Committee: World Food Programme (WFP)
Topic A: Nutrition and Education
Photograph by Louise Gibb / Source: United Nations Photo
As part of relief effort in the drought-stricken Bale, Wollo and Gama Gofa regions of Ethiopia, the voluntary fund for the United Nations Decade for Women has joined forces with the Ethiopian Nutrition Institute to teach women in those areas how to make the best use of relief food supplies from abroad and produce their own food through gardening and poultry raising.
Global hunger was said to be eradicated during the Green Revolution. Unfortunately, the problem is ever present and getting worse. With populations of developing countries becoming ever less manageable, the rates of malnourished or underweight peoples in developing countries in the world remain high. Conflict regions, and especially poverty-stricken regions, make it hard to viably access and effectively distribute food to children, who are the vast majority of the malnourished, numbering at 146 million, of which a disproportional 60 percent are girls. By region, “98 percent of the world’s undernourished people live in developing countries and over 40 percent live in India and China alone” (“Global Hunger”). With concentrated regions of malnourishment, it may seem easy to target and alleviate this problem. However, conflict, economic crises, and even pure desperation from lack of aid leaves world hunger at large.
Although the WFP, FAO, and UNICEF are able to provide assistance to the areas which need it most, rising population has been a difficult obstacle. Each year the WFP must raise more money than the last, and work more efficiently, to lower the rates of hunger. The WFP has been able to meet its goals for fundraising each year through continued support from the UN member states. New donors are also emerging, such as Mexico, Argentina, and Bhutan, who have donated to the WFP’s funds for the first time.
Malnutrition and undernourishment are the biggest facets of the global hunger problem. Families in poor regions and disaster regions prioritize food over education, and this leads to shortcomings in both areas. Undernourished children have impaired cognitive functions, and extended periods of malnutrition lead to physical limitations and disabilities. Providing humanitarian aid as well as primary education have been the major goals for the UN since the turn of the millennium. For example, in Bosnia, humanitarian aid was provided through the WFP and UNPROFOR and during the crisis in Somalia in 2009, the WFP also prioritized the distribution of Emergency Operations aid throughout the year.
The World Food Programme, in accordance with the United Nation’s published Millennium Development Goals, has been able to direct its operations to specifically these issues. The UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women's and children's health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease. In addition to providing relief in disaster areas, the WFP has also tried to solve hunger where it can be effectively delivered – in schools. By developing and implementing school feeding programs, the WFP has brought a significant portion of undernourished children to locations where they can adequately receive aid. By combining several MDG’s at once, the WFP hopes to access children at school in order to properly feed and nourish children, while at the same time, setting up an effective system to increase attendance (“Policy”).
Since 2004, the WFP has restarted these programs in over 68 countries, accessing over 23 million children (“Global Hunger”). Previous programs were initiated by different branches of the UN but were ineffective due to costly operating policies and lack of success in regions where they were implemented. In operations in Lesotho, the WFP was able to distribute food only for a short time; operation costs meant the WFP had to stop distributions for several months, even though private donations and funds from other countries to the FAO were able to support Lesotho in 1990. Recently, however, the investments from the WFP and restructured policies were able to buy supplies and agriculture from local regions. Supporting local economies and promoting long-term sustainability for school feeding led to a degree of economic revitalization (“Purchase Progress”). The challenge faced for the WFP was to garner multiple sources of funding, particularly for “health and social protections” (“Global Hunger”). In 2007 and 2008, the number of children receiving school feeding and take home rations increased from 19.3 to 20.5 million (“Annual Report 2008”). Incidentally, the total year attendance rate for schools in regions receiving WFP aid averaged 93 percent – vastly improved due to the program initiatives (“Annual Report 2008”).
