WFP News Release
15 October 2012
ON WORLD FOOD DAY, WFP EMPHASIZES COMMITMENT TO
SUPPORTING STRATEGIES IN FIGHTING HUNGER
MANILA – The United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) honours World Food Day (16 October) by
reaffirming its dedication to work in partnership with communities, civil
society, governments, and the private sector to help end hunger in our
lifetimes.
Today, one in eight people globally do not get enough
food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the
number one risk to health worldwide -- greater than AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis combined.
Hunger and malnutrition remain challenges globally as
well as in the Philippines. The latest “State of Food Insecurity in the World
2012” publication jointly released by the Food and Agricuture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), and WFP, estimates there are 16 million undernourished Filipinos.
“WFP is fully committed to working with the Government
of the Philippines and all relevant stakeholders to find appropriate and
sustainable solutions to address hunger,” said WFP Philippines Representative
and Country Directory Stephen Anderson.
Agriculture, one of the key sectors that WFP is
engaged in supporting, is in the spotlight for this year’s World Food Day
celebrations under the theme “Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the
world.” WFP works with agricultural cooperatives and farmers’
organizations in many countries around the world, providing training to help
improve crop quality, strengthen business practices and increase access to
markets.
In the Philippines, WFP is working with the national
government, local government units, communities and other partners to promote
food security in conflict-affected areas of Central Mindanao by improving the
ability of farmers to increase yields. WFP also helps connect farmers to
markets through post-harvest capacity building and the construction of
farm-to-market roads through community-based food- and cash-for-assets
projects.
Other WFP-supported initiatives focus on protecting
the environment and reducing the vulnerability of farmers to natural disasters,
creating more favourable agricultural conditions and contributing to the
Philippine Government’s rice and food self-sufficiency endeavours.
Aside from assisting farmers and agricultural
cooperatives, WFP is also helping the Government address child hunger through a
school meal programme that is currently reaching 100,000 elementary students in
over 300 public schools in remote, conflict-affected areas of Maguindanao,
Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Notre, and North Cotabato. Under this programme,
school children are provided with hot, nutritious meals, which provide vital
nourishment and encourage parents to keep them in school.
Targeted specialised nutrition support is also given
to pregnant and nursing women and children under five years of age, to help
address key nutrition gaps at the formative stage of a child’s growth and
development.
“WFP is working with the Philippine Department of
Social Welfare and Development and other government agencies to share global
best practices, with particular emphasis on support to strengthening social
safety nets and the monitoring of hunger,” added Anderson.
WFP celebrates World Food Day along with its sister UN
food agencies, FAO and IFAD. The three Rome-based agencies often work closely
together to invest in and boost the production of smallholder farmers and
increase people’s access to nutritious food.
For more
information on the WFP’s work in the Philippines, visit our dedicated country
page:
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