NewsFood.com

Rome - The Executive Board of WFP has approved a new four-year strategic plan that will be critical to addressing soaring hunger needs due to the global food crisis.

«This strategic plan marks a revolution in food aid that supports local markets in breaking the cycle of hunger,» said Josette Sheeran, WFP's Executive Director, at the conclusion of WFP's four-day Executive Board. «This is not your grandmother's food aid, and just in time.»

Local economies
The new face of hunger requires market information and interventions that support local economies.

80-80-80 solution
«I call this our 80-80-80 solution,» she told WFP's Board members gathered in Rome this week. «Eighty percent of our cash for food is spent in the developing world, 80 percent of our ground transport is procured in the developing world, and 80 percent of our staff is hired locally in the developing world.»

WFP spends more than US$2 billion on food, transport and staff in the developing world.

The strategic plan emphasises life-saving emergency aid, such as the 3 million vulnerable served in Darfur with emergency food aid. But it also emphasises prevention, local purchase of food, and using targeted cash and voucher programs when food is available locally but not accessible by the hungry.

High global food and fuel prices
The approval of WFP's 4-year strategic plan follows last week's High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, where world leaders gathered to discuss hunger and agriculture development issues against the backdrop of high global food and fuel prices. Recent market shocks and climate change make the challenges of feeding some 90 million people even greater.

The tools laid out in the plan include early warning systems and vulnerability analysis, as well as preparedness and disaster reduction/mitigation, while ensuring fast and effective emergency response in life-saving situations. Identifying the hungry poor, and the best set of interventions to assist them, is key as is helping communities understand and anticipate shocks, including those spurred by climate change.

Bolstering economic and market development
WFP will use its purchasing power to create a positive spill-over effect to bolster economic and market development, and to strengthen smallholder farming, local transport and communication networks. Last year, WFP used its cash resources to purchase US$612 million of food in 69 developing countries.

Tools
Tools to break the inter-generational cycle of chronic hunger - the inheritance of hunger from mother to child - are also a critical part of the plan. School meals and support to mother-and-child health and nutrition (MCHN) programmes will help address poor levels of education and health that hamper the physical and intellectual growth of individuals, and constrain the economic and social development of nations. Since its inception in 1962, WFP has been committed to promoting food and nutrition security.

WFP is the largest and most operational UN agency. Its greatest strength is its global deep field presence combined with its hunger expertise. Every day, WFP's 10,000 staff working on the frontlines of hunger face the challenge of mobilising enough food for the hungry, and delivering it when and where it's most needed.