Emergency Response Archives - World Food Program USA

ISLAMABAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its emergency response to reach 1.9 million people affected by this year’s monsoon floods. Recovery and resilience support is now a top priority as families struggle to cope with the loss of homes, livestock and food, and the country grapples with colossal damage to infrastructure, agricultural land and crops.

Already, the U.N. World Food Programme has reached more than 400,000 people with food assistance in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces and continues to expand its operations in support of the government-led response across the country. A record 33 million people are affected by the floods, the deadliest in more than a decade.

“The people of Pakistan not only need immediate assistance but also longer-term support to restore their livelihoods shattered by the floods,” said Rathi Palakrishnan, officer-in-charge and deputy country director for U.N. World Food Programme Pakistan. “The U.N. World Food Programme stands with them – under the leadership of the government – to help them get through this calamity and build their resilience against future shocks. The world needs to wake up to the reality of the climate crisis.”

More than 630,000 people are still in relief camps, over 80% of them in Sindh alone. In Balochistan and Sindh, large areas of land remain inundated, and scores of communities are cut off – creating challenges for humanitarian agencies to deliver aid. There has also been an outbreak of waterborne diseases among the displaced families.

In addition to food distributions, the U.N. World Food Programme is providing specialized, nutritious food for 31,000 young children and 28,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women to prevent malnutrition and boost their immunity. The U.N. World Food Programme is also reinforcing the government’s logistical capacity to ensure no disruptions to humanitarian supply chains.

Once the initial relief response is concluded, the U.N. World Food Programme will immediately implement recovery programs to improve community infrastructure, create livelihoods opportunities and boost resilience, combined with cash-based transfers, through early 2023.

In Pakistan, the U.N. World Food Programme works closely with the government to strengthen livelihoods and help communities build their resilience to climatic shocks. This includes supporting income-generating activities, the creation of irrigation channels and dams in drought and flood-prone areas, and vocational training – all of which help both men and women diversify their livelihood sources. Community members receive food assistance while participating in the activities, and their communities benefit from improved infrastructure that boosts resilience and food security in the long-term.

The significant scale-up requires $152 million, up from the originally planned $34 million, as part of the flash appeal launched by the United Nations in August.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

As Pakistan gets pummeled by devastating flooding and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rainfall, World Food Program USA is mobilizing to support the United Nations World Food Programme’s response to the escalating humanitarian disaster. Following the Government of Pakistan’s request for support, the U.N. World Food Programme is rapidly expanding its food assistance to 495,957 people in Balochistan and Sindh. The U.N. World Food Programme has already supported 40,189 flood-affected people in five targeted districts in Balochistan. Distributions have had to be put on hold due to strong rains and access constraints but will restart as soon as the situation allows.

On August 30, the United Nations will issue a $161 million flash appeal for Pakistan. As part of the appeal, the U.N. World Food Programme urgently needs $34 million in order to scale-up food and cash assistance to nearly 1 million people in the Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab districts and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Since mid-June, flooding and landslides have caused widespread destruction across the country, killing at least 937 people and injuring 1,343. Flooding has affected 33 million people so far with 66 districts declared a ‘calamity hit’ by the government. Over 3000 km of roads and over 100 bridges have been damaged or destroyed; nearly 800,000 livestock have died and 2 million acres of crops and farmland impacted. The humanitarian situation is expected to worsen as communities and infrastructure are increasingly unable to cope with ongoing heavy rainfall. According to Pakistan’s disaster agency, record rainfall has been between three to five times the 30-year nationwide average.

World Food Program USA stands by the people of Pakistan during their time of need. Help us rush urgently-needed food and lifesaving support to those facing crisis in countries like Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, DC (August 11, 2022) — Cargill has made a $10 million grant to World Food Program USA in support of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)’s response to the global hunger crisis, escalated by the collateral impact of the Ukrainian war. This generous grant, the largest donation ever made by Cargill to World Food Program USA, comes at a moment of unprecedented need as 345 million people face severe hunger and 50 million teeter on the brink of famine around the world. The grant will support the U.N. World Food Programme’s emergency food assistance and resilience building initiatives, reaching millions of people in Ukraine and in hunger hotspots around the world.

“We thank Cargill for their transformational grant, which will help provide people in communities across the globe with lifesaving food and greater stability for the future,” said Barron Segar, World Food Program USA President and CEO. “For more than 20 years, Cargill has been a steadfast partner that we can always count on, supporting school meals, small-scale farmers and disaster relief operations. Their support is a testament to the power of the private sector working together with us to address the root causes of hunger, while building resiliency.”

Disbursed in phases, the first half of Cargill’s grant will focus on emergency operations, providing food and cash-based assistance to conflict-affected people in Ukraine as well as other countries facing escalating hunger due to the impact of the war in Ukraine. The second half of the grant will focus on bolstering food systems and targeting the root causes of hunger in global hotspots impacted by the disruption of Ukraine’s exports.

