Delivering Hope Across The World’s Toughest Terrain

How the U.N. World Food Programme treks across the globe to reach hungry families in need

Each year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) delivers food assistance to 80 million people in 82 countries — making it the largest humanitarian operation in history.

To do this, the agency’s logistics experts employs whatever means necessary to reach communities struggling to survive chronic poverty and hunger.

In Cambodia, elephants are used to haul WFP food through the country’s dense jungles. (©WFP/Jim Holmes, Cambodia)

WFP operates its own fleet of ships, aircraft and trucks to make sure its supplies get where they’re needed.

WFP staffers have even used donkeys and elephants to get the job done.

A WFP ship arrives in Yemen during a recent humanitarian ceasefire in May 2015. In addition to food assistance, the ship carried fuel supplies for other aid agencies during a sudden fuel shortage caused by ongoing fighting. (©WFP/Dina Elkassaby)

This spring, when one of the world’s biggest mountain ranges prevented WFP from reaching earthquakes survivors in Nepal by road or helicopter, the agency hired experienced local porters who regularly trek the Himalayas to carry supplies to those most in need.

A Nepalese porter delivers WFP food assistance following a devastating earthquake in April (©WFP/Marco Frattini, Nepal)

Dubbed Operation Mountain Express, the initiative provides employment opportunities for up to 6,000 members of Nepal’s mountaineering and trekking associations and relief to hundreds of communities on the country’s most remote mountaintops.

“We have the goods, but they have the expertise, the people and the insider knowledge that we desperately need,” says WFP’s emergency coordinator Richard Ragan.

“This is about delivering relief, creating a safe and sustainable trail network and employment.”

When snowstorms hit Zaatari camp in Jordan in January, WFP used electronic vouchers to help refugees immediately purchase food and winter clothes from local markets. (©WFP/Joelle Eid, Jordan)

As head of the U.N. Logistics Cluster, WFP leads the international community on ways to quickly and safely deliver relief supplies and emergency food assistance, from parachute drops in South Sudan to e-vouchers in Lebanon to high-energy biscuits in Nepal.

Heavy snowfalls and extreme weather are a regular occurrence in rural Kyrgyzstan, where donkeys are used to transport food to impoverished families trying to survive a harsh climate and disastrously short agricultural season. (©WFP/Maxim Shubovich)

From remote mountaintops in Bhutan to conflict zones in Syria and South Sudan, WFP staffers are overcoming a variety of challenges in the field to reach the most vulnerable families.

In the dry climate of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, camels are one of the most effectives means of transporting WFP food aid. (©WFP/Jacques Higgins, Djibouti)

During the rainy season in the Democratic Republic of Congo, WFP trucks must contend with an entire nation of flooded roadways to reach isolated communities in the countryside, sometimes jokingly referring to these operations as “Monster Truck Madness.”

In fact, at any given moment WFP has approximately 5,000 trucks, 70 aircraft and 20 ships that are delivering food — and hope — where it’s needed most.

Because WFP staffers are trained to do whatever it takes to reach hungry families across the globe.

By M.J. Altman
World Food Program USA