Why in news?
The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million, due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said on 21st April 2020.
The impact of lost tourism revenues, falling remittances and travel and other restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic are expected to leave some 130 million people acutely hungry this year, adding to around 135 million already in that category.
World Food Programme (WFP)
- The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food assistance branch of the United Nations.
- It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.
- The WFP works to help people who cannot produce or obtain enough food for themselves and their families.
- It strives to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, with the ultimate goal in mind of eliminating the need for food aid itself.
- It pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life.
- The WFP operations are funded by voluntary donations from world governments, corporations and private donors.
- WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS.
The objectives that the WFP hopes to achieve are to:
- “Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies”
- “Support food security and nutrition and (re)build livelihoods in fragile settings and following emergencies”
- “Reduce risk and enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs”
- “Reduce under-nutrition and break the inter-generational cycle of hunger”
- “Zero Hunger in 2030”
