The World Food Programme Staff Magazine N. 42January 2008

SOMALIA: KEEPING THE FOOD FLOWING

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SOMALIA: TIMELESSNESS ANDMODERN-DAY MORTALITY

It is at once a centuries-old sight - yet very much 2007:scores of men, waist deep in the Indian Ocean surf, liftsacks of food from small boats onto their shoulders andwade ashore to dump them on the beach. Two larger shipsare anchored offshore as a warship prowls for pirates.

Very 2007 because the food is from contributions to WFPdestined to feed some of the 670,000 people - more thanhalf Mogadishu's population -- forced to flee the capitalduring the year by some of the worst fighting since civilwar erupted in 1991.

Timeless because the people of Merka have been doing thisfor centuries -- used the beach in the shadow of the town'swhitewashed mosques and graceful Arab-style buildings asa vital link to the outside world for cargo both to and fromthe southern Somali interior.

As they work, the hundreds of labourers involved inunloading 3,750 metric tons of WFP food from the MVSemlow and MV Rozen sing in the early morning while therest of the town stirs into life and traders open their stallson the main street, selling the fish that has kept Merkaalive even in the worst years of Somalia's conflict.

A small dot on the horizon out to sea is all that is visibleof the Commandant Ducuing, a French frigate escortingships loaded with WFP food from the Kenyan port ofMombasa to Merka.

The threat of piracy off Somalia is very real. The Rozen waslast hijacked in February 2007, after unloading WFP foodand held for six weeks. With WFP food aboard, the Semlowwas hijacked by pirates in 2005 and held for more than 100 days.

2007 was the worst year for piracy off Somalia, whichprompted the ED in May to call for international action toprotect WFP shipments. The International Maritime Bureaureports a total of 31 piracy incidents off Somalia in 2007 -up from 10 in 2006. Pirates held a total of 154 crew-members hostage in 11 hijackings.

Six French journalists who have just landed from theDucuing join me and six journalists flown by WFP fromNairobi and marvel at the beach unloading operation --under the fairly watchful eye of several men in flipflopshired by the local administration. They hold their AK-47rifles in a leisurely way - born of years spent working asguards.

The French journalists say the three-day trip from Mombasaaboard the Commandant Ducuing was completelyuneventful and very cramped. They are glad to be ashoreat last after weeks of haggling with the French navy, WFPand shippers over who would be liable if they were hurt inSomalia. In the end, they signed a handful of waiver forms.

The unloading is interrupted for a few hours by anunexpected order from Somalia's Transitional FederalGovernment halting all UN activities in southern Somaliaand restricting us to the Italian NGO guesthouse in Merka.The order is rescinded after WFP intervenes and thejournalists broadcast to the world what the government isdoing.

Driving west of Merka, 100 km southwest of Mogadishu,WFP vehicles climb a red sandstone escarpment andencounter sand dunes that then give way to the smallfarms of Lower Shabelle region, which - with neighbouringMiddle Shabelle -- is traditionally Somalia's irrigatedagricultural heartland, fed by the Shabelle River.

But in 2007, Middle and Lower Shabelle suffered theirworst cereals harvest in 13 years because of insufficientlong rains. There's not even enough food for the farmers,let alone export to Mogadishu and the more arid regions ofSomalia.

This natural phenomenon is compounded by a newer, man-made one: the hundreds of thousands of displaced peoplefrom Mogadishu. In flimsy huts made out of twigs andbranches covered by cloth, they all have harrowing tales ofescape from the city's mortars and tank fire.

At a WFP food distribution in Bufow, 7 km west of Merka,Hawa Robleh, 45, tells us that she has farmed here all herlife. But this is the first time that she needs humanitarianassistance. She says her family of six finds it harder tosupport themselves because they now share their homewith two families displaced from Mogadishu.

At the Ayoub Centre on the edges of Merka, Mana SultanAbdulrahman - a community activist and a daughter of thelast Sultan of Merka -- introduces us to a new arrival --seven-year-old Asha, who appears to be traumatized andclings to Mana's green shawl.

Asked where her family is, Asha lists her parents, brothersand sisters and says after each name: “At home.” But Manatells us what really happened. Asha was brought out ofMogadishu to Merka just days before by a woman whofound her wandering in the fleeing crowds. She is the onlysurviving member of her family. The rest were all killed.

Is this the worst crisis Somalia has seen since the civil warstarted? Mana says it is indeed bad but nothing like asbad as the situation in 1992, which prompted her to set upher village for hundreds of orphans from the famine thatswept southern and central Somalia.

The orphans are now adults and help run the centre builtby Mana, who is outspoken in her condemnation ofviolence. The journalists quickly see that she is aninspirational figure who deftly boils down Somalia'scomplex conflict to a few largely forgotten truths.

Mana is clearly proud of what she has achieved and takesus to hear a spirited concert of Somali songs by campresidents telling the Somali people to unite and ridthemselves of the warlords who have only brought themmisery. WFP supplies food to the centre.

A few days later, we are all shocked to hear that Mana hasdied from diabetes at the age of 54. A very rare andeffective beacon for peace and reconciliation in Somalia isgone.

Text and photo by Peter Smerdon, PIO Nairobi

MMaannaa,, rriigghhtt,, pprroovviiddiinngg aa hhaavveenn ffoorr oorrhhaannss

Just before leaving for Bor, I met a colleague who'd justcome back from a field mission. “Where?” I asked,“Khartoum,” he replied. Khartoum, an as-if family dutystation, is considered by the UN an adverse place,warranting the hardship reassignment. Despite itsinternational airport, renowned university and air-conditioned houses and shops, Khartoum was regarded asa daunting destination by most HQ colleagues awaitingreassignment. For me, it was just the first of two transitpoints on the way to my final duty station - on thefrontier of civilization.

Once in Khartoum, the perspective changed. Colleaguesfelt privileged compared with those in Juba and its sub-offices. One guy in Khartoum confessed that he jokinglyused “a mission to Bor” as a threat to his staff. How badcould Bor be, I wondered. My previous WFP missionsmade me think Khartoum wasn't so bad … especially forteetotallers.

