend school, a major reason why the Government continues to invest in the programme.”  

Alongside the Government of Australia and other dependable partners, WFP has supported the education of generations of Bhutanese children by ensuring that a nutritious meal was waiting for them at school after a long walk in the early morning and for those boarding at school.

“The Australian Government has been supporting WFP’s school feeding programme in Bhutan for almost two decades. I am delighted to announce that Australia will contribute a further AUD 120,000 this year,” said Australian Ambassador to Bhutan, Harinder Sidhu.

WFP supports the Government of Bhutan to become self-reliant in the management, coordination and implementation of a cost-effective, equitable and quality national school feeding programme.

WFP has been working with the Government of Bhutan for 43 years, and helped to set up the school meals programme. An important part of the food used for school meals is grown by the students themselves, through the government-sponsored School Agricultural Programme.

WFP is gradually phasing out support as the government takes over management, with the aim of complete government ownership by the start of the 2019 school year.

“Even after the Government has taken over the entire school feeding programme, WFP remains committed to supporting the Royal Government and the people of Bhutan throughout the 12th Five Year Plan, and we are sure that partners like Australia will continue to support us in this regard,” Vochten said.

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“We welcome this generous contribution”, said Christa Räder, WFP Representative and Country Director in Bangladesh. “This will make a huge difference in delivering life-saving food assistance and our ability to respond effectively to this refugee crisis.”

Japan’s contribution will support WFP’s general food distributions, electronic vouchers for food assistance, a cash for work programme, and WFP’s logistics sector and emergency telecommunications sector work.

• WFP still needs US$55 million to feed more than a million people in Cox’s Bazar during the first response phase until February 2018: almost 700,000 who have fled since the August outbreak of violence in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, 300,000 who fled to Bangladesh previously, and 200,000 vulnerable members of their Bangladeshi host communities.

• Japan’s contribution will fund almost a fifth of WFP’s total funding requirement for the first phase of this emergency.
• Japan’s contribution will support WFP’s work as leader of the logistics and emergency telecommunications sectors. In addition to improving roads and building a bridge to improve access to supplies, WFP has constructed a shared logistics hub on behalf of the humanitarian community.

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A compelling new report about the impact of climate change on global food security has been launched by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Government of Sweden.

How Climate Change Drives Hunger was unveiled at the 23rd UN Climate Change Conference – known as COP23 – which is being held in Bonn, Germany.

The risk of hunger could increase by up to 20 percent due to climate change by 2050 unless increased efforts are made to enable the world’s most vulnerable communities to better adapt to extreme weather events such as drought and flooding. Drawing on such findings by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, the report offers a wide-ranging review of multiple analyses into the impact of climate change on food security by WFP and partners.  

“Climate change disproportionally affects the poorest and most food insecure people,” said Gernot Laganda, Director of WFP Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes, at the launch of the report. “Floods, storms and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense, which is changing the way humanitarian organisations need to operate in the future.  Understanding the way climate risks play out at country level is critical for effective response planning, but also helps us anchor community-based prevention and adaptation activities in country strategic plans. If countries remain stuck in a pattern of repetitive crisis response, but lack the planning and financing tools to take a more forward-looking approach to risk management, we will never achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of a world with zero hunger by 2030.”

Research for the report was undertaken by WFP under the Climate Adaptation Management and Innovation Initiative (C-ADAPT), launched in 2013 and funded by the Swedish Government. The assembled material provides an overview of major climate change and food security challenges, while outlining key policy and programming options available to governments and their partners. Country-specific analysis focuses on 15 nations that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mali, Nepal, Philippines, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor Leste and Uganda.

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