Brazil And WFP Launch Centre Of Excellence Against Hunger
Brazil And WFP Launch Centre Of Excellence Against Hunger
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WFP and the Government of Brazil have launched the Centre of Excellence Against Hunger, a joint initiative which aims to help countries expand their school meal programmes so as to improve the food security of children. “The Centre will provide a unique South-South bridge to food security,” says WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.
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WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran inaugurates the Centre of Excellence Against Hunger in Brasilia.
Copyright: WFP/Alejandro Lopes-Chicheri
Salvador, Bahia, (Brazil) The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Brazil launched today the Centre of Excellence Against Hunger, which aims to help countries improve, expand, and eventually run their own national school meal programmes to advance the nutrition, education and food security of school children.
“As a world champion in the fight against hunger, Brazil has a wealth of experience that can be shared with governments eager to learn how they achieved that success and adapt it to their own countries,” said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran. “The Centre of Excellence will provide a unique South-South bridge to ending hunger. Brazil has taken the fight against hunger and malnutrition seriously and is now among those defeating hunger faster than any nation on earth. We will partner to leverage this success to other nations seeking to end hunger and malnutrition.”
The Centre of Excellence, located in the capital city of Brasilia, will assist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by drawing upon the expertise of WFP and Brazil in the fight against hunger, while promoting sustainable school feeding models and other food and nutrition safety nets. The Centre has already launched partnership between WFP, Brazil, and Mozambique, East Timor, and Haiti.
Governments will also be able to develop and improve their own nationally-owned and led programmes, by accessing a global platform to exchange information about school meals and best practices of their own school meals programmes.
The Centre will be headed by Daniel Balaban, who has helped to provide school meals to more than 47 million children when he was the President of the Brazilian National Education Development Fund.
Brazil is well known for the success of its Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) strategy for reducing poverty and food insecurity and its school meals programme, which reaches about 45 million children per year. Each day in 60 countries around the world, WFP provides school meals to around 22 million children.
While in Brazil, WFP Executive Director also plans to meet President Dilma Rousseff, and commend Brazil for its resolve to continue the fight against hunger at home and abroad. “I want to thank you for your leadership, for showing us what can be done to fight hunger at home, and also for your growing role in helping WFP on the frontlines against hunger around the world,” said Sheeran.
Sheeran had advanced the Centre during a 2010 trip to study the successes of Brazil’s Fome Zero program. “Last year, I visited school feeding and community kitchens outside Brasilia to witness how Brazil has set the benchmark by integrating vital elements – from supporting small farmers to feeding schoolchildren – to deliver on every person’s right to food and sufficient nutrition,” said Sheeran. “Together with Brazil, we are sharing that knowledge with the rest of the world.”
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About United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
Fighting hunger worldwide
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.
“In emergencies, we get food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After the cause of an emergency has passed, we use food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives.”
WFP is part of the United Nations system and is voluntarily funded.
Born in 1961, WFP pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. We work towards that vision with our sister UN agencies in Rome — the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) — as well as other government, UN and NGO partners.
In 2011 we aim to reach more than 90 million people with food assistance in more than 70 countries. Around 10,000 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.
WFP’s five objectives:
- Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies
- Prepare for emergencies
- Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies
- Reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition everywhere
- Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger
WFP’s Mission statement
WFP is the food aid arm of the United Nations system. Food aid is one of the many instruments that can help to promote food security, which is defined as access of all people at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. ¹ The policies governing the use of World Food Programme food aid must be oriented towards the objective of eradicating hunger and poverty. The ultimate objective of food aid should be the elimination of the need for food aid.
Targeted interventions are needed to help to improve the lives of the poorest people – people who, either permanently or during crisis periods, are unable to produce enough food or do not have the resources to otherwise obtain the food that they and their households require for active and healthy lives.
Consistent with its mandate, which also reflects the principle of universality, WFP will continue to:
- use food aid to support economic and social development;
- meet refugee and other emergency food needs, and the associated logistics support; and
- promote world food security in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations and FAO.
The core policies and strategies that govern WFP activities are to provide food aid:
- to save lives in refugee and other emergency situations;
- to improve the nutrition and quality of life of the most vulnerable people at critical times in their lives; and
- to help build assets and promote the self-reliance of poor people and communities, particularly through labour-intensive works programmes.
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> United Nations (UN).
The United Nations was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 countries committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Today, nearly every nation in the world belongs to the UN: membership totals 192 countries.
When States become Members of the United Nations, they agree to accept the obligations of the UN Charter, an international treaty that sets out basic principles of international relations. According to the Charter, the UN has four purposes:
- to maintain international peace and security;
- to develop friendly relations among nations;
- to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights;
- and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
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* The above story is adapted from materials provided by United Nations (UN)
** More information at United Nations (UN)
