from the Washington Post By Philip RuckerUNITED NATIONS, - The world's largest philanthropy on Wednesday announced an initiative to transform the way the U.N. World Food Program purchases food by helping poor, small-scale farmers in undernourished countries of Africa and Latin America sell their surplus crops at competitive prices.The Purchase for Progress program is designed to help combat hunger and poverty in the developing world by giving farmers, many of them women with little or no access to commercial markets, opportunities to reach reliable buyers, including the World Food Program. In a five-year pilot period, the $76 million program hopes to increase the incomes of 350,000 such farmers in 21 countries, including 15 in sub-Saharan Africa.The program, to be administered by the...
from IRIN This subject was debated during thefood summit last month. Past calls to cut taxes for chartable food purchases has met a lot of resistance. - KaleThe World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a call by the World Bank for a UN resolution to scrap taxes and export controls on food aid purchases, but experts say there is little chance of such a resolution being effected.Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, called on the UN General Assembly's 63rd session, coming up in September, to vote for a resolution to exempt humanitarian purchases from export restrictions and taxes.A global food and fuel price crisis has not only pushed up the cost of food aid but made finding adequate quantities to purchase and transporting them even more problematic, as governments attempt to...
from the Financial Times A report from a UK parliament committee asks for the doubling of aid to the UN's World Food Programme. - Kale By Javier Blas in LondonDonations to the United Nations' World Food Programme must double to secure aid for those pushed into poverty by rising food and fuel prices and to compensate for higher procurement costs, a report warned yesterday.The UK parliament's International Development Committee said that significant increases to the WFP's budget would probably be needed in the short term and sustained over the years. "The usual annual total of $3bn [€1.9bn, £1.5bn] in voluntary contributions may need to double."Last year, the WFP received donations of $2.7bn, up from $1.7bn in 1998. After mounting an appeal this year, the WFP received $2.6bn in the...
from GMA NewsThe Philippines was among the major recipients of government to government food aid deliveries in 2007, a report from World Food Programme (WFP) showed.This, as the organization noted that the soaring prices of food in the global market resulted in declining food aid deliveries all over the world for the past year.In its Annual Food Aid Flows report, WFP - a Rome-based unit of the United Nations - said the Philippines was among the major recipients of total monetized food aid, second only to North Korea which received 29 percent of the total food aid."Increases of programme food aid to Armenia, Georgia, Philippines, and Kyrgyzstan contributed significantly to the increase of the programme food aid in Asia, and Eastern Europe and CIS," the WFP said."(The) Democratic...
IRIN NewsGovernment attempts to control food supplies to ensure that their people have enough to eat are hampering efforts by the World Food Programme (WFP) to source cheap food for the hungry.The UN agency has been trying to reduce costs by procuring food regionally, but its attempts to stretch donor cash have been stymied by countries struggling with record food and fuel prices. Some have imposed export bans or export tax, complicating WFP's intention to ship more than 100,000 metric tonnes (mt) of food.WFP spokesman Martin Penner said they wanted to export 2,500mt of grain to Ghana and Niger from Burkina Faso, which has not given the go-ahead. The aid agency provides food to more than 1.3 million beneficiaries in Ghana and 1.6 million in Niger. Rising food prices have led to protests...
Fox NewsJust weeks before it announced the onset of a global food crisis and the urgent need for donors to provide at least $775 million in additional funding, the World Food Program (WFP) was sitting on a cash and near-cash stockpile of more than $1.22 billion.The startling figure is contained in the latest audited statements of the WFP, which were endorsed by WFP’s executive director, Josette Sheeran, on March 31, 2008 — just a month before Sheeran announced at an international aid conference on April 22 that a “silent tsunami” in rising food prices demanded the huge infusion of cash for WFP’s latest budget.In an op-ed article published in the International Herald Tribune on May 1, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon further declared that the WFP had just “$18 million cash...
from the BBC The head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices.Josette Sheeran told the BBC that the WFP was now providing food aid to an additional 100 million people who did not need assistance six months ago.Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels.Biofuels are intended to tackle climate change but can take away farm land.Earlier, Latin American leaders had warned about the growth in production of biofuels, which are derived from plant crops.'Clock ticking'In an interview with the BBC, Ms Sheeran said she would be stressing the urgent need to tackle the global rise in food and commodity prices when she attended...
from the Peninsula On LineJESSORE, Bangladesh • Located in Jessore, approximately 35 minutes' flying time from the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, the Resco Biscuit Factory makes cookies with a difference.It is not too often a biscuit factory gets a seal of approval from an organisation like the World Food Programme (WFP), but this particular manufacturing unit has received the recognition. The seal doesn't come easily as manufacturers have to pass stringent tests and moreover, Resco also supplies high-energy biscuits to Bangladeshis who are classified as living below the poverty line.The factory in Jessore cranks out 40 metric tons a day of biscuits and it should be noted the unit is also a commercial enterprise. Visitng journalists as well as WFP and FAO officials were given a tour of the...
from the Financial TimesBy Javier Blas, Commodities CorrespondentThe World Food Programme has launched an “extraordinary emergency appeal” to governments to donate at least $500m in the next four weeks to avoid rationing food aid in response to the spiralling cost of food.The WFP, the United Nations agency responsible for relieving hunger, said in a letter to donor countries that if fresh money did not arrive by May 1, it might cut “the rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them during times of abject need”. The letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, was sent to donor countries over the Easter holiday and shows that the threat of a cut in aid is real and imminent after several warnings from the WFP.“We urge your government to be as...
from The World Food ProgrammeMilan, A major international fundraising and awareness initiative to benefit millions of hungry school children worldwide was announced today by the world’s largest humanitarian agency – the United Nations World Food Programme.“Fill the Cup” aims, literally, to fill a cup with food for all of the 59 million children who go to school hungry throughout developing countries around the world – boosting their chances for health, education and a more promising future.“A child dies of hunger every six seconds. WHO has declared hunger and malnutrition the number-one threat to public health,” said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme.First things first“First things first: We need to fill the cup,” she said, noting that...
from Reuters Alert NetThe Government of Japan announced today a major contribution of US$20.8 million (JPY2.52 billion) to WFP which will assist millions of vulnerable and chronically food insecure people in 13 countries spread throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.The funds will be used to buy food including cereals, pulses, fortified blended food and canned tuna.This significant contribution from Japan gives special attention to Africa, with two-thirds of the package (US$13.9 million; JPY1.68 billion) allocated to WFP’s social protection programmes in nine African countries.Generous support“We sincerely appreciate this most generous support from Japan,” said Eri Kudo, Officer-in-Charge of WFP Office in Japan. “Many households in these countries are persistently unable to...
from Reuters Alert NetThe United Nations has warned that rising unemployment and poverty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, coupled with economic suffocation, are posing acute challenges to food security, leaving many families totally reliant on outside assistance, as well as threatening vital sectors of the Palestinian economy.The warning comes in a report by WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) due to be released this month, reviewing and analysing 2006 statistics and assessing food security and socio-economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Weakening economyIt says that while food security levels in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) have been maintained through regular humanitarian assistance and strong social solidarity among Palestinians, almost half of...