World Food Programme (WFP)

Ref: WFPs Annual Report Slide Deck, 2023 

In the past year, WFP has been at the forefront of driving transformative change in food systems. Through context-specific interventions that aim to enhance resilience, address climate challenges, ensure food security, and promote healthy diets, WFP contributes to the strengthening of vital elements within food systems, fostering their effective functioning and sustainable, long-term transformation. By incorporating food systems thinking in its analysis and programme design, including CSPs, WFP strives to understand and address the structural drivers of vulnerability within food systems. Additionally, WFP is fully engaged in supporting the UN Food Systems Hub, actively contributing to the development and implementation of National Pathways while enhancing the Hub’s capacity with staff resources. WFP also plays a key role in advocating both globally and at the country level to drive sustainable change in food systems, ensuring food security and nutrition for all.  

WFP has been supporting countries such as Bangladesh, Kenya and Madagascar to improve access to diverse, nutritious foods for women, children, and their families, by supporting local production, strengthening value chains and promoting transformation, distribution, and long-term behavior change (through SBCC) towards the consumption of diverse, nutritious foods. WFP has also been building a new initiative with FAO and IFAD to improve local food solutions for populations at greatest risk of malnutrition in fragile contexts.   

WFP works with partners to support Governments and the private sector to deliver sustainable energy services to people living in fragile contexts, to cook food, and to optimize food production and transformation, aiming to enhance both their food security and nutrition.  

In the past year WFP has reached over 1.5 million people with access to energy for cooking and productive uses in agricultural value chains, in 27 countries. In schools, WFP is promoting Planet Friendly approaches, such as clean cooking solutions. Particularly, institutional electric cooking is currently being piloted as the cheapest and cleanest cooking alternative in 8 countries, contributing to reducing deforestation, negative impacts on health, advancing the gender agenda and strengthening Governments' rural electrification efforts through increasing end user demand in underserved areas. In addition, WFP supports Governments to unlock carbon revenues from metered clean cooking solutions. Leveraging the power of food procurement for school meals, schools also act as a catalyst for food systems transformation, including privileging the use of renewable energy to power agricultural mechanization, processing, help prevent post-harvest losses and access digital connectivity.  

3. Digital connectivity 

Guided by its Executive Board approved policy on unrestricted cash transfers, WFP implements (where possible, on behalf of and in collaboration with national governments) digital cash transfers which contribute to strengthening digital financial ecosystems, financial inclusion and the advancement of social protection (SDG Target 1.2.) Achievable by providing access to financial services for marginalized populations, particularly in remote areas and those impacted by crises, thereby facilitating progress towards achieving several SDGs, especially those related to poverty reduction (1), hunger eradication (2), gender equality (5) and reduced inequality (10). By supporting national governments in building registries, working with domestic service providers where market conditions allow, delivering cash directly into recipients' mobile wallets, WFP helps individuals to get national IDs and bank accounts or mobile money wallets so that they can received and save money, ultimately supporting their participation in the digital economy, promoting financial inclusion (particularly women) and enabling them to manage their finances more effectively. Evidence shows that digital cash transfers effectively and efficiently meet people’s food, nutrition and other related essential needs. 

Through its school meals programs, WFP has worked to improve educational outcomes and alleviate hunger, especially in vulnerable communities. By providing school meals, including in fragile contexts, WFP helps increase school attendance and reduce dropout rates, enhancing access to education while addressing malnutrition. WFP's school meals initiatives contribute to SDG 4 (Quality Education) by creating stable learning environments where children are motivated to attend and remain in school. These programs provide the opportunity to ensure a consistent education. Along with key stakeholders, WFP advocates for increased funding from national budgets and from multilateral partnerships to sustain and expand school meals. This comprehensive approach links education to other goals like zero hunger (SDG 2) and gender equality (SDG 5), creating a powerful multiplier effect across the SDGs and mobilizing further investments in children’s futures. The return on school meal programs ranks alongside interventions such as early childhood development, better-qualified teachers and better teaching. School meals have the potential to increase school enrolment and attendance, especially among girls, and boost children’s ability to concentrate, participate and learn; and provides an opportunity to support girls and children vulnerable to multiple forms of exclusion and discrimination. 

Ref WFPs Annual Social Protection Review, 2023 and Roadmap here WFPs support to the social protection goals across Asia and the Pacific. 

