Q and A with Josette Sheeran, Executive Director, World Food Program
FrontLines - September 2009
Josette Sheeran is executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), which aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries in 2009. Over the past two years, the combined effects of the food, fuel, and financial crises have sharply increased needs of the hungry poor—and WFP’s operational costs—more than doubling its budget in 2008-2009. Forty percent of its resources come from the United States. On July 29, Sheeran sat down in Washington for a discussion of WFP’s new challenges with FrontLines Editorial Director Ben Barber and eight other journalists.* Excerpts follow:
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Josette Sheeran
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Q: Is the World Food Program reaching all the world’s hungry?
Sheeran: Today for the first time in human history, more than a billion people will go to bed hungry…one out of every six people on earth are on the official list of the urgently hungry. This is inherently destabilizing and inherently damaging, especially for women and children who suffer in greater numbers.
The Obama administration has shown leadership in the G-8, moving forward a bold and historic commitment to food security and ending hunger.
The $20 billion pledged during the G-8 really is on the scale of the initiative to fight HIV/AIDS globally.
We really call for urgent action. The World Food Program is facing a dangerous
and unprecedented shortfall
in emergency funding. This is mainly due to the fact that the needs—which were greatly increased last year due to the food crisis—have not come down. In fact, they have increased—just as we’re seeing the numbers of hungry increase.
Q: And the 1 billion mark—you think that was a direct effect of the financial crisis?
Sheeran: With the financial
crisis, the incomes of the poor are being hit. Investment, trade, remittances, aid—all are down. In Kenya, up to 40 percent of the remittances have disappeared. In Tajikistan, there is over 47 percent dependence of the GDP on remittances. Foreign direct investment in countries is falling off—so day labor is falling off. We’re seeing unemployment rising.
Q: How have high food prices affected WFP’s assistance programs?
Sheeran: Last year, during the food crisis, prices virtually doubled overnight from June ’07 to January ’08. For many of the poorest, that meant they could buy half the food for the same amount of money. This has not changed. In sub-Saharan Africa, 89 percent of the countries
have higher food prices now than a year ago. It is easy to see the effect this has on those who are living on less than a dollar a day. These needs are historically alarming and high—and we are not out of the woods yet.
Q: What is your budget this year?
Sheeran: Our budget for this year of assessed approved needs is $6.7 billion. We expect $3.7 billion [from donor governments].
So we are actively cutting $3 billion of our program, which means a reduction in rations and programs throughout the world.
Q: What has been the effect of cutting back?
Sheeran: Tragically, the axe is already falling across the board. To pick just one of myriad examples: in Guatemala, funding shortfalls mean that some 100,000 children under the age of 5, and 50,000 mothers, have lost their supply of Vitacereal—a highly nutritious blend of maize, soy, and micronutrients. And when you increase malnutrition, especially in young children, you’re talking about the loss of human potential—mental and physical. We’re talking about losing
a generation. I mean, it’s affecting real people.
Q: How about the U.S. government
response to the global hunger crisis?
Sheeran: The United States has stepped up to the plate to help the world’s hungry, as it has throughout recent history. In 2008-9, it has responded with more than $3.6 billion for WFP’s programs—a record. The $700 million in supplemental funding from Congress this year to deal with urgent hunger needs was significant and generous.
Q: What about long-term food security?
SHEERAN: We know how to put hunger out of business—and it’s not just increasing agricultural
yields. Last year, there were 2700 kilocalories for every individual
on Earth. The challenge is the people who cannot afford the food, or otherwise get access to it. The world will need to grow more food. The challenge of climate
change, increased population
growth—all of that is critical.
But it’s also about connecting the dots between production and the most vulnerable.
We need to step up long-term agricultural production but also “safety nets” like school feeding,
livelihood protection, and nutritional interventions are absolutely vital.
Brazil, for example, is reducing
the hunger numbers more dramatically than any other nation—through safety net programs
that make sure poor families
have access either to cash, or vouchers, or meals.
Q: What would be the impact of shifting more of U.S. donations to local purchase?
Sheeran: Well, first I want to thank the United States: It has invested over $120 million in local purchase through USAID—$76.5 million of which went to WFP this past year. This is a revolution
in the approach to food aid.
Flexibility is key. When we buy locally, as we are doing in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo—the people we’re buying from, the poor farmers, don’t need food aid. They now have an income and a guaranteed sale.
Q: There was a big push in the last few years to get developing countries to grow products—food, flowers—things that they could sell to the markets. Has there been a rethinking of this, that maybe people should go back to providing the basic foods for hunger at home?
Sheeran: Nations are really debating their own policies. My personal view is that it is much more productive to view food security in a regional context; it’s not necessary for every country to be self-sustainable on every food item. In Chad, for example, changes in weather patterns and loss of water supply are going to make it very difficult to achieve food self-sufficiency. But you have other nations right in the region that often have a surplus. We would like to see a world in which every country has a food-security approach…getting that regional cooperation, common tariffs, common markets set up is a critical part of this.
Q: How about security issues in Darfur, in Somalia?
Sheeran: In Darfur, we face continual dangers in meeting
the food needs of 4 million
people a day—and with far fewer partners, given the expulsion of NGOs. Last summer, we had 34 drivers kidnapped and missing in action at one time.
In Somalia, the situation is extremely precarious. WFP supplies 43 percent of the population with its basic food. Our people in Somalia are under constant threat and most of the NGOs have had to pull out. We lost lives there last year. But in Somalia, there was also good news: pirates were attacking our ships, but in November 2007, we started getting regular escorts from the nations of the world. As a result, we have not had a successful attack on any of our ships since. The world pulled together to protect humanitarian food; this is a huge accomplishment!
We are really urging that the United States retain its leadership in emergency action to save lives right now. Seventy percent of the 4 million people reached in Darfur today are reached by the United States. The United States is a generous nation—a leader in the fight against hunger. And for those people who are being forcibly
and purposefully left behind and denied food, the United States is a champion. The United States reaches millions of schoolchildren throughout the world with a cup of food—a critical investment not only in their lives, but for the future prosperity
and security of our planet.
*Other journalists in attendance
were from Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg, National Public Radio, Foreign Policy, Politico, National Journal, and Voice of America.
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