What kind of work does the World Food Program (WFP) do?
What kind of work does the World Food Program (WFP) do?
In concrete terms, the WFP procures food supplies from around the world and delivers them locally. Offices in each country are responsible for seeing that the food supplies actually reach these local communities. Trucks loaded with food ("food convoys") transport the supplies to these communities, where they are handed out directly to family representatives. Each year around 100 million people benefit from these activities. Because looting occasionally breaks out, it is an extremely difficult job. Sometimes, in particularly dangerous areas, food convoys deliver supplies under the protection of government forces.
In emergency situations such as conflicts or major natural disasters, events are often widely publicized in the media, with the result that the international community rallies to provide a high level of support. However, not enough support is provided to people who have struggled with poverty for long periods of time, such as children living in remote parts of India and in the mountains of Bhutan. Such people alone number in excess of 850 million around the world. The WFP not only provides emergency aid, but also supports people who are habitually (constantly) in a state of hunger.
As well as providing emergency aid, do you look at ways of raising awareness of the plight of people suffering constant hunger?
Our support is not simply limited to providing food aid. We also provide support in the form of school meals. In fact, the WFP began providing schools meals in Japan immediately after the end of World War II. Regardless of how poor people were, they were able to get something to eat as long as they went to school. The very concept of school meals can be traced back 100 years to schools in Yamagata, where rice balls were provided to children in poverty stricken areas. So in a sense the school meals provided in rural areas of Japan a hundred years ago and the school meals provided in Africa today have very similar implications. In some countries, schools meals take the form of a morning meal. By having something to eat as soon as they get to school, children in these countries are able to alleviate their hunger and concentrate on their studies. This is the approach adopted in some countries. Most of us have eaten school meals at some time in our lives, so it seems most people find this an example of our activities that is relatively easy to comprehend.
Providing schools meals is one way of encouraging children to attend school (a school in Kenya)
Photo: WFP
What changes have there been recently?
In the past, 80% of our activities involved providing support for the constantly hungry. These included not only providing school meals, but also activities aimed at eliminating hunger altogether in the long term by developing agriculture. But in the '90s, there was a complete turnabout. Now, almost all of our work involves providing emergency aid.
In particular, there is a strong sense that climate change thought to be the result of global warning is getting worse year by year. Rain is not falling when it usually does, and falling heavily at times when it is usually dry. In around 60% of cases, recent famines can be traced to natural disasters. I'm now of the opinion that we can probably say the problem of hunger is inextricably linked to environmental problems. Furthermore, there is a trend in recent years for armed conflicts to erupt in areas at the same time as natural disasters.
For example, I visited an area near the border of Somalia in August 2006 that was in the middle of a severe drought. The area was littered with the dead bodies of livestock that had died due to the drought. There was no water at all. Nomads who had nothing to eat fled the area and were reduced to pauperism. A conflict broke out nearby, resulting in more and more refugees. The towns, however, were in no position even to accept these refugees. So the WFP has to provide support to both the refugees and the nomads.
Even more surprising was that in September, the area that in August was suffering a drought was now experiencing flooding. So we had to distribute emergency food aid from the air using helicopters and airplanes. Because the drought had lasted so long, the Earth had become as hard as concrete, so the rain was unable to seep into the ground, resulting in flooding. It's the ultimate vicious circle. This kind of thing is happening all over Africa. For over ten years now I've been visiting Africa practically every year, and I've seen it gradually change. Desertification is advancing. The big worry is that in ten years time there may not be any people left in the cities.
What can we do to solve these problems?
First of all we have to treat the symptoms. That means providing emergency aid in places where problems occur. However, treating the symptoms alone is not enough. I think the only way we can solve these problems properly is to solve our environmental problems. In fact, the WFP has been involved in afforestation around the world for more than 40 years, and it has planted more trees than any other organization within the UN. As well as afforestation, we also implement irrigation programs to improve the productive capacity of land over the long-term.
Afghanistan, for example, used to be a very beautiful place, but it was hit by a series of droughts and is now a mere shadow of its former self. It has also experienced one conflict after another. Conflicts make it difficult to maintain a country's social infrastructure and to look after the environment, and floods of refugees put even more pressure on the natural environment. At present public safety in Afghanistan is again in the process of worsening, but we are pressing ahead with our afforestation activities on the outskirts of the capital Kabul with assistance from the local population.
From your perspective, what kind of planet do you think Earth is?
I generally don't like being too pessimistic about things, but I think we can say it's a "planet of widening gaps." I feel the standard world map doesn't really do justice to the reality of the situation we face. There's a section within the WFP that carefully plots on maps the areas within each country were there is suffering. When we look at the maps they produce, we can understand clearly the extent of the gap between the rich and the poor and the differences according to region. In global terms, there are gaps between different countries, and also gaps between different regions in the same country. The feeling is that the gap between the rich and poor is just too wide.
For example, on this hunger map, the green areas are countries where the people are relatively wealthy. I think we can probably say that the actions of the people in these countries cause the people in the poorer countries to suffer.
It's difficult to go to these poor places and do something yourself, but I think it's important to take an interest in global problems, whether it be problems affecting the environment or problems relating to hunger. Also, I think by talking about these problems with your friends and family, you can ultimately influence what your government does.