The fl ight toJuba was fine -without surprises,thanks to the UNHumanitarian AirService. Juba,the capital ofSouth Sudan andone of the 3c o o r d i n a t i o ncentres of WFP'soperations, feltmore l ike the“field” - poorlydeveloped withmany challenges

but with the bare necessities. Half of my colleagueswere still living in tents, office space was provided inair-conditioned containers, no local infrastructure,more-or-less hygienic conditions and a volatile securitysituation, but all types of food, drinks and a bit ofnightlife were available. In my first few days in Juba, Ifelt this was a level of isolation and hardship I wasready to tolerate.

But, at the mention of Bor, colleagues squirmed,sympathetically reticent, giving me some clues toprepare. Despite everything, I was still optimistic.

When I reached Bor, I felt it was the end of the knownworld, the very deep field. Neither the office, on the Westbank of the river Nile, nor the compound complied withmany of WFP's policies and procedures while food,sanitation and basic living conditions were like a mirage.I felt really depressed.

Within 24 hours, however, I discovered a new world. Borwas the capital city of Jonglei state, the biggest of theten South Sudan states: five times the size of Denmark.Bor has its own governor, ministers and parliament,police; a local market, where a few basic items could bebought (excluding fruit, vegetables and cleaningmaterials), a would-be all-weather airstrip and a hospitalrun by MSF.

All this wasn't enough to lift my spirits - until I spoketo a field monitor. She was about to go on one of herfood distribution missions with 90 kg of luggage. “Whatare you carrying?” I asked. “A tent, clothes, gum boots,water, basic food for 20 days, charcoal and a few othervital items,” she replied. “Why food for 20 days if youare going on a three-day mission, and why the gumboots?” I ventured. “Well, during the rainy season itgets flooded, so sometimes the plane cannot land forweeks and the gum boots are essential for swampyareas, although they're sometimes more than a metredeep.”

Maybe Bor isn't so deep after all!

By Enrico Pausilli, head of Bor sub-office

HOW DEEP IS “THE DEEP FIELD”?

Contents

It just wasn't supposed to happen in Kenya. For the humanitarian community, Nairobi is a safe haven and R&Rrefuge from 24/7 emergency work in places such as Somalia, Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Then, following the announcement of hotly disputed election results, Kenya was suddenly part of the problem.The slum areas of the capital dissolved into grim violence; for a short while, WFP staff were under effectivelockdown in their homes. Maids, gardeners and guards rang to say they couldn't make it into work; and thenwhen they did a couple of days later, often told of sleeping out in the open for fear of being burnt alive intheir beds.

WFP was quick to get beyond the immediate concerns for staff members and begin to mount a response. Ahumanitarian crisis followed the violence, not only in the slums, but particularly up in the northern Rift Valley,where clashes fuelled by frustration at a perceived injustice at the ballot box and long-standing ethnic rivalriesleft thousands homeless, gathered for safety in churches, police stations and schools.

Two vehicles with WFP staff headed north out of Nairobi on the first crystal blue Friday morning of the NewYear. Our Kenyan army escort met us at ABC Plaza, home to my favourite coffee shop, Nairobi's most trendybar, and some of the more pricey food stores in town. It was utterly surreal.

I was also nervous; perhaps more nervous than Ihave been for any WFP mission - whether toSomalia, Darfur, Chad, East Timor or the CentralAfrican Republic. Not for my own safety, but forwhat I was going to see had happened to theplace I live in and its people. It was, literally, tooclose to home.

I first made the drive north across the Rift Valleyescarpment and down into Naivasha in 1985, on aschool cricket tour to Kenya. I haven't feasted myeyes on such a breath-taking panorama since. Ofcourse, this time it looked no different, but theemotions were incomparable. Euphoria replaced by

foreboding and sadness.

The evidence of roadblocks began soon after Nakuru - every village bearing a scorched black scar across thetarmac, evidence of burning tyres and nights lived in fear. It was only about 70 kilometres south of Eldoretthat we ran into barricades that were still in place, manned by vigilante groups carrying machetes and bowsand arrows. The heavy weaponry of our escort comfortably saw us through, with a smile even, but there werestill piles of rocks and telegraph poles to negotiate. Slowly but surely, the army was opening the road to trafficagain. Along the side of the road, the destruction of property was evident everywhere.

Eldoret itself was surprisingly calm, and we were all relieved that the initial order to stay at an army barracksout of town was rescinded in favour of a comfortable hotel. Except that beer supplies had only resumed thatafternoon and there had not been time to get any in the fridge, and for several days breakfast consisted ofwhat appeared to be the only food available - pasta and fried chicken. You had to constantly remind yourselfyou were in Kenya.

Even for our main partner, the Kenya Red Cross, getting into areaswhere some of the worst violence had taken place had been extremelydifficult, but things were getting better by the day, and food wasmoving. It was a team effort - lead agency the Red Cross providinggovernment-donated maize and WFP providing the rest.

Again, it was bizarre to find yourself arriving at IDP settlements, ofKenyans, in Kenya! Thousands sleeping under the stars on cool, clearnights; children beginning to suffer from the lack of shelter, coughingand spluttering, noses running; people complaining that they neededfood, blankets and protection from those that in many cases continuedto threaten them.

For logistics officer and team leader Tony Freeman there was a poignantmoment on our way back from one IDP site. His three young childrenhad been up in the region for the Christmas holidays and the hugs andchildish delight of their reunion provided a brief moment of light relief.

The silver lining for those worst affected by violence and displacementis that Kenya is not a failed state. As the political climate eases andeconomic life picks up again, you have to hope it will be possible formany people to return home and begin to put their lives back togetheragain. Efforts at peace building and reconciliation between communities were already underway only a few daysafter the fighting stopped. The Rift Valley region is largely self-sufficient when it comes to food. WFP's 'quickin, quick out' mantra should be a reality here.

There will of course be people who continue to need WFP assistance. Homes, entire fields and hundreds ofgranaries have been burnt to the ground. Some people will probably never return, too traumatised by fear.

Because one week on, you can still almost peel the fear off every building, it's so tangible. Dealing with thatfear will be the start of the road to peace and recoverery. By Marcus Prior, PI Nairobi

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EEddiittoorr Caroline Hurford - assisted by Nate HoblitzGGrraapphhiiccss Cristina AsconePPiiccttuurree rreesseeaarrcchh Rein Skullerud - photos by ReinSkullerud unless specified.

PPiippeelliinnee is the staff newsletter of the World FoodProgramme. It is published quarterly by theCommunications and Public Policy Strategy Division. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are notnecessarily those of WFP.

