World's Largest Humanitarian Agency

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian agency, with over 14,500 staff, 90 per cent of whom work in developing countries, provided food to over 101 million people in 75 countries in 2009, 80 per cent of which was purchased in the developing countries themselves. The organization has the largest network of partnership arrangements with working agreements with other major humanitarian agencies, other UN bodies, over 2,000 NGOs, and with major companies and foundations in the private sector. This book gives the first comprehensive account of the transformation of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), previously a major development organisation in the UN system, into the world's largest humanitarian agency, and of the conversion of food aid into food assistance interventions that end hunger and malnutrition in sustainable ways. In so doing, it describes the strategic deployment of WFP staff throughout the developing world, how the agency has assumed responsibility for global logistics, telecommunications and food security operations on behalf of the entire international humanitarian system, and how it has established partnerships. The World's Largest Humanitarian Agency will be required reading for students of development economics, sociology and human rights, as well as policy makers, NGOs and bilateral aid agencies.