In 2023, WFP supported national social protection (SP) systems-strengthening in 98 countries assisting governments in reaching over 834 million people to enhance food security, improve nutrition and address large-scale risks and shocks. WFP responded to increasing government requests to establish SP programs or help redesign existing ones with complementary outcomes within the social sector. In 2023, WFP received over USD 180 million in direct contributions and worked with donors, international financial institutions, other UN agencies and academic partners to maximize the impact of its interventions. For example, WFP’s long-term technical support to the Government of India, helped optimise, digitalise and automate the supply chain of its Targeted Public Distribution System, its flagship SP program. WFP continues to technically support countries such as Pakistan and Ethiopia, to inform and strengthen the integration of nutrition into national SP systems (program and policy), including to respond to shocks and to support women, children and families at greatest risk of malnutrition.  In addition, WFPs Changing Lives Transformation Fund supported country offices such as Kenya and Niger in their efforts to attract multi-year catalytic funding and promote national development objectives. 

WFP actively addresses the risks and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, recognizing these as major threats to food security, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings. WFP supports governments and communities to anticipate climate hazards, restore degraded ecosystems, and protect vulnerable populations through climate protection solutions. These efforts enable communities to adopt ecological and diverse agricultural practices, enhance resource efficiency, reduce vulnerability to shocks, and strengthen local food systems. In 2023, WFP's climate action programmes reached nearly 18 million people across 60 countries with solutions to manage climate risks effectively. WFP’s Asset Creation and Livelihoods programmes benefited 7.9 million people across 47 countries contributing to the rehabilitation of over 376,000 hectares of land and the construction of irrigation canals, roads, and water points. WFP works with local communities, governments, and NGOs, and leverages its operational scale to develop integrated solutions that address humanitarian needs while ensuring environmental sustainability. WFP facilitates knowledge sharing among countries facing similar climate-related issues, encouraging innovative solutions that promote resilience in food systems through partnerships such as South-South cooperation. 

WFP's Strategic Plan (2022-2025) focuses on addressing acute food needs and building long-term resilience. In emergencies, WFP provides food and cash assistance, emergency nutrition services, and work programs to restore livelihoods. 

Beyond humanitarian aid, WFP prioritizes addressing underlying causes of hunger. By targeting malnutrition, particularly among vulnerable populations, and supporting community asset building, WFP aims to strengthen food security and nutrition. Additionally, WFP works with smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods through market access, technical assistance, and value chain development. 

By collaborating with governments, the private sector, and NGOs, WFP seeks to strengthen national food systems, ensuring sustainable and equitable access to nutritious food for all. 

Goal 3: WFP, through its co-leadership of the Inter-Agency Task Team on HIV in Emergencies with UNHCR and UNAIDS, supported countries by coordinating efforts to address HIV-related needs in crises, with a focus on nutrition services for PLHIV. In addition, as a member of UN-Nutrition, WFP continued to support UN collective efforts to promote healthy diets for all and to end malnutrition in all its forms, thus contributing to human health and well-being, including through the Coalition of Action on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems for Children and All (HDSFS).   

WFP also continues to strengthen its partnership with agencies from the Global Action Plan for Child Wasting (the GAP) – UNICEF, FAO, UNHCR and WHO, in support of early actions to prevent and address wasting in humanitarian settings. This includes a new joint transition plan with UNICEF focusing on enhancing prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition in areas of acute food insecurity.   

Goal 5: National school meals programmes are a key entry point within social protection systems, providing a critical institutional market for smallholder farmers, as well as a programme platform to reach school-age children and their families.  During times of crisis, school meals serve as a reliable source of food security and financial relief for families, allowing children to remain in school and parents to allocate more of their income to other essential needs. Additionally, WFP collaborates with governments to strengthen national social protection systems, helping them develop policies that extend support to low-income households, thus promoting inclusive economic growth. By combining school meals with broader social protection, WFP helps countries build resilience, reduce inequality, and drive sustainable economic growth aligned with SDG 8. 

WFP is working on a joint programme to Accelerate Progress Towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women (JP RWEE), together with FAO, IFAD and UN Women. In the framework of this initiative, WFP is strengthening gender. 

 Goal 8: WFP actively contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8), through innovative school meals programs and social protection initiatives. By supporting nutritious meals in schools, WFP not only addresses child hunger but also creates stable livelihoods for local communities, especially in food production, transport, and food preparation. Through the Home-Grown School Feeding programme, WFP sources ingredients locally, boosting rural economies, supporting small-scale farmers, and creating demand for local products. This approach empowers local economies by generating income opportunities and fostering economic growth. Through the 5-year partnership with Mastercard Foundation started in 2022, WFP is strengthening food systems and promoting increased job opportunities across agricultural value chains for young people in vulnerable communities, in eight African countries.