Founded in 1961, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency saving and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working to improve nutrition and build resilience. Against the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, climate shocks and an unprecedented number of violent conflicts since World War 2, food insecurity is reaching record levels on all continents. Early 2022, up to 283 million people are acutely food insecure or at high risk; famine-like conditions remain a real possibility for 45 million people in 43 countries facing emergency or catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, against 41 million people in June 2021. In March 2020, WFP joined with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to call the international community to donate USD 5.5 billion to avert famine through a major scale-up of its operations in 43 countries, esp. the world's largest hotspots (Afghanistan, Yemen, DR Congo, Madagascar, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan); until root causes are addressed, the emergency goes on.

Switzerland focuses its support to WFP operations in its own priority countries through annual contributions softly earmarked to WFP offices and related Country Strategic Plans (CSPs).

WFP’s mission is a world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life.

The vision for 2030 underlying WFP’s strategic plan for 2022-2025 is that the world has eradicated food insecurity and malnutrition (SDG 2 - Zero Hunger) and national and global actors have achieved the SDGs (SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals).

The overall goal of WFP is providing immediate food assistance in life-threatening situations while supporting countries in ensuring no one is left behind.

1. People are better able to meet their urgent food and nutrition needs
2. People have better nutrition, health and education outcomes
3. People have improved and sustainable livelihoods
4. National programmes and systems are strengthened
5. Humanitarian and development actors are more efficient and effective

Expected results:   WFP fights hunger in 82 least-developed and low-income countries where victims of conflicts and natural disasters, refugees, displaced people and the hungry poor face severe food shortages.

Results from previous phases:  

• In 2020, WFP surged operations against the COVID-19 pandemic that pushed 124 million people into extreme poverty; it provided assistance to 115 million people in 84 countries (53%♀; 20% 0-6 year old). It maintained efficient assistance and dignity of assisted people through delivery of USD 2.1 billion of cash-based and voucher assistance (28% of assisted people). Strengthened social protection systems in 78 countries.
• WFP is the laureate of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war".
• WFP continuously increased its budget and reached a record USD 8.4 billion contributions, allowing greater operations (2019: +10%, 2020: +5%). It realized more than USD 138 million in cost savings from its top ten efficiency gain initiatives, including through time savings.
• WFP leads or co-leads humanitarian response and provides services such as the UN Air Service (UNHAS), UN Humanitarian Response Depots network (UNHRD) as well as the three Inter-Agency Standing Committee Clusters (Logistics, Emergency Telecommunications and Food Security Cluster, with FAO).

Phase 69 01.01.2022 - 31.12.2022   (Completed)