Finland grants EUR 32 million to improving food security in crises

Finland supports the World Food Programme (WFP) by EUR 32 million as core support for 2018–2021.

“Because of the prolonged conflicts and climate change, the number of hungry people in the world has unfortunately started to rise again. WFP has a key role in combatting hunger. This multiannual core support enables the organisation to plan its operations in a way that is more timely and cost-efficient”, says Anne-Mari Virolainen, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development of Finland.

The WFP under the United Nations is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations, which helps annually about 80 million people in about 80 countries. It has more than 14,000 employees, about 90% of them working in the recipient countries.

WFP supplies food aid in emergency situations. In development cooperation the focus is on nutrition, especially that of mothers and children. The programme priorities include nutrition during pregnancy and for children up to the age of two, and later on the work is done especially through school meals. WFP has carried out food programmes in schools around the world for more than 50 years.

Inquiries: Claus Lindroos, Director, Unit for Humanitarian Assistance and Policy, tel. +358 295 351 234, and Juha Kirstilä, Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development tel. +358 40 552 8200.

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are of the format [email protected]

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