World Food Programme

World Food Programme

News: India signed an agreement with the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 MT of wheat that it has committed to sending Afghanistan as part of a humanitarian assistance.

Details:
• According to the MoU, the wheat will be taken through Pakistan to the Afghan border crossing and handed over to WFP officials in Kandahar beginning February 22.
• The wheat will eventually be divided into five batches of 10,000 MT, to be distributed across the country on approximately 200 trucks that are run by WFP.

What is the United Nations World Food Programme?
• The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organisation saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.It was founded in 1961 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) with its headquarters in Rome, Italy.
• It is also a member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), a coalition of UN agencies and organisations aimed at fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The WFP assists 88 countries, and has assisted 97 million people (in 2019) which is the largest number since 2012.The WFP has been awarded with the Nobel Prize for Peace 2020 for its efforts to combat hunger, bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and preventing the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

Major Objectives of the fund are:
o To end hunger by protecting access to food.
o Improving nutrition and achieving food security.
o Supporting the SDG implementation and partnering for its results.
o To focus on emergency assistance as well as rehabilitation and development aid.
• Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba is working with WFP to develop digital “World Hunger Map”.The map will help to monitor global hunger and operations to end scourge by 2030 which is one of UN’s key Sustainable Development goals.It also aims to boost efficiency of interventions and shorten emergency response times.