Empowering Women Through Nutrition Security The theme for this year's International Women's Day: "Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all," recognizes the importance women play in their communities from being the essential caretaker in almost every society in the world to leading the growth of small businesses in areas such as Africa. (..) According to the World Food Program, it is estimated that iron deficiency, anemia and maternal short stature increase the risk of death at delivery and account for at least 20% of maternal mortality.
Hunger Again In Guatemala United Nations and partners seek $34 million to assist drought-stricken Guatemalans. In Guatemala, WFP supports 350,000 people in school and preschool feeding, and mother/child care. The United Nations, together with the Guatemalan Government and aid partners, launched on March 5th, a $34 million appeal to counter food shortages affecting 2.7 million people living in the Central American country's so-called ‘dry corridor,' which even before last year's drought had one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world.
WFP Boosts Farming In Liberia In a bid to encourage local rice production in Liberia and ensure food security, the World Food Program (WFP) purchased 1,000 metric tons (about 20,000 bags) of seed rice from Dokokan Farmers Cooperative in Gbedin, Nimba County, on Friday, March 5. The cost of the rice is estimated at over US$300,000 which, the WFP says, was made available by the United States Government and the foundation of American billionaire and humanitarian, Howard Buffet.
Even Band Aid Is Not Above Criticism There are some things that are just too sensitive and difficult to inquire about, and the idea that considerable sums that ordinary people around the world – but especially here in the UK – raised to aid and help their starving fellow humans in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s is one of them. (..) humanitarian operations in the midst of large-scale civil wars where territory is held by rival powers are almost always politicised and misused. (..) in my own country, Somalia, where al-Qaida-affiliated groups have dictated how the World Food Programme delivers emergency food.
Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo tough it out in Congo Republic "The children who are playing have just had a small meal," said Ngbatambala, a community leader. "The ones who are crying haven't had anything since this morning. Here, it is a single meal per day." (..) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has paid only one visit, last December, to distribute food across the whole region, according to aid workers and refugees.
Haitians Get Food 'Surge' Aid groups in Haiti's shattered capital Port-au-Prince began handing out heavy bags of rice to thousands of post-quake homeless on the first day of a food "surge" designed to feed 1.9 million people for a month. (..) At the site of one distribution point, WFP spokeswoman Silke Buhr told AFP that the "surge" of free food did not threaten efforts to try to re-establish markets selling groceries. "The fact is that a lot of these people who are receiving the food assistance here today would not be able to buy the products in the market at market prices," which have in many cases tripled since the quake, she said.
WFP Tackles Child Hunger In Bundibugyo Five-year-old Salim Habasa wants to play football like other boys of his age, but he cannot. (..) Habasa was not the only malnourished child at Nyahuka Health Centre when World Food Programme (WFP) officials visited at the end of last month to launch a campaign against child malnutrition.
Somalia Is Not A Failed State A little over a year ago, I was elected president of a country that many consider the most dangerous in the world. Over the last 20 years, Somalia has been synonymous with war and displacement. Now terrorism and piracy have been added to this list – and they threaten death and destruction far beyond our borders.
Women: the “Secret Weapon” against Hunger and Poverty A few years ago, I traveled to northern Bangladesh – a hardscrabble region forever whipsawed between drought and flood – to interview teenage girls and mothers at a maternal and child health center supported with nutritional food by the UN World Food Programme.
Celebrate International Women's Day Today, March 8, is International Women's Day, a day for recognizing women's contribution to societies around the globe, both past and present, and for discussing their need for equal rights. (..) Women are important contributors to the global economy, growing 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing nations and serving as breadwinners in 1 in 3 homes worldwide, according to the World Food Programme.
Philippines: Food security warnings over El Niño Warnings have been raised over food security in the Philippines as the El Niño phenomenon wreaks havoc across vast agricultural areas, leaving staple crops such as rice dying in parched earth (..) The World Food Programme (WFP) described the situation as "a slow onset emergency". “We are particularly concerned for people still trying to recover from floods and storms that hit the country in September and October, that now, when they are trying to grow crops, they are again confronted with another natural disaster,” WFP country director Stephen Anderson told IRIN.
Japan donates 27,465 T wheat to Bangladesh The government of Japan has donated 27,465 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh to help stiffen relief infrastructure in a nation vulnerable to natural disasters, the Japanese embassy said on Monday. "The food assistance will be provided through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to assist 300,000 ultra-poor people of the country to reduce disaster risk through building community infrastructure," it said.
Social Structures Form in Haiti's Tent Cities Hairdresser Yasmine Beaupin has found a new calling in the wake of the earthquake that ravaged this city: running the affairs of a teeming tent city. (..) The U.N.'s World Food Program is delivering food to 40 communal kitchens in Jacmel, a quake-hit town in southern Haiti. Each group has organized itself to identify who will receive the food, prepare it and distribute it. "The communities are managing themselves," said a WFP spokeswoman.
Uganda’s food supply to WFP plunges LOW output has affected the World Food Programme (WFP) local produce purchase project. Stanlake Samkange, the country director, said last year, the UN food agency recorded the lowest annual bean purchases in Uganda in three years.
Swaziland: Tackling one crisis at a time does not solve all The myriad crises afflicting Swaziland can only be solved with a holistic approach, not a piecemeal one, the World Food Programme (WFP) deputy executive director, Sheila Sisulu, said during a recent tour of the country.
International Women's Day: Women are the solution This is a great song any day of the year, but is especially powerful today, on International Women's Day. (..) On the Issues reports on what happens when women dismantle male-dominated political power structures. And the World Food Programme explains how women are the solution to global hunger.
