WFP will work with smallholder farmers to improve food systems by reducing dependency on imported fertilizers
The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have sealed a partnership to further advance WFP’s homegrown school feeding and smallholder farmer support programmes in Rwanda and Uganda.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed a $4.1 million grant to improve health, nutrition, food security and incomes for marginalized and vulnerable smallholder farming communities. The objective is to build the resilience and functionality of food systems in the most food insecure regions of both countries.
Eastern Africa has been heavily impacted by the global food crisis where the devastating effects of conflict, extreme weather and economic and political crises have been exacerbated by rising prices of food, energy and fertilizer caused in part by the conflict in Ukraine. Food systems are at breaking point in the region and more than 82 million people need humanitarian assistance – up from 58 million in November 2021.
The partnership between the Novo Nordisk Foundation and WFP will be implemented over an 18-month period and will be channeled through WFP’s regional and country-level teams which have the global, regional, and local expertise required to deliver high-quality homegrown school feeding and smallholder farmer interventions.
Image credit- United Nations