World Food Programme (WFP)

The World Food Programme was established in 1961 through concurrent resolutions of the FAO Conference (Resolution 1/61) and the UN General Assembly (Resolution 1714). It began as a three-year experiment and became a permanent UN programme in 1965. WFP is headquartered in Rome, Italy, and is the world's largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security. It operates in approximately 120 countries and reaches over 150 million people annually. WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict." WFP is governed by an Executive Board of 36 member states and funded entirely by voluntary contributions — it receives no assessed contributions from the UN regular budget.