“Cargill has a crucial role to play, addressing emergency hunger issues as well as long-term food security through our work across supply chains and through our corporate giving efforts. We know we can have more impact when we partner with organizations, like WFP, who are working to feed people around the globe every single day. This $10 million contribution reinforces Cargill’s commitment to continuing our 20-year partnership with WFP,” said Pilar Cruz, Chief Sustainability Officer at Cargill and World Food Program USA Board of Directors member. “Together, we will continue to work toward ending systemic hunger and ensure a safe, sustainable and affordable food system for all.”

The Ukraine crisis has triggered global price spikes in food, fuel and fertilizers that threaten to push countries around the world into famine. The result will be global destabilization, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. Together with World Food Program USA, the U.N. World Food Programme is sounding the alarm, engaging private sector partners, and working to ensure action is taken to avert this looming catastrophe.

A Longstanding Partnership

This is just one of numerous examples of Cargill supporting the U.N. World Food Programme’s tireless work to alleviate global hunger. Since 2001, Cargill has supported a range of the U.N. World Food Programme’s programmatic priorities, including school meals, programs for smallholder farmers and disaster relief operations in Africa, Central America and Asia.

Recent impact snapshot:

2021: Cargill China launched a partnership with the U.N. World Food Programme to support the livelihoods of over 5,000 corn farmers in northeastern China by 2023.
2020: While the world navigated the impacts of COVID-19, Cargill provided a grant to support school meal programs during the pandemic in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua as well as disaster relief efforts in these countries after the devastating hurricanes, Eta and Iota. Over 250,000 meals were served to over 29,000 people. Additionally, in honor of WFP’s 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, Cargill made a match grant that has been supporting school meals and smallholder farmer programs in Central America planned to reach more 28,000 people.
2019: Cargill supported the scale-up of the national school feeding program (Pro-GAS) in Indonesia. To date this program has fed over 100,000 students.
2011: Cargill donated 10,000 metric tons of rice to help respond to famine in the Horn of Africa.

Cargill’s work with the U.N. World Food Programme embodies its purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way.

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About World Food Program USA
World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. Learn more about World Food Program USA’s mission.

About Cargill
Cargill helps the world’s food system work for you. We connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients and families with daily essentials—from the foods they eat to the floors they walk on. Our 155,000 team members around the world innovate with purpose, empowering our partners and communities as we work to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, sustainable way. 

From feed that reduces methane emissions to waste-based renewable fuels, the possibilities are boundless. But our values remain the same. We put people first. We reach higher. We do the right thing. It’s how we’ve met the needs of the people we call neighbors and the planet we call home for 157 years—and how we’ll do so for generations to come. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

Media Contacts:

Toula Athas
World Food Program USA
tathas@wfpusa.org

Emily Webster
Cargill
media@cargill.com

COLOMBO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) began distributing food vouchers to pregnant women in underserved districts of Colombo on June 16, marking the start of the U.N. World Food Programme’s emergency response in the country. The U.N. World Food Programme is working to provide lifesaving food, cash and voucher assistance to 3 million of the most vulnerable people who can no longer meet their food needs due to Sri Lanka’s unprecedented economic crisis.

The monthly vouchers are valued at $40 and will enable more than 2,000 women to buy food. The vouchers are delivered alongside prenatal care provided by the Public Health Division of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC).

Food inflation in Colombo set a record high of 57.4% in May, and widespread shortages of fuel for cooking and transport mean families living in poverty are struggling to afford food. Nearly 5 million people, or 22% of the Sri Lankan population, are hungry and in need of assistance. Nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits and protein-rich products are now out of reach for many low-income families. The U.N. World Food Programme’s recent surveys indicated 86% of families are resorting to at least one coping mechanism including eating less, eating less nutritious food and even skipping meals altogether.

“Pregnant mothers need to eat nutritious meals every day, but the poorest find it harder and harder to afford the basics. When they skip meals they’re putting their and their children’s health at risk,” said Anthea Webb, U.N. World Food Programme deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific from Colombo.

“Poor families in cities and those who work on estates have seen their incomes plummet while market prices have soared. Each day that passes sees an increase in food and fuel prices globally, making it vital that we act now,” she noted.

The U.N. World Food Programme has long supported the Sri Lankan government’s national nutrition programs, but they are severely constrained by the economic crisis. To bolster existing social safety net programs, the U.N. World Food Programme’s emergency response program aims to assist:

1 million children through the national school meal program
1 million people participating in the Thriposha program, which provides nutritionally-fortified food to mothers and children
1 million people in need of emergency food rations through food, cash or vouchers

The U.N. World Food Programme’s response is part of the Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan launched by the United Nations in Sri Lanka on June 9, which called for $47 million to provide lifesaving assistance to 1.7 million people through September. Given its concern that food and nutrition needs will persist beyond September, the U.N. World Food Programme estimates it will require $60 million to assist 3 million people from June through December 2022.

