Category: News

In the western town of Paoua, a community revitalizes farming and education, with WFP support
13 December 2024, Marie Dasylva and Richard Mbouet
In Paoua, CAR, Simplice Beyo’s farming group has sharply increased its harvests, thanks to relative calm and WFP support.
Simplice Beyo sings in the local Sango language as he leads some 20 women and men in harvesting rice in the Central African Republic’s northwestern town of Paoua. Droplets of early morning dew still cling to the green plants.
Now in his 30s, the head of a local farming group recalls better days, when harvests and food were plentiful.
“Paoua used to be considered the breadbasket of the Central African Republic,” Beyo says. “But with the succession of conflicts, food production has dropped drastically, bringing hunger into our homes.”
Agriculture – which employs about 80 percent of Central Africans – counts among the many casualties of the country’s years-long unrest and political upheaval. Conflict has driven farmers and herders from their lands, reducing food output and deepening hunger.
Today, nearly two million people in the country – or roughly one in three – face high levels of acute hunger, according to newly released expert hunger findings, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC. A mix of factors explain the food insecurity, from poverty and erratic rainfall, to armed violence that has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people over the years, and disrupted supply chains.
WFP employees check crops with Paoua’s farmers, whose harvests partly go to feeding their children at school.
But in places like Paoua, communities are taking up farming again – thanks to calm in parts of the country since the signing of 2019 peace agreements. Tens of thousands of refugees who fled CAR are returning home to pick up their lives.
Paoua’s residents are profiting from the peace dividend in bigger ways. With support from the World Food Programme (WFP), farm harvests from cooperatives like Beyo’s provide the raw ingredients for WFP’s first school meals initiative in the country using locally produced food.
“With the arrival of the school canteen, we are seeing overcrowding in our classrooms,’ says Betokomia 1 primary school Headmaster Franklin Tembay-Masseneang. School attendance has more than doubled – from 650 five years ago to more than 1,400 pupils.
A hearty meal at Betokomia 1 primary school featuring locally supplied rice and yellow beans. WFP’s school feeding initiative will soon be extended to other schools in Lim-Pende prefecture.
WFP’s school feeding initiative is now set to be replicated in three other schools in the larger Lim-Pende prefecture where Paoua is located. For many here, it is part of a bigger renaissance.
Agricultural productivity is sharply up, thanks to WFP-supplied improved seeds, and farming and post-harvesting technology. Beyo’s own cooperative, made up of more than 160 families, has mobilized to expanded its cultivation from 3 to 35 hectares. Along with maize, groundnuts and beans, he and fellow farmers are growing rice and sesame, as well as market garden produce such as okra, carrots, tomatoes and watermelon.
That output assures the community greater dietary diversity – and lays the groundwork for the future. Part of the cooperative’s harvests benefit its families. Another part is used as a seed reserve for future harvests. The rest provides the WFP-supported ingredients for Betokomia 1’s school canteen.
Education – and much more
Paoua’s community is investing in its schools in other ways. Years-long violence, sown by a raft of armed groups, has damaged school infrastructure, chased away teachers and robbed many Central African children of an education. At Betokomia 1 school, headmaster Tembay-Masseneang is the only instructor with a teaching degree.
Parent volunteers have been filling the empty teaching spots. Now, some of the profits from Beyo’s cooperative ensures they are paid.
“Thanks to (the WFP) partnership, Continue page 34
Rebbuilding …….
we were able to raise 1.5 million CFA francs,” or roughly
US$2,400, says Beyo, a father of 14, who has children at Betokomia 1 primary. “And with this money, we were able to pay the salaries of the parent-teachers.”
Pelagie Homdoyote’s three children also attend the primary school. Her family, which recently returned home after 12 years in exile in Cameroon, is struggling to make ends meet.
“On the days when I work, I earn a bit of money and have enough to cook for my children,” she says. “But sometimes I earn nothing and I rely on the school so my children can eat,” thanks to the WFP-supported meals.
For other children too, Betokomia 1’s hearty meals of rice, peas and other vegetables, are sometimes their only food for the day. But headmaster Tembay-Masseneang lists other paybacks.
“When children come to collect their school meal, they get an education,” he says. “All this helps the country to move forward.”
France is supporting WFP’s work to strengthen food and nutritional resilience in CAR’s Lim Pende Prefecture.

Press release | 11 December 2024
Regional Communications Officer, Asia and the Pacific.
