World Food Programme (WFP)

What is WFP?

Assisting almost 100 million people in more than 80 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

WFP Office to the European Union

The WFP Office to the European Union, established in 1996, works in close partnership with the European Union to address the most pressing food crises as well as providing long-term development solutions.

As WFP’s second-largest donor in 2019, the EU and its Member States reinforced their commitment to the world’s most vulnerable people and contributed a combined total of over €2.4 billion to WFP. The European Commission has proven to be a crucial partner that helped WFP provide food assistance across 46 countries in 2019.

Together with the European Commission’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), WFP works to fight hunger and save lives in the most severe humanitarian crises, including Yemen, Syria, the Central Sahel, Bangladesh and South Sudan. In Yemen, the world’s worst food crisis, the EU’s generous contributions have helped WFP reach up to 12 million people every month with lifesaving assistance.

In 2019, the Emergency Social Safety Net, which is the largest humanitarian programme ever funded by the EU, helped 1.7 million refugees in Turkey with monthly cash assistance so they could pay for the things they needed, such as rent, groceries and medicine.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Development and Cooperation (DEVCO) is an essential partner to WFP in addressing the root causes of hunger, providing communities around the globe with sustainable solutions to lift them out of hunger and poverty.

DEVCO’s support also enables WFP and other organisations to produce the Global Report on Food Crises, a key document that describes the scale of acute hunger in the world. The latest edition found that in 2019, 135 million people in 55 countries experienced acute food insecurity, driven by conflict, climate shocks and economic turbulence.

Support from the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR) has enabled WFP’s school feeding programme to keep Egyptian children from the poorest families in school. Funding from NEAR also allows WFP to provide vulnerable Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and impoverished Lebanese host communities with multipurpose cash assistance.

Through regular engagement with the European Parliament and the European External Action Service, WFP Brussels aims to raise awareness about and tackle important issues related to food security and humanitarian and development policy. Through the collaboration with the Council of the European Union and the EU Presidencies, WFP presents strategic, thematic and operational issues related to its work around the world.

Furthermore, WFP Brussels works in coordination with sister UN agencies based in Brussels on issues such as refugee protection, child development, and improving food and nutritional security across the world.


Contact

WFP Office to the European Union

Rue d’Arlon 80
B-1040 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel: +32-2-500-0910
E-mail: [email protected]