Existing donors to the U.N. World Food Programme’s Sri Lanka program include Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Mastercard, Russia, Switzerland, United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and the United States.

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ROME: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is working with Uber Technologies Inc, a global mobility and delivery platform, to transport emergency assistance to people in need in urban areas across Ukraine through the use of a custom-built version of Uber’s platform.

With larger vehicles facing issues reaching those in need in built-up areas, collaboration with Uber allows the U.N. World Food Programme to better coordinate, dispatch and track a fleet of smaller vehicles delivering relief items from warehouses to people in need in densely populated areas of Ukraine.

Through this platform, the U.N. World Food Programme can get its food closer to those people needing its support, dispatching deliveries in various sizes of vehicle, tracking each trip to its destination and confirming deliveries have been made safely.

Through this collaboration, the U.N. World Food Programme has already delivered food from its warehouse in Dnipro to other parts of the city, ready for distribution. Further deliveries are also ongoing in other parts of the country, including Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Chernivtsi. The progress of deliveries can be tracked in real-time through the platform.

“The U.N. World Food Programme is playing a critical role in providing food and cash assistance to those most affected by the war in Ukraine. This technology helps the U.N. World Food Programme facilitate its response and improves how we serve communities in Ukraine that rely on us,” said Matthew Hollingworth, the U.N. World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator in Ukraine. “It enhances our access to Ukrainian businesses within Uber’s network, making our operations more efficient while also harnessing local capacities.”

“Uber is thrilled to be working with the U.N. World Food Programme to help them more efficiently distribute emergency food relief across Ukraine, by providing free access to a customized version of the Uber platform,” said CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi. “Using our technology, the U.N. World Food Programme can now schedule, dispatch, track and manage deliveries by a network of cars and small vans to final distribution points within a 60 mile radius of U.N. World Food Programme warehouses across the country.”

This work is in addition to a $250,000 donation made by Uber to World Food Program USA to support the emergency response in Ukraine. “We thank Uber for helping us deliver critical humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. Private sector collaborations like this are critical in helping us deploy innovative, custom solutions to address complex challenges,” said President and CEO of World Food Program USA Barron Segar.

The U.N. World Food Programme has rapidly scaled up its operations in and around Ukraine over the past three months. By the end of June, the U.N. World Food Programme will be providing food and cash to more than 3 million people per month in the country.

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About WFP: The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

About Uber: Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 30 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

CAIRO – As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, the soaring cost of food staples in import-dependent Middle Eastern and North African countries is creating ever greater challenges for millions of families already struggling to keep hunger at bay, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday.

Traditionally a month of festivities, when families gather over traditional foods to break their day-long fast, this year millions will be struggling to buy even the most basic foods for their families as the war in Ukraine has pushed food prices even higher than the troubling levels at the start of the year.

“We are extremely concerned about the millions of people in this region who are already struggling to access enough food because of a toxic combination of conflict, climate change and the economic aftermath of COVID-19,” said Corinne Fleischer, U.N. World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “People’s resilience is at a breaking point. This crisis is creating shockwaves in the food markets that touch every home in this region. No one is spared.”

The knock-on effect of the Ukraine crisis is adding further strain to the import-dependent region. The prices of wheat flour and vegetable oil – two key staples in the diet of most families – have consequently risen across the region. Cooking oil is up 36% in Yemen and 39% in Syria. Wheat flour is up 47% in Lebanon, 15% in Libya and 14% in Palestine.

Even prior to the conflict in Ukraine, inflation and increasing prices were putting basic food items beyond the reach of the most vulnerable. Food prices reached an all-time high in February 2022, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index.

The cost of a basic food basket – the minimum food needs per family per month – registered an annual increase of 351% in Lebanon, the highest in the region. It was followed by Syria, with a 97% rise, and Yemen with 81% hike. The three countries, all reliant on food imports, also reported sharp currency depreciation. Meanwhile, a drought in Syria has impacted the country’s annual wheat production.

With global prices rising, the U.N. World Food Programme’s meagre resources for operations in the region, especially in Yemen and Syria, will be under even more pressure than before. In both countries, conflict and the related economic shrinkage have left more than 29 million people in need of food assistance. The U.N. World Food Programme is supporting nearly 19 million people in the two countries.

The global food price hikes and the Ukraine conflict have resulted in the U.N. World Food Programme facing an additional cost of $71 million per month for global operations compared to 2019 – a 50% rise.

“The Ukraine crisis makes a bad funding situation worse. There are immediate humanitarian needs that demand attention. Donors have in recent years helped us provide food to millions in the region. Now the situation is critical and it’s time to be even more generous,” added Fleischer.

The U.N. World Food Programme currently has only 24% of the funding it needs in Syria and 31% of what it needs in Yemen. Due to funding constraints, the U.N. World Food Programme has already been forced to reduce food rations in both countries. Further reductions risk pushing people towards starvation.

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