News releases

Harare – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$5.7 million contribution from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support people experiencing vulnerability to food insecurity across urban and rural areas. This brings USAID’s contributions to over US$45 million over the last year.

NAIROBI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a consignment of fortified vegetable oil worth KES 112.2 million (US$1 million) from the Russian Federation in support of its resilience building activities in the drought-stricken arid counties of Kenya.

ADDIS ABABA – The number of people in need of humanitarian food assistance across northern Ethiopia has grown to an estimated 9.4 million as a direct result of ongoing conflict, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today.

DUSHANBE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started delivering food to Afghanistan from Tajikistan in support of the agency’s emergency response for Afghan families facing hunger this winter.

BAGHDAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a timely and generous contribution of US$19.24 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA). The funding will help provide life-saving assistance to 181,000 displaced Iraqis and 72,000 Syrian refugees in the form of cash transfers that support their immediate food needs.

This is a summary of what was said by WFP Spokesperson Tomson Phiri – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.


Geneva – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) calls on all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia to respect humanitarian operations and assets and allow unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to civilians in need.

WASHINGTON DC/PANAMA: Poverty, food insecurity, climate shocks and violence pushed an estimated annual average of 378,000 Central Americans to migrate to the United States over the past five years, highlights a new report launched today. A high price is paid in human and economic costs, including an estimated $2.2 billion a year to travel regularly and irregularly.

BISHKEK - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in the Kyrgyz Republic has launched a digital E-wallet solution as part of its nation-wide cash-based transfer (CBT) programme that supports vulnerable households in urban and peri-urban areas. The initiative was made possible with generous funding from the Government of Switzerland.

Juba— The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes US$2 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance to foster locally-driven solutions to tackle food systems challenges, driven by the WFP IGNITE Innovation Hub for Eastern Africa.

Kigali, Rwanda, November 19, 2021 — To help farmers and grain traders reduce the prevalence of aflatoxins in crops and grains in Rwanda, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Kigali-based agriculture start-up AflaSight, and research firm Vanguard Economics today launched two innovative pilot projects aimed at improving maize quality in the country.

NEW DELHI/SHILLONG – The Government of Meghalaya and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have joined forces to reach over two million people through transforming the targeted Public Distribution System. The partnership will help WFP and the government to work together towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 - Zero Hunger.

YEREVAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) hands over to the Government of the Republic of Armenia the management of its school feeding programme in Gegharkunik and Lori provinces. WFP has been implementing school feeding in Armenia since 2012, providing over 100,000 schoolchildren with hot and nutritious meals every day.

From production to purchasing, combined efforts prove agriculture can play an impactful role in
the sustainable economy of Iraq

WINDHOEK-The World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture recently launched its Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) at Otjimuhaka Primary School, Kunene Region. The programme, amounting to US$ 120,000, equivalent to N$ 1.79 million, is funded by WFP.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a timely and generous contribution of US$16.8 million from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) to assist Syrian refugees in Jordan and to support nutrition programmes for women and children in Pakistan.

NEW YORK – United Nations agencies have announced their strong support for an international coalition aiming to rapidly improve the nutrition, health and education of school-age children around the world following pandemic-driven school closures.

ISLAMABAD – The Government of Pakistan is supporting United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) operations to address critical food shortages in Afghanistan as the country faces a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment, some 22.8 million people in Afghanistan face acute food insecurity, including 8.7 million at emergency level (IPC phase 4). Without immediate humanitarian action, the situation will quickly become a matter of life or death.

KABUL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a EUR 25.5 million contribution from the Government of France towards its operations in Afghanistan, where half of the population is facing hunger and in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

SUVA, Fiji: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) are partnering together with the Fiji Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation to pilot the first parametric micro-insurance for select social welfare recipients located in high climate risk locations.

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT – United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley has warned that more Syrians are in the grip of hunger today than at any time during their country’s decade-long conflict, blaming a deadly combination of conflict, climate change, COVID and rising food and fuel costs.

MANILA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today unveiled its Climate Change and Food Security Analysis (CCFSA) study in the Philippines. This study analyzes the interconnectedness of climate change and food security in the country, particularly the threats and the opportunities it presents to food, nutrition, and livelihoods in rural and urban areas.

BISHKEK – The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious threats to food security and nutrition of the poorest people in the Kyrgyz Republic, particularly those living in urban areas, according to a new study released by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) together with National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic (NSC).

QATAR FUND FOR DEVELOPMENT ADDRESSES CRITICAL FOOD SECURITY NEEDS IN YEMEN THROUGH ITS SUPPORT OF THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

The contribution will support over 7 million people facing food insecurity

UN agencies say further scaling up of assistance urgently needed as new report highlights widespread food insecurity

Rome - New findings indicate the food crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) shows little sign of abating, and could worsen in the coming months without scaled-up assistance, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

ROME – Golden Globe-nominated actor and director Daniel Brühl was today appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). As conflict, climate change and the impact of the pandemic increase global food insecurity, Brühl joins the world’s largest humanitarian organization in its mission to reach a world with Zero Hunger.