Rome/Kathmandu, 11 December 2024 – The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Nepal signed a US$120 million eight-year agreement that became effective last month to help over a quarter million people living on small-scale farms transition towards commercial and agroecological farming. The Resilient High-Value Agricultural Programme (R-HVAP) will introduce new methods to increase food production for 60,000 small-scale farming families in 80 palikas (municipalities)
across Lumbini, Karnali, and Sudurpashchim provinces.
“R-HVAP is a critical investment in Nepal’s future,” said Roshan Cooke, IFAD Country Director, Nepal. “By supporting the transition to sustainable and profitable agroecological agriculture, R-HVAP will not only improve food security and nutrition for vulnerable populations, but also strengthen the resilience of Nepal’s food systems and generate foreign exchange,” he added.
Agriculture remains critical to Nepal’s economy, with a large rural population dependent on it for income and food. Two-thirds of Nepal’s population are engaged in agriculture, contributing approximately a quarter of the national GDP. Nepal achieved lower-middle-income country status in 2020, and now faces potential food security and sovereignty challenges due to its increasing reliance on food imports. The food import bill is 78 times higher than 20 years ago, according to some estimates. The government’s Agriculture Development Strategy (2015-2035) recognizes this challenge and aims to create “a self-reliant, sustainable, competitive, and inclusive agricultural sector that drives economic growth, and contributes to improved livelihoods and food and nutrition security leading to food sovereignty.”
Recent shocks like COVID-19 and increasing climate change have further exposed the vulnerabilities of Nepal’s food systems. R-HVAP will help farmers to adopt market-oriented agroecological practices through five-year, locally developed plans; training in financial management and business skills (including special agroecology apprenticeships for young agricultural trainees); supporting producer organisations to graduate to professional operations; and developing an ecosystem of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
A significant component is the construction of the estimated US$40 million state-of-the-art Semlar Agricultural Regional Wholesale Market in the city of Butwal for fruit, vegetables, cereals, and other commodities. It is strategically located within a 20-minute drive to the Gautam Buddha International Airport and about 40 km from the Indian border. The market will improve the ability of smallholders to reach both domestic and export markets efficiently and at competitive prices.
R-HVAP will also support the development of small-scale irrigation systems, water storage facilities, post-harvest processing facilities, and renewable energy technologies.
Of the total programme cost of US$120.9 million, IFAD is contributing US$70.93 million, while the Government of Nepal is contributing US$24.6 million. Provincial and local governments will contribute US$2.02 million and producer organizations and project participants will add US$20.87 million of their own funds. MSMEs will also contribute US$2.56 million.
Nepal was one of the first countries to benefit from IFAD’s financial support, beginning in 1978. IFAD’s strategy in Nepal supports the development policies and programmes of the government and as such, invests in smallholder agriculture, poverty alleviation, and redressing inequality and social marginalization. IFAD has focused its work particularly in the hill and mountain areas, where poverty levels are high and access to infrastructure, services and markets is extremely limited.
To date, IFAD has supported 22 rural development projects in Nepal worth US$854 million, of which it has contributed US$409 million, reaching nearly 1.1 million families, thus significantly reducing rural poverty.

10 December 2024, Maria shares a meal with two of her daughters, Petronila and Elena Lucrecia, at their home in the Cocop community of Nebaj municipality, Quiché, Guatemala. Over 50 percent of the smallholder farmers that WFP supports in the country are Indigenous and over 80 percent are women.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has a presence in over 120 countries and territories. We provide food and other assistance to people affected by conflict, climate change, economic crises, pandemics and other challenges. At the same time, we provide governments with the support and skills to manage food security in the long term. WFP won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 in recognition of our strong advocacy for the critical role of peace in ending hunger, and for the use of food as a tool for peace.
Quick facts
“WFP is funded entirely by voluntary donations, with US$8.3 billion raised in 2023.
“We provided assistance to 152 million people in 2023.
“WFP has over 22,500 staff, of whom 87 percent are field based.
A global hunger crisis
The year 2024 has been another of extreme jeopardy for millions of people around the world struggling to feed their families. A stream of global crises – overlapping and escalating in countries and regions – has generated an unremitting demand for urgent humanitarian and development assistance. Learn more here about the hunger crisis.
Funding shortfall and ration cuts
While global humanitarian needs are skyrocketing, funding is failing to keep pace. This has forced WFP – and other organizations – to scale back assistance and refocus on the most severe needs.
It is also getting harder for our teams to do their work, with humanitarian access restricted by conflict.