At the same time, independent nations have had varying amounts of success. Egypt’s social programs of school feeding began in 1951, with large success and annual program renewal. The most impacted areas were in education initiatives which benefited girls and state welfare distribution for families with no children in school. Targeting poverty stricken areas with thorough cost-benefit analysis proved beneficial, with over 12 million girls able to go to school on a regular basis who were previously unable to. Additionally, Egypt’s numbers for children employed in labor was drastically reduced. Currently, Egypt stands with the most successful programs to date, and the availability of outreach and partnership with the WFP has significantly helped the securing of the first Millennium Development Goal – to stop world hunger. Additionally, recent programs of education and hunger have been reconstructed, such as those in Haiti. In the aftermath of the earthquake in 2009, school feeding programs were immediately restarted with assistance from various beneficiaries, including the WFP, the World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development. In all, the programs helped nearly a million children, “[a significant portion of] the school-aged children in the country, who numbered approximately 2.2 million” (“Strengthening Efforts”).
Improving children’s nourishment and providing access to a reliable source of humanitarian aid proved beneficial in terms of social reform. The partnerships formed by various governments have led to improved attendance for school and rates of nourishment which have exceeded the years previous. As occurrences of malnourishment decrease, governments and NGO partnerships are beginning to focus on the other Millennium Development Goals. After looking through the problem with child malnourishment, and promoting the school as an institution which encourages the well being of children and society, the same organizations (like the WFP) can make way for others programs which have their own targets, such as women’s groups or crime. Socially, the programs of at-school feeding and take-home rations have gathered widespread acclaim. The Russian Federation has also partnered with the WFP to improve the quality of life not only in Russia, but surrounding former satellite countries, which still suffer from the last cases of indigent European poverty. Russia has also been very successful at this type of education-feeding welfare initiative; it provides aid across the entire country as well as donating to the WFP and its charter operation. After the withdrawal from Georgia, Russia had donated up to $2.5 million equivalent for WFP emergency funds used in Georgian operations (“Annual Report 2010”).
Unfortunately, it is not only impoverished areas needing education and nutrition programs, but conflict regions as well. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel forces and the government fought again in the region’s main city of Doma, displacing 140,000 people. In dangerous situations, the WFP was able to distribute food to 60,000 inhabitants until fighting restarted. Most importantly, the WFP focused on distributing food through schools. After fighting ceased, programs for take-home rations were initiated, and children were able to receive proper meals at school as well as picking up rations for home. Soon convoys crossed into Doma and neighboring Rutshuru, carrying enough supplies to ration out to 100,000 people. The WFP’s experience led to success, “and in particular the safe passage for truck convoys carrying WFP food, [which] helped open up areas to humanitarian assistance that had been previously cut off.” (“Annual Report 2008”).
Many people believe that the focus of the UN’s task is too large, even with partnerships from governments in countries needing assistance. But the scope of the problem diminishes with cooperation, which increases the chances of aid coming in to where it needs to be applied. Over the course of several years, the WFP has received ever increasing aid towards disaster relief and take-home rations. Combating global hunger is a lifetime task, and yet each day aid is given is a major victory.
Questions
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Is your country considered developing or developed? To what degree does the WFP impact the scope of your country’s future?
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How will the WFP continue to be funded in the future years, especially if the problem of global hunger increases? What would happen to the WFP if they are largely successful and rates decrease?
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After specific research of your country’s impact in the WFP, consider how they could improve the organization. Focus in terms of operations, emergency responses, and structure of the WFP.
Works Cited
“Millennium Development Goals”, The World Food Programme, 2011 http://www.wfp.org/hunger/millennium-development-goals
“Strengthening efforts to eradicate hunger” UN ECOSOC, 2007 http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp224568.pdf
“The WFP Annual report 2008-2009” The World Food Programme, 2009 http://www.wfp.org/content/annual-report-2009
“The WFP Annual report 2010-2011” The World Food Programme, 2011 http://www.wfp.org/content/wfp-annual-report-2010-english
“WFP’s Policy and Stance” The World Food Programme, 2011 http://www.wfp.org/policy-resources
“Global Hunger” The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2010 http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al390e/al390e00.pdf
“The State of the World's Children” UNICEF, 2011 http://www.unicef.org/sowc
“Purchase Progress” The World Food Programme, 2011 http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress
“UN Resolution A/65/336” UN General Assembly, 2010
“School meals enhance attendance” Daily News, 2011 http://www.dailynews.co.tz/home/?n=19563&cat=home