WFP partners with private corporations to assist in eradicating hunger

The WFP's collaboration with leading food and nutritional science corporations - H.J. Heinz, Kraft Foods, Unilever PLC, and Royal DSM N.M - will enable access to the advanced scientific technology and funding required for a sustainable model of self-sufficiency and food production in the world's least developed nations.

Project Laser Beam, a five-year program, will first target Bangladesh and Indonesia in assessing gaps in nutrition, food security and hygiene. The countries will ideally stand as model project nations in how to most effectively eradicate hunger, through boosting local food production and leveling commodity prices.

The initiative speaks to an international push away from emergency food donations toward a focus on granting individuals the knowledge and resources to provide for themselves and their families. According to WFP's Executive Director Josette Sheeran, the partnership will help the world's largest humanitarian organisation to more effectively punch products full with nutrients, while providing them with technical assistance in other areas, such as packaging of goods.

The WFP selected Bangladesh and Indonesia as pilot nations in part because of their governments' demonstrated commitment to eradicating hunger and malnutrition. “We want to be able to level existing resources more effectively, in places where the WFP already has programs and where countries have already acquired an understanding of the strength in these programs,” Sheeran explained to MediaGlobal. “We're working with the governments there…to really ensure full partnership with them because none of this works unless you have leadership.”

Article published courtesy of MediaGlobal