WFP Executive Director Beasley met Minister of State Tobias Lindner at the Federal Foreign Office today. A particular focus of their talks was the discussion of humanitarian developments in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. Minister of State Lindner also talked about the goals of Germany’s G7 Presidency at his meeting with Mr Beasley.

WFP’s work is essential in the fight against hunger

The global food situation has deteriorated dramatically in recent years. In 2021, 811 million people worldwide suffered from hunger and malnutrition – one in nine people on the planet do not have enough to eat. Violent conflict, the impacts of the climate crisis and economic shocks, in addition to increased prices for staples, were the main causes of food crises last year.

Only a strong humanitarian system can counter the further spread of global hunger in the long term.

WFP’s work is making a vital contribution:

Afghanistan as an example: WFP provides assistance in the face of the greatest hardship

After the Taliban took power in August 2021, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan deteriorated rapidly. By November, 22.8 million people did not have enough food to eat, according to WFP. This also meant that 3.2 million children were at risk of severe malnutrition.

WFP is able to draw on United Nations logistics for its work, allowing it to ramp up capacity in a country very quickly. Hundreds of WFP lorry convoys and planes carrying food reached nearly all regions of Afghanistan in the months that followed. Germany supported WFP’s work in Afghanistan with nearly 100 million euro in 2021.

WFP drives innovation

In its mission to fight hunger, WFP is not only implementing life-saving food security programmes itself, but is also working to develop and implement innovative approaches to the delivery of humanitarian assistance. To this end, the WFP Innovation Accelerator opened in Munich in 2016 as a centre for progress and innovation. New tools, technologies and methods for more effective food aid are being developed at the centre, such as the Building Blocks project, which uses blockchain technologies. Blockchain facilitates money transfers, protects beneficiaries’ data and monitors financial risks, which is particularly useful in crisis contexts. Furthermore, the development of special seeds that can thrive in very dry soils is a successful technology in the fight against hunger.

The Federal Foreign Office provided the Innovation Accelerator with two million euro in funding in 2021.

You can find out more about the work of the WFP Innovation Accelerator here.