From 28th to 31st January 2013, about 150 people from around the world will gather together at the FAO Headquarters in Rome for the WFP/P4P Annual Consultation.   As we enter the fifth and final year of the P4P pilot, this forum will provide a unique opportunity to reflect on the past four years and explore ways of moving forward together.    The meeting will take place over four days, with two days for discussion with all participants and two days for internal discussions.   In addition to WFP HQ and field staff, other participants will include government partners, private sector, agricultural institutions, donors and non-governmental organizations.

Top Photo: Honduras, La Merced de Chirina, Jamastran, Danli, El Paraiso, April 2010

Purchase for Progress (P4P) contributes to poverty reduction in Honduras by supporting the agricultural production of small-scale farmers and connecting them to the local market.  P4P offers a reliable market opportunity to small holders by purchasing corn and beans to distribute through school meals.
Currently, 13,000 small-scale farmers are benefitting from this project, many of them women.

Juan Martinez – is a small beans producer and he is so happy with the result of his plot. He has been supported with training and products by WFP.

Photo: WFP/Gracia Maria Espinal

Bottom left Photo: Malawi, June 2010

Landlocked Malawi, which is currently ranked 164 out of 177 on the Human Development Index, is a low-income, food-deficient and least developed country with the majority of its population of 12 million living below the poverty line.
WFP is working to connect farmers in Malawi to markets through the Purchase for Progress initiative.
P4P will contribute to the efforts by the Malawi Government in its quest to eradicate poverty and improve the welfare of Malawians by increasing income and capacity of smallholder farmers to efficiently produce
quality commodities beyond subsistence.

The P4P project aims at strengthening the productive and marketing capacities of small and low-income farmers to enable them to take advantage of the marketing opportunities beyond WFP.
WFP’s entry point to improving low-income farmers’ access to markets is to create a platform of substantial and stable demand for food staples.
Together with supply side investment and capacity building, the demand is to stimulate an increase in yields and increased volume of marketable surpluses.

Photo: WFP/Charles Hatch-Barnwell

Bottom right Photo: South Sudan, State of Central Equatoria, Kajo Keji, December 2011

P4P in South Sudan focuses its activities on enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of farmers by offering a market outlet to farmers organizations and traders, building the local capacities to process and store the grain efficiently, manage warehouses, and facilitating access to credit through guaranteed contracts. P4P and its partners work to increase farmers’ production and enhance their ability to compete in the commercial market, as well as developing market infrastructure in the form of warehouse facilities. To enable the farmers, P4P and its partners provide training in agricultural practices and facilitate access to credit through guaranteed contracts.

Since October 2010, more than 360,000 South Sudanese have returned back to the newly independent South Sudan. In mid-December Edward Kiju, Celina Poni and their families returned back to Kajo-Keji in the southern part of the country after spending most of their lives in neighbouring Uganda. WFP, who is committed to support all returnees arriving South Sudan is taking the opportunity to assist around 50 farmers with food locally produced in the Kajo-Keji area. Thanks to an already functional farmers association in the area, P4P South Sudan managed to mobilise a total of 18 metric tons of maize which is successfully being distributed to the returnees.
Photo: WFP/Ahnna Gudmunds

The set of photographs represents events tied to the World Food Programme that took place during 2012.

South Sudan, Maban, Yusuf Batil refugee camp, July 2012



Poor harvests, soaring food and fuel prices, conflict and displacement have led to rising hunger and malnutrition in South Sudan. Rains have intensified in the northern border states, and although food has been prepositioned, rising numbers of refugees from the Republic of Sudan mean increasing logistical challenges. While WFP is providing lifesaving food to meet the immediate needs of the hungry, we are also supporting agriculture and infrastructure projects to build longer-term food security in the new nation. WFP plans to provide food assistance to some 2.9 million people in South Sudan this year through general food distributions, nutrition activities, school meals, providing food for institutions and food-for-assets projects. WFP will target 600,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers with the vital nutrition they need, deploying smart foods like Plumpy’sup and Super Cereal to prevent irreversible damage to children’s brains and bodies from lack of nutrition. A recent Food Security and Monitoring System assessment indicates malnutrition rates among children under 5 have reached levels above the global acute malnutrition rate emergency threshold (15 percent) in four states. 



Top Photo: A woman using traditional method to carry her bags of food assistance provided to refugees by WFP at the Yusuf Batil refugee camp.

Left Photo: Man pours grains into a bag during July food distribution for refugees at the Yusuf Batil refugee camp in South Sudan.

Right Photo: Women return to shelters after receiving food assistance provided by WFP at Yusuf Batil refugee Camp.

Photos: WFP/George Fominyen

South Sudan, Maban county, Upper Nile State, February 2012

The humanitarian situation in South Sudan has deteriorated severely in recent months. The already fragile situation that existed at the time of independence from Sudan in July 2011 has been exacerbated by a range of factors including conflict and internal population displacement, the ongoing influx of refugees from Sudan, soaring food prices and poor harvests.
It is estimated that nearly 5 million out of a population of some 9 million South Sudanese will struggle to provide food for themselves this year – of these, more than a million are estimated to be severely food insecure. WFP is planning to provide food assistance to some 2.7 million people in 2012 and is preparing to scale up operations should the situation require.
In November 2011, when fighting broke out in Blue Nile State, Maban County become home to refugees from the Republic of Sudan. The fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State continues to force people to flee into South Sudan. Two settlements have been established by UNHCR in Upper Nile state – Doro and Jamam. Humanitarian assistance continues to the total estimated 80,000 refugees in Maban County. WFP is providing life-saving food assistance to all refugees in South Sudan.

Photos: WFP/Ahnna Gudmunds