Excerpt on WFP Emergency Assistance
From book: The World's Largest Humanitarian Agency, by D. John Shaw,
pages 32 and 52
In the course of the 1970s and 1980s, WFP increasingly responded to emergencies. This shift in
activities was due to the fact that during its pilot years, WFP became known for having the ability
to move large quantities of food commodities throughout what was at the time called the
developing world (Shaw, 2011: 32)[1]. Donors and NGOs consequently began requesting that WFP
help in the transport and delivery of their food aid (Shaw, 2011: 32). To respond to these
emerging needs, WFP further developed its expertise in logistics. This increase in logistics
capacity contributed to even further positioning the organization as a reliable emergency
responder. Another factor in WFP’s move towards emergency response was the simultaneous
expansion of WFP’s work in development assistance. The presence of WFP food stocks in
countries for development purposes, which could be borrowed in the case of a crisis, indeed
facilitated swift emergency responses[2] (Shaw, 2011: 52).
[1]
Today, countries that receive WFP assistance are categorized as low-income and lower middle-income countries
(with a focus on low-income food-deficit countries and least developed ones, i.e. low income countries with weak
score in the human asset index and high economic vulnerability).
[2]
Since 2005, emergencies are defined by WFP as an event or combination of events such as: a sudden calamity; a
human-made emergency; food scarcity conditions due to slow onset events; severe food access or availability
conditions resulting from sudden economic shocks; and a complex emergency (Shaw, 2011: 145).