The year 2025 is projected to be one of unrelenting humanitarian needs, driven by escalating conflicts and climate and economic shocks. WFP needs US$16.9 billion to address the humanitarian needs of 123 million vulnerable people in 2025, as detailed in the WFP 2025 Global Outlook.
Main areas of work
Emergency response and preparedness
We respond to emergencies caused by conflict, climate shocks, pandemics and other disasters. We coordinate responses to large-scale emergencies on behalf of the wider humanitarian community, as lead agency of the Logistics Cluster and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster. We further work with partners to provide early warning and help communities lessen the impact of looming disasters. Learn more here about the emergencies we are currently tackling.
“Each day WFP has up to 5,000 trucks, 132 aircraft and 20 ships on the move, delivering food and other assistance.
Climate action
WFP works with governments and humanitarian partners to respond to an increasing number of climate-related disasters, which wipe out crops, disrupt markets and destroy infrastructure such as roads and bridges. At the same time, we take pre-emptive action including restoring degraded ecosystems that serve as shields against disasters. Forecast-based Financing allows families to buy food, reinforce their homes and take other steps to build resilience ahead of climate disasters.
“WFP aims to empower 23 million people to build resilience against climate-related and other shocks in 2025.
Ending malnutrition
Sustainable development is only possible in communities where malnutrition is eradicated. WFP’s work goes beyond emergency interventions to address all forms of malnutrition, including vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and overweight and obesity. We address malnutrition from the earliest stages, targeting the first 1,000 days from conception to a child’s second birthday. We provide access to healthy diets, with a focus on young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people living with HIV.
“WFP supported 27 million women and children with measures to prevent and treat malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of life, during 2023.
School-meal programmes
WFP is the largest humanitarian organization implementing school-meal programmes, which improve children’s nutrition and health, while also increasing access to a potentially life-changing education. Home-grown school feeding sources food from millions of smallholder farmers, increasing their incomes and boosting local economies. WFP is secretariat of the School Meals Coalition, with over 100 governments and nearly 140 organizations working for every child to receive a healthy, nutritious school meal by 2030.
“WFP provided nutritious school meals, take-home rations or snacks to 21.4 million schoolchildren in 61 countries in 2023.
Supporting smallholder farmers
Smallholder farmers produce most of the world’s food and are critical in achieving a zero-hunger world. WFP’s support ranges from business-skills training to post-harvest management, to opening up access to finance and roads to markets.
” WFP bought 90,000 metric tons of food from smallholder farmers in 24 countries for our operations in 2023, worth US$56 million, boosting their livelihoods and injecting cash into local economies.
Resilience building
WFP’s early-warning and preparedness systems allow governments to prevent or respond quickly to crises. We help develop national capacities to manage disaster risk through approaches such as weather insurance. Our work includes vulnerability analysis and mapping, as well as support to governments’ social protection systems such as cash transfers.WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets programme sees people receive food or cash to meet immediate food needs, which frees up their time for work on community assets and livelihood resources.
“WFP plans to support the rehabilitation of 3 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, under the Climate and Resilience Investment Pipeline.
Cash assistance
WFP is the largest cash provider in the humanitarian community. Cash allows for increased choices and diet diversity for people, while boosting smallholder production, retail and the financial sector through increased spending and trade. It is also an effective means of giving more economic power to food-insecure women.
“WFP transferred US$2.9 billion in cash-based transfers and commodity vouchers (which are redeemed for specific items) in 76 countries in 2023, reaching 51.6 million people.
Capacity building
WFP shares skills and knowledge with public, private and civil society organizations who are pivotal to sustaining national policies and programmes. We are building governments’ and other partners’ capacities to manage disaster risk and improve food security, while also investing in the aforementioned early-warning and preparedness systems.
“In 2023, WFP supported 58 countries in becoming better prepared for, and more able to respond to, emergencies, through development and training related to preparedness and response systems.
Digital innovation
New technologies and innovation help drive WFP’s work to achieve zero hunger. WFP’s Munich-based Innovation Accelerator sources new ideas, pilots projects and implements high-impact innovations, by connecting them with WFP’s global network and field operations.
The Accelerator reached 60.7 million people across 70 countries and territories in 2023, working with a network of WFP country offices and regional bureaux, innovation hubs and partners.
UNHAS
WFP Aviation manages the only UN-mandated air transport service, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which allows humanitarian staff and cargo to reach the world’s most remote and challenging locations.
“UNHAS transported more than 388,000 humanitarian staff and 4,800 metric tons of cargo in 2023, ensuring that 647 organizations could reach over 437 remote and hard-to-reach destinations.