United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP)

In News 

• Recently, 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 humanitarian assistance, with diplomatic efforts underway to begin sending truck convoys through Pakistan by road.

World Food Programme (WFP)

• About:
  • It was established in 1961 by the United Nations (UN) to help alleviate world hunger. Its headquarters are in Rome, Italy.
  • The first development programme is launched in Sudan in 1963 
• Governance: 
  • It is governed by an Executive Board consisting of 36 Member States, which provides intergovernmental support, direction and supervision of WFP’s activities. 
  • The organization is headed by an Executive Director, who is appointed jointly by the UN Secretary-General and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
• Functions: 
  • It is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.
• Objectives
  • It works in over 80 countries to bring life-saving food to people displaced by conflict and made destitute by disasters.

• Awards :

• In 2020, it was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

Source: TH