PPiippeelliinneeCommunications and Public Policy Strategy Division OEDC, World Food ProgrammeVia Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/7000148 Rome, Italy

“IT JUST WASN’T SUPPOSEDTO HAPPEN IN KENYA...”A personal look at the crisis

TThhee mmaajjoorr iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall RReedd CCuupp ccaammppaaiiggnn iiss bbeeiinnggpprreesseenntteedd iinn MMiillaann iinn FFeebbrruuaarryy ttoo rraaiissee aawwaarreenneessss aannddffuunnddss ffoorr 5599 mmiilllliioonn cchhiillddrreenn iinn ddeevveellooppiinngg ccoouunnttrriieess wwhhooggoo ttoo sscchhooooll hhuunnggrryy.. ““FFiillll tthhee ccuupp”” iiss aa rreemmiinnddeerr tthhaattmmoosstt ooff uuss ttaakkee aa ccuupp ooff ccooffffeeee oorr ssoouupp ffoorr ggrraanntteedd;; ffoorrjjuusstt 2255 cceennttss aa ddaayy,, WWFFPP ccaann pprroovviiddee nnoouurriisshhmmeenntt ttoo aacchhiilldd aanndd ttuurrnn hhuunnggeerr iinnttoo hhooppee..

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Finding MosesPablo’s DebutStars Update

ED’s Ancestral Link with Hunger

SENAC Fulfills its MissionFree Rice

Bangladeshi Resilience

Nepal’s Innovation AwardA Literary Wonder

Catrachilandia FAST Takes WFP Back to SchoolThe Intern Life

YUM’S WeekHoliday Gifts to WFPWFP and DSM

SeparationsObituaries

Homme D’Action:Jean-Jacques Graisse

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FINDING MOSESYuko Yasuda, a public information officer in the Tokyoliaison office, was on mission Kenya in 2006 when sheopened a dusty box filled with old drawings done bychildren who'd received school feeding. One picture inparticular caught Yuko's attention. It showed a Sudanesebattle scene, including tanks, planes and soldiers, fromthe north-south civil war. On the left hand side, a briefstory had been written in shaky handwriting.

“My name is Moses DengNgong,” it said. “I was born in1988 in Gogrial County. Ijoined the army in 1996. I wasdemobilized in 1999. I drewthis picture because the Arabscame to attack the people inGogrial. The SPLA fight them.”

Yuko learned the picture hadbeen drawn by a formersouthern Sudanese child soldierwho entered it in a globalschool feeding competition.She was so intrigued by the drawing that she asked theWFP staff at the UN Gigiri office if she could borrow it.She returned to Japan and showed the drawing to ajournalist from Fuji TV, one of WFP's corporate partners.The journalist was also taken by the drawing, and said hewanted to do a story about the artist.

But he had one obvious question: Who was Moses Deng?

Yuko emailed her PI colleagues in Nairobi to ask if anyoneknew where to find Moses. Nobody did and the inquirywas bounced to me, as a PI officer in Khartoum, withresponsibility for southern Sudan. All Yuko could tell mewas the name of the child soldier and that he was fromGogrial County.

I told her that in southern Sudan the name Moses Dengis about as common as John Smith is in England, andGogrial County is about as big as England.

Yuko was disappointed but understood that finding Moseswas like finding a needle in a haystack. Then came anincredible coincidence. The same week I sent my bluntemail to Yuko, I happened to be having dinner with anold friend, WFP programming officer Tarcisius Nitta.During the meal Tarci by chance mentioned a young manhe knew called “Moses Deng.” I almost choked on myfood.

“Was he a child soldier? Did he once draw a picture of abattle scene for a school feeding competition?” I asked.

Incredibly the young man Tarci knew was indeed the sameone who'd drawn the picture. It turned out that Tarci metMoses in Rumbek, southern Sudan, when Moses was goingto a school for former child soldiers. When Tarci wasworking in Rumbek around 2000, 2001, WFP had

supported the school with FoodFor Education.

It was at the Rumbek schoolthat Tarci had asked thestudents to draw a picture forthe competition. Moses didn'twin but Tarci was highlyimpressed with his drawingand the two became friends.Moses told Tarci he joined theSPLA aged just nine-years oldafter his parents were killed in1996 when raiders attackedtheir village.

After spending three years in the army, Moses began hisprimary school education in Rumbek. The child soldiers atthe school were mostly orphans and were sleeping roughin the bush. Tarci organized for them to get three WFPmeals a day instead of one. He and Moses have stayed intouch and Tarci has quietly paid the young man's schoolfees ever since.

Moses is now in his first year of secondary school inKhartoum. He is 19, belongs to the Dinka tribe and standsmore than six feet tall. He speaks fluent English and isone of the best students in his class.

Tarci recently introduced me to Moses and I asked Mosesif wanted to go on Japanese television to talk about hisexperience as a child soldier. Moses said he'd be happy todo it and Simon emailed Yuko with the good news. Yukosaid it was a “miracle” - Moses had been found and shein turned passed on the news to Fuji TV.

A crew from Fuji TV promptly came to Sudan and spent aweek in Khartoum with Moses. Fuji also travelled tosouthern Sudan where they filmed Japanese WFP staffmember Mio Nozoe who works at the Kapoeta sub-office.Moses is still waiting for his screen debut, but it is sureto come.Text and story by Simon Crittle, formerly PI Sudan

Maybe it's the way he smoothes his Salvador Dali-likemoustache. Or perhaps it's because he waves his armslike a madman when he's talking.

For whatever reason, the giant Hollywood moviestudio, Warner Brothers, chose Pablo Recalde.

The head of El Geneina sub office, West Darfur, is oneof six real life characters featured in Darfur Now, a fly-

on-the-wall documentary about people who are tryingto make a difference in Darfur.

Featured alongside our Ecuadorian colleague, are bignames including the actor Don Cheadle, star of HotelRwanda, as well as the chief prosecutor of theInternational Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Andindeed George Clooney, who has taken up the Darfurcause and is the newest UN Messenger of Peace, alsoappears in the film which is directed by Ted Braun.

The film crew spent more than two weeks in Darfur,tailing Pablo, documenting his every move, meal andmeltdown.

Pablo was hardly able to go to the bathroom withoutthe camerawoman and sound man following him intothe cubicle.

All this, in the middle of the Geneina office move - thenew one was constructed in a record three months - avisit by US Sudan envoy, Andrew Natsios, and thearrival of a new wali (governor) for West Darfur, who isa former SLA rebel.

After almost three months in Sudan, the film crewreturned to Los Angeles and the film itself wasreleased in November. TTeexxtt aanndd pphhoottoo bbyy SSiimmoonn CCrriittttllee,, ffoorrmmeerrllyy PPII SSuuddaann

PABLO’S DEBUT

STARS UPDATE

Kaka who is WFPAmbassador and holderof the “Ballon D'Or”accepted a newaccolade in December -the 2007 FIFA WorldPlayer of the Yearaward. While notclaiming any influence

on the highly competitive world of internationalfootball, we are delighted that our favourite Braziland AC Milan star is the second WFP Ambassador inthree years to hold both titles. What a coincidence!

Soon after receiving the award, this is what Kaka said:“I am so happy and proud today. It's no smallachievement being named the FIFA Footballer of theYear. And I am very aware that I only got herebecause I had the chance to fully exploit my potentialand my talent. I strongly believe that every child inthe world must have the same right. Today, I ask youto support me in my job as WFP Ambassador, to makesure that the hunger that still threatens the future of59 million school children will become just a badmemory. WFP School feeding is the best possibleinvestment we can make to safeguard a child's hopeto simply have a future. We say that 'you can't puta price on life', that's terribly wrong - it takes only 25cents a day to buy a meal and that's worth a full life.”

Italian actress MariaGrazia Cucinotta madeher inaugural field visitas Ambassador AgainstHunger to several WFP-supported projects incentral India. She wasimpressed at theprogress made by

beneficiaries in primary schools, at mother & childhealth and nutrition centres and in food-for-workschemes. And of course the doyenne of Italian cinemais word perfect: “Working alongside WFP has taughtme that each of us can make a difference in the fightagainst hunger,” she said.

DJ BoBo mixed it up ona freezing night, highabove the ski resort ofVillars. The Swisssensation, famous forgetting people todance, joined crowds onthe slopes after his set.What motivated him to

play on a mountain in -4 degrees from midnight till 2a.m? A 24-hour winter charity competition. Hishands may have been cold, but his heart was warmedby nearly $122,000 he helped raise for WFPprogrammes in Ethiopia.

New Ambassadors:Howard G. Buffett, alifelong farmer, andbusinessman fromOmaha, Nebraska. He hasmade his name as bothan environmentalistand humanitarian.

And Luna Maya, one ofIndonesia's mostpopular young actressesand successful models.She has significantlyincreased visibility andrecognition of WFP inher country.

In an article for the Huffington Post, Executive DirectorJosette Sheeran wrote about a journey she made lastOctober to her Irish roots in the tiny hamlet of Slattamorein County Roscommon. An RTE reporter accompanied her onthe journey and broadcast a documentary film on RTE'sNationwide - see wfp.org and click to watch.

Irish blood runs through my veins, so there's a strangefamiliarity to the streets and houses around me as I ridethrough Dublin's elegant Georgian squares on my way intotown from the airport. I'm here to sit on the Hunger TaskForce alongside luminaries like Jeffrey Sachs and Bono --all of us invited by the Irish government to grapple withthe scourge of global hunger that still affects more than850 million of our fellow global citizens.

The Hunger Task Force is meeting to explore innovative,new ways of dealing with world hunger and to explore theunderlying reasons why it continues to be a feature of lifefor so many in the 21st century. In 2006, WFP gave foodto 88 million people in 78 of the world's poorest countries.It's a hell of a lot, but it's still not nearly enough.

The Hunger Task Force members gather in the elegant sur-roundings of Iveagh House, now part of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, but not so long ago, the Dublin seat of theGuinness family which made its money brewing a drinkthat has become synonymous with modern Ireland.

Hunger stalks the conscience of the Irish people, still scar-red by the Great Irish Famine of the 19th century whenmore than two million people either perished or emigrated- many of them arriving in crowded boats on the shores ofCanada and the United States.

My own ancestors once tilled and coaxed unwilling cropsfrom the barren land in a tiny hamlet called Slattamore inCounty Roscommon. They were tenant farmers, working tofeed themselves, and to pay the rent to the local Anglo-Irish landlord, Nicholas Balfe.

They survived the Great Irish Famine, but soon decidedthat enough was enough, and by the end of the 19th

Century, all but one of the Sheeran family had left Irelandin search of a better life.

All that remains of the Sheeran family home today is astone doorstep and the scattered remains of crumblingfoundations that poke through lush green grass wherecows are left to graze.

Those who once lived and walked across this ground werepart of what has been described as the worst social disa-ster in 19th century Europe. That it happened at all is amatter of shame, that hundreds of millions still confrontthis fate around the world today is a scandal.

From my family's roots as subsistence farmers in 19th cen-tury Ireland, to my work at the World Food Programme andmy seat on the Hunger Task Force, I have come full circle.Today my constituency is the subsistence farmers of sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Asia and the Middle East.Their struggle is the same as that which my ancestors oncefaced, and it is for all of us to ensure that history is notallowed to repeat itself.

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ED DISCOVERS ANCESTRAL LINK WITH HUNGER

As recently as the 1970s, you could navigate a tributary ofthe Niger river right into the heart of the ancient city ofTimbuktu in Mali. In as little as 30 years, that becameimpossible, as the river channel silted up under theunstoppable advance of the Sahara desert.

The people of Timbuktu still remember with awe the cata-clysmic drought of 1973, speaking of it in hushed whi-spers. Timbuktu is the gateway to the Sahara, and accessto the vast Niger river was essential for trade and travel,but also for replenishing the town's aquifers deep below.Now, the city is on the frontline of the battle against cli-mate change, and WFP is at the heart of an increasinglycritical battle for human development in the face of theadvancing sands.

Executive Director Josette Sheeran travelled to Timbuktuin November, where she saw for herself how WFP's projectsare helping to shape a new future for the region. Staff atthe field office estimate that over a million new trees havebeen planted through WFP food-for-work around Timbuktuin the past 20 years or so.

The trees not only help hold back the desert, but also pro-tect and enhance vital agricultural land in the lee of theplantations. One of WFP's key partners is the KabaraWomen's Cooperative, whose president Maiga ZeinabuCissé's voice sang with delight as she explained the diffe-rence that WFP's support has made to their lives.

“You can see that Timbuktu is green - that's all thanks toWFP,” she says. “Before there were no trees between here

and Timbuktu because of drought. We've reached astage we never thought possible. We have seen agreat change. Before these projects, we didn't evenleave our homes - we just waited for our men tocome back from working in the cities. Now our menstay at home, which is good for our families. Someare even working on these projects now.”

“If one of our children goes up to their father andasks for money, he'll say 'Go and see your mother',because we are the ones who are earning now. Wehave money to send our children to school, welldressed and with the books and pens they need tostudy. They are much better fed now, too. Ourwhole family lives have changed for the better.”

Quite an endorsement. Their fields teeming withhealthy green stalks of rice testify to the positivechanges of recent years. “This is ground zero in thefight against climate change,” said the ED as shetook in the daily reality of life in one of the mostmarginal regions in the world. “The people ofTimbuktu are not experiencing climate change as a kind ofscientific theory, but as a fact. They have to adapt now,today, and WFP is here to help them.”

Efforts to combat climate change in West Africa are notlimited to tree planting, nor to Mali. A number of small-scale irrigation projects across the dusty Sahel region -including countries such as Mauritania, Burkina Faso andNiger - have also been established, as well as a duneretention strategy.

Mali, like all the other countries of the Sahel, is engagedin an often unreported battle against malnutrition. AtToya Health Centre, the ED saw how WFP is workingtogether with the government and UNICEF to combat thescourge, which can kill, but also severely limit develop-ment. Welcomed by a troop of Tuaregs on camelback bran-dishing scimitar swords, the ED sat alongside mothers andtheir children as they received a daily ration of CSB por-ridge to protect them against malnutrition.Text and photo by Marcus Prior, PI ODK

MALI: ON THE FRONTLINE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

At the grave of an Irish ancestor.

With daughter, Gabrielle, at the Famine Monument.Inside the Irish Famine Museum.

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SENAC FULFILLS ITS MISSIONWhen you ask Wolfgang Herbinger about his timeas head of the SENAC project, he pauses beforeanswering. “SENAC? It has been three years onthe high seas - navigating storms and waves -just to reach the destination, keeping the crewhappy through the tough times,” he says,laughing.

SENAC is the Strengthening Emergency NeedsAssessment Capacity project - to improve the wayWFP assesses needs. Itwas launched threeyears ago when needsassessments had becomewhat could be describedas a stand-off betweendonors and agencies.

A study conducted bythe Overseas Development Institute criticised thehumanitarian community for not equitablyallocating funding across crises and pointed tothe fact that amounts allocated did not reflectcomparative levels of need.

The study also showed that donors were scepticalabout the agency's assessments. In 2003 thecredibility of WFP assessments was stronglyquestioned at an Executive Board meeting. Thiswas a turning point. Some donors, ECHO inparticular, agreed to fund a project to address theproblem.

“SENAC was extremely ambitious; it was aboutimplementing a cultural shift within theorganisation, it was about making sure that eachoperation was backed by a solid, credible needsassessment and that WFP actually had thecapacity to do these assessments,” saysHerbinger.

To do the job, a team was formed of three corepeople and several consultants at headquartersand 11 Regional Assessment Officers (the so-called RAOs - highly experienced market and foodsecurity specialists) to conduct assessments andbe posted in the regions.

Improving the methodology was a priority. “Wediscussed methodologies for hours, days andmonths, which created alot of debate both insideand beyond WFP. Weinvolved experts andpartners as much aspossible - but technicalpeople tend to spend along time discussingdetails!” said AgnèsDhur, on the SENAC team at HQ.

“It was difficult to strike the right balancebetween getting the best methodology on paperwhile producing tools to be used in the field andprovide the right information for CountryDirectors and Programme Officers to planinterventions,” she adds.

Another challenge was capacity. “We just didn'thave enough people with the right skills to doassessments,” says Herbinger. “Food SecurityAssessments require both technical skills andexperience with humanitarian interventions; thecapacity building efforts were massive.”

Another major area of work was to make pre-crisisinformation available in countries where crisesrecur. “Having information already available onwho is vulnerable to food insecurity, how manythey are, where and why is essential. It helps toidentify the hotspots and understand quicker the

likely impact of the crisis even before it strikes,”says Joyce Luma, head of VAM, who led the effort.

However baseline studies are a huge exercise.They take months to complete, require the workof a large number of enumerators to interviewhouseholds in villages, and refine statistical andanalytical skills.

However it was clear from the start that changecould only be broughtabout by institutionalchange as well. “It's notenough to have goodmethods, you need tomake people actually doassessments and use thetools,” Herbinger says.

“There was a need to convince Country Directorsthat each operation must be backed by a solidassessment before it could be approved. It wasn'talways easy,” he adds.

In 2004, only 45 percent of operations werebacked by an assessment. A directive issued thesame year made Regional and Country Directorsresponsible for underpinning projects with robustneeds assessments and food security analysis.

The RAOs have been at the forefront of efforts inthe field as were the VAM officers, and many ofSENAC's achievements are thanks to them.

They were busy: “We were actually conducting theassessments; we were in high demand because ofthe needs. We had to field test the new methodsbeing developed, we had to train staff membersand partners to ensure we had sufficient capacity- it happened all at the same time,” says SylvieMontembault, Regional Assessment Officer insouthern Africa.

Where are we three years later? There isconsensus that the quality of WFP needsassessments has significantly improved and in2007, practically all WFP operations were backedby an assessment.

Capacities have been enhanced; the agency nowhas a pool of about 60advanced assessors andmore than 600 generalstaff members trained inbasic skills.

“All assessment reportsare publicly available onthe web. This is key to

ensuring transparency and accountability - noother UN agency does it,” says Herbinger.

The project ends in April. The revised version ofthe Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA)handbook which includes all the methodologicalprogress made under SENAC will be released byMarch.

One result of the cultural shift is that theposition of Regional Assessment Officer willremain in each region even as the project isclosing. At HQ, a team of food security andmarket experts will also remain. The team hasmade itself indispensable.

Wolfgang Herbinger, who has in the meantimetaken up his post as Country Director in Pakistan,will certainly be taking an advance copy of thenew EFSA handbook with him.

By Caroline Chaumont, SENAC Project

In 2004, only 45% of operations werebacked by documented assessments;

in 2007, 95% of operations werebacked by documented assessments.

The latest flurry of online activity in the WFP world comes from Free Rice, anonline vocabulary quiz which generates a donation of 20 grains of rice for eachcorrect answer given. The simple multiple choice game adjusts its difficultylevel based on your performance, making it suitable for everyone fromschoolchildren to Scrabble champions. Millions of people have played the gamesince its launch on 7 October - the number of daily donations was averagingat nearly 200 million per day in January. The donations are paid for by banneradvertisements on the website. In the last three months of 2007, the gamegenerated some US$225,000 for WFP. The money was split between operationsto help Burmese refugees sheltering in Bangladesh, mother-and-child nutritionsupport in Cambodia, and development operations in Uganda.

But Free Rice has done more than top up the WFP coffers - it has also spreadout all over cyber-space to become the top referring site to our own wfp.org.Free Rice is the focus of groups on social networking sites such as Facebook,as well as being a topic of discussion on innumerable teachers' websites,bringing WFP's message closer to vast online communities.

The winning game concept has now been recognised at the Yahoo! UK &Ireland "Finds of the Year" awards, where Free Rice picked up the prize forbest charity website.

Play Free Rice at www.freerice.com - but be warned, it's highly addictive!

FREE RICE

cincture means: agreeableness

girdle wizardry

namelessness

decoct means: thrive

boil down list

erase

roily means: nutritious

freaky turbid

intangible

nebbish means:sterileness

riddletimid person

ancient memento

“It helps to identify the hotspots and understand quicker the likely

impact of the crisis even before it strikes.”

Eight boats set sail from Aswan along the Nile in October, stopping atseveral towns along the way towards Cairo to raise awareness of UNMillennium Development Goals and encourage local communities to reachthose targets through volunteer efforts.

The fleet is part of Egypt's “Sailing the Nile”campaign, a partnership between UN agencies, theEgyptian Government, NGOs and the private sectorto highlight development projects across thecountry.

The boats, or feluccas, each bear a logo on their sail to symbolize one ofthe eight MDGs. A variety of cultural, sports and arts activities took placeat each stop: in Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Souhag, Assiut, Minya, Beni Suef. The45-day trip ended in Cairo in early December.

WFP's official stats for December confirm the leading role of FreeRice in drivingup web traffic to our corporate website. Page visits maintained their record2007 high, even rising slightly from November's 346,000 to 354,000.

In Davos, WFP created a special Free Rice zone inside its exhibition tent at thisyear's World Economic Forum in Switzerland. As well as being able to view theFree Rice Bangladesh Vlog and read Free Rice Factsheets, visitors played thegame on the XO laptop developed for the One Laptop Per Child project.

And in China: WFP's Beijing office has been promoting Free Rice among localuniversity students, the largest English language learning group in the country.Around Christmas, some 6,000 FreeRice flyers were distributed at the top sixuniversities in the Chinese capital.

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Minara managed to survive by taking refuge in a tree onthe fateful night of 15 November when Cyclone Sidr hither village. A mother of two, Minara lost her husband anda sister. Before Sidr, Minara managed to meet her family'sbasic needs but now she is living in a makeshift tent andher only means of survival is through WFP's food rations.Knowing these will not continue throughout 2008, she iseager to rebuild her life, so she has already asked WFP iffood-for-work activities could begin immediately. Thereare similar stories all along the southern coast ofBangladesh. Losing their relatives as well as theirbelongings, families face huge challenges but are resoluteabout rebuilding their lives. The cyclone may havewashed away everything but it did not take away theircourage, strength and eagerness to move on.

“Despite standing on the very edge of survival, when thecyclone victims look ahead with hope, we feel encouragedto carry on our humanitarian work,” said Hafiza, a WFPstaff member involved in food distributions across theaffected areas.

There is often asurge in malnu-trition following adisaster, as thosewho lose homesand liveli-hoodsstruggle to feedtheir families. Inorder to avoid this,WFP launched ane m e r g e n c yoperation toprovide relief foodto 2.2 millionpeople left hungry and homeless. Learning from previouscyclones, we started longer-term distributions to families;when parents and their children are malnourished, it is moredifficult to get back on their feet.

“The first phase of the operation - providing food assistanceto more than 465,000 families - is nearly over. From March

for three months,we aim to assistaround 575,000people with food-for-cash and food-for-work,” saidDoug Broderick,WFP CountryDirector inBangladesh.

For humanitarianstaff in Bangla-desh it ise x t r e m e l yfrustrating thatdisasters like Sidrpush thousands ofpoor, vulnerablepeople back belowthe poverty line;freeing them from

the grip of poverty and hunger remains a huge task.

As Bangladesh is susceptible to frequent and recurringdisasters, WFP is working to strengthen the resilience ofvulnerable households, by shifting - together with ourpartners - from a conventional response to a morecomprehensive risk reduction approach.

And Bangladesh has weathered every storm, reducedpoverty, improved life expectancy and living standardsand is performing well on many of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. The frequency of disaster isincreasing but the cost in lives is nowhere near as high.Disaster preparedness and early warning has worked. Foodsecurity has improved. This cyclone has killed thousands.If it had hit 30 years ago, it would have killed hundredsof thousands.

Far from being a basket case, Bangladesh should be heldup as a model for poorer countries worldwide that willsuffer from worsening global conditions.

But more is needed, Bangladesh has always had toimprove on what existed before, it must swim quickly justto stay afloat. Like anything, this requires commitmentand support. History shows that neither is squanderedwhen given to Bangladesh - and the benefits could spreadacross the region and the world as a whole.By M. Emamul Haque, PI Bangladesh

BANGLADESHIRESILIENCE

Crossing the Ganges on a ferry should be an etherealexperience because everything is surrounded by a whitelight making it impossible to tell where the water endsand the sky begins. I would have enjoyed it more if ayoung man hadn't attached himself to my sleeve as heaggressively tried to convince me to buy some dubiouslooking fish.

It is one of those places where a kaleidoscope of imagesflickers continually in the corners of your eyes. In thetime it takes to turn your head, it's already replaced byanother, more compelling than the first: a legless child,laughing from joy or madness, propelling himself fasterthan Paul Tergat down a road using two wooden planks ascrutches, an enormous passenger bus upside down in aditch, a herd of elephants walking calmly down a crowdedhighway, another passenger bus upside-down in a ditch,the powerful emotions on people's faces as they stare ata stranger - delight, curiosity, pain, anger and, of coursehunger.

And they DO stare at strangers in Bangladesh, especiallywhen you pull out a video camera and tripod. You'resuddenly surrounded by hundreds of unrequested extraswaiting for their cameo in Bollywood. One of the oldest

tricks in situations like this is to aim the camera towardsthe extraordinary scene you want to capture but look theother way, hoping that both your subject matter and thecrowd will not gravitate to the lens, mugging and stickingtheir fingers into it.

Needless to say that doesn't work in Bangladesh. Justwhen you are about to give up, a toothless man withbeetle nut juice dribbling down his chin sidles up toquestion your choice of filter setting and why you decidedon the HVR-Z1 video camera instead of the new XDCAMwhich works better in lower light conditions…

Charkhali is an 8-hour drive from Dhaka on the westernside of the Bay of Bengal. To the west is a vast protectednatural reserve called Sunderbans where the last Bengaltigers reside. To the south and east is where the riversfrom the Himalayas meet the sea.

Like most of Bangladesh and places like New Orleans,Charkahli is below sea level. When the sea rises due tostorms or because the Nepalese or Indians suddenly opena dam somewhere at the other end of the Ganges - theyget whacked.

Cyclone Sidr was something else. A warning systemalerted villagers that a storm was coming but, when thewater in the bay suddenly went down, people knew thatsomething really serious was about to happen. Beforethey could flee for higher ground the waters came back...hard.

I walked through the remains of the village and wasstruck by the coincidence that it was exactly three years

ago that I found myself in Sri Lanka facing a remarkablysimilar scene of devastation from the Tsunami in 2004.Fishing boats scattered about like children’s toys, plots ofbeaten down earth and a few scraps of metal wherehomes once stood, and many small shallow graves. Atthe far end of the village most exposed to the sea, I metDulu sitting on a chair looking dazed.

Dulu's husband was out of town when the rains began andas the water began to rise she grabbed her daughter andclimbed a tree to escape. Suddenly, a house that hadbeen washed away in the flood struck them and they fellinto the water.

She found her daughter several days later.. alive but soswollen that she was able to recognize her only becauseon the morning of the flood she had dressed her in a newsari. Dulu's daughter died soon after. Dulu put her faceinto her knees and began to sob. This was the first timeshe had told the story to anyone.

Two months after Sidr the people of Charkhali have begunrebuilding their homes and their lives. The government isfinancing loans to help fishermen build new boats, NGOsare helping with schools and WFP is supplying food andrebuilding washed away roads.

Nothing can bring Dulu's children back to her but WFP'sfood gives her some of the strength she needs to faceanother day and one less thing to worry about as she triesto pull her life together.

By Jon Dumont, Head of TV production, OEDC

CAPTURINGTRAGEDY

Nearly nine million people were affected by Cyclone Sidr last November which claimed over 3,000lives. Bangladesh was just recovering from floods in July and August that affected over 13 million.

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As dawn breaks over Nepal's mountains, Sunita Raut's feethit the ground at the start of yet another gruelling day'strekking from village to village in the remote district ofDolakha. She packs her rucksack with a day's ration and theWFP field monitor's vital equipment - a satellite telephoneand a personal digital assistant (PDA).

Kitted with these high-tech tools, strong legs, and herknowledge of local language and culture, Sunita will walkthe high trails, interview families across the district andrecord their answers in her PDA. At the end of her longday, she will transmit the data real-time via satellite phoneto a database in Kathmandu where it can be accessedinstantly by WFP VAM staff for monitoring and analysis.

Across Nepal, 31 other Nepali field monitors begin their dayin a similar way, some walking for up to four days to reachvulnerable people. They travel 39 districts through some ofthe most inhospitable terrain to interview nearly 800families about food security and their impressions of thepeace process.

Once transmitted to Kathmandu, this grassroots data isanalyzed by a joint WFP/OCHA team which developsbulletins, maps and thematic reports serving as key inputsand critical feedback into peace and recovery programmingas well as early warning reports on food insecurity. Morespecifically, the data and WFP/OCHA information alsofacilitates the United Nations Mission in Nepal's (UNMIN)civil affairs monitoring and the overall UN Country Teams'efforts in peace and recovery programming.

“I never dreamed that I would play such a key role insupporting the peace process in Nepal. For many of thecommunities that I work with, the data that I enter in myPDA may represent the only opportunity for these familiesto be heard. Political parties, government representativesor journalists rarely travel to those remote areas that I visit.

Through WFP's system, I really do feel I am playing avaluable role -communicating the daily challenges offinding food or obtaining medical treatment for thesefamilies on the edge, during this transition period,” saidSunita Raut.

Since 2002, the WFP field monitors have been the backboneof the largest, most comprehensive data collection and fieldsurveillance system in Nepal. They are Nepali nationals wholive and work among the communities they survey.

This has enabled them to develop a network of keyinformants and excellent relationships with localgovernment officials, as well as political and activist groups

allowing them to work unhindered even during the heightof the Maoist insurgency.

These relationships and their experience of working inconflict situations make the WFP field surveillance team anexceptional source of grassroots information on communityneeds and targeting. For nearly six years, it has been thelink between the realities of the countryside where mostNepalese live, and UN agencies and policy-makersdeveloping and implementing programmes aimed atprotecting lives and stabilizing the country.

Real-time data transmission capabilities were introduced inlate 2006. Before this, field monitors used to recordinterviews on hundreds of paper questionnaires that wereshared with the Kathmandu-based VAM unit during bi-monthly meetings. Analysis could only take place afterhours of data entry from these questionnaires - oftenstacked floor to ceiling.

Collection of “urgent data” was limited to time-consumingand expensive satphone calls between VAM staff and fieldmonitors. Even then, WFP's field surveillance team was oneof the few consistent sources of grassroots data and attimes the only source from remote communities at theheight of the conflict.

“With the addition of real-time data transmission andreception capabilities, we have substantially increasedWFP's response capacity, as well as creating a system thatis highly adaptable and replicable,” explained SiemonHollema, head of WFP Nepal's VAM unit.

“The capability we have developed in Nepal is not onlyinnovative, but may prove to be lifesaving for communitieson the edge,” he added.

Originally created to monitor WFP programming andhousehold food insecurity, the thematic adaptability of thenew 'high-tech' field surveillance system has been provenunder a partnership between WFP and OCHA launched inJuly 2007.

“I am really pleased with our partnership with OCHA and thesupport we are providing to UNMIN during this criticalperiod. The variety of topics our team can now cover, andthe partnerships we could create with other UN agencies arenearly boundless. The US$500,000 annual maintenanceprice-tag also means that the surveillance system is highlysustainable and within the reach of government agencies,”said Richard Ragan, WFP Country Representative in Nepal.

“We are certainly pleased and proud to receive the 2007Innovation Award. Manydifferent people within WFPdid a tremendous jobovercoming challenges todevelop this amazingsystem. But, to me, oursuccess relies heavily uponthe Nepali field monitors.Without their constantdedication, their willingnessto travel to dangerous andremote areas, to push oneven when faced withphysical threats fromactivist groups or even justthe discomfort of torrentialrain and howling winds, oursystem would be nothingbut a really cool pioneeringtechnology with no way tofully utilize it,” concludedRichard.By Heather Sutliff, PIONepal

WFP NEPAL'S FIELD MONITORSGET “WIRED” AND WIN THE 2007 INNOVATION AWARD

One of Africa's mostpromising literarytalents is a former WFPintern, Monica Arac deNyeyo, winner of the2007 Caine Prize forAfrican writing - for ashort love storybetween two women,set on a housingestate in her nativeUganda.

"When I started towrite Jambula Tree,the characters and thestory were already veryclear in my head so Iwas able to do it in one sitting," Arac said. “But not all mystories are written like that. Most of them are much moredifficult to get around."

Arac came to WFP just after she had first been short-listedfor the Caine Prize in 2004 for a story she wrote calledStrange Fruit. (See extract in Pipeline No.35http://home.wfp.org/pipeline/2004/Pipeline_35.pdf.) Shedid not win, and having studied Humanitarian Assistancein The Netherlands, she started as an intern with theEmergency Preparedness and Response Unit in Rome.Anyone who was in HQ around 2004/2005 would rememberthe tall, bounding and ever-smiling intern.

Monica stayed on with the unit (now ODAP) for about twoyears as a consultant before moving to Khartoum as aReports Officer. One of five children, Arac, who grew upwith the subjects she touches in Jambula Tree - civil warand AIDS - has already seen more than many do in alifetime.

Jambula Tree is a beautiful and sad story of a friendshipbetween two girls that blossoms into a first sexualrelationship set against the tragedies of poverty, war andmale violence - and the more mundane small-town defectsof gossip and hypocrisy.

It is written as a love letter by one of the protagonistslooking back on the past after their affair is discovered andthe two have been separated, perhaps forever.

The fact that the love in Jambula Tree is between twowomen has not been lost on the African and internationalmedia, with the story whipping up a small literary fury.Arac says the story is not about lesbians as such, but aboutthe context in which their love grows.

"Jambula Tree is about a community that is foreveraffected by a relationship between these two girls," sheexplains from Nairobi, where she now works as the specialassistant to the IRIN Director. “The story explores fear andhypocrisy around morality and its interpretation; I wouldsay the story is more about the housing estate than aboutthe protagonists themselves.”

The US$20,000 Caine Prize was set up in honour of thelate Sir Michael Caine (a businessman, not the actor)who had extensive financial interests in Africa as well asin literature. For almost 25 years he chaired themanagement committee of what is now known as the ManBooker Prize.

Arac has already finished a month's fellowship as writer-in-residence at Georgetown University in the U.S. which waspart of the prize. She is also currently writing a new novel.She hasn't forgotten WFP however. "I learnt a lot duringmy time with WFP and developed an enormous respect forits mandate. I like to think I will work with WFP again inthe future.”By Hilary Clarke, PI Consultant

A LITERARYWONDER

IN OUR MIDST

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Every year on the fourthSaturday of July, WFPHonduras celebrates thecountry's most importantschool feeding fundraising event - Catrachilandia, whichis a hybrid of catracho, a nickname for the people ofHonduras and the English word land. It encapsulateshopes of education, healthand opportunities for all.

The event began in 2002as a radio marathon toraise funds and encouragecivil society to join thisnational effort.

Now a 12-hour showbroadcast on the mainnetwork, Televicentro,Catrachilandia enjoysconsiderable success,thanks to private sectorcontributions, thecommitment of authorities and teachers, free promotionalads, pro-bono stage performances by national andinternational artists, and, of course, the people's activesupport.

WFP staff work hard behind the scenes: “Every year, weimprove the organization and plan future activities withthe support of local communities,” says María ArgentinaLópez, a logistics monitor in Copan, Honduras. This year's

event included a concert atTegucigalpa's central park,and a special edition of ElHeraldo newspaper,

dedicated to WFP school feeding in Honduras.

“I feel proud and touched to know that I contributed tothe success ofCatrachilandia,” says AnaChinchilla, a WFPreceptionist, whovolunteered to help sellthe special edition of ElHeraldo early in themorning.

WFP school feeding inHonduras is highlysuccessful, with legislativesupport - a NationalSchool Feeding Fund hasbeen established, and anofficial school feeding day

declared - as well as strong private sector support, theproject benefits around 1.2 million children attendingalmost 17,000 schools.

In 2007, Catrachilandia raised over US$438,000 in cash -for WFP Honduras to purchase food, micronutrients andde-worming tablets for children involved in the schoolfeeding programme. By Blanca Echevarrieta, WFP Honduras

QUAKE RELIEF STRENGTHENS TIES

BETWEEN FORMER ENEMIES

Putting firmly behind them a territorial dispute whichsimmered throughout the twentieth century, Ecuador andPeru were brought closer when WFP Ecuador ReportsOfficer Beatriz Bravo and Finance Assistant Alex Robayoaccompanied 100 tons of WFP fortified foods from Quitosoon after the 15 August earthquake in Pisco, Peru.

“It was really great to be part of a bi-national team andcombine our efforts to bring food directly to the quakevictims. There was a touching little ceremony at theborder when the safekeeping, protection and security ofthe WFP convoy was transferred,” said Bravo.

CATRACHILANDIA!

Last spring, in Canada, I received an email from WFP,offering me a three month internship in Rome. CouldI be there in two weeks? Eager to experience workingfor a UN agency, and having loved being an au pair inRome the previous year, I was ready to say yes, butorganizing everything was not so easy! But two weekslater, I was standing outside WFP headquarters,amazed at the buzzing of six different languages, aspeople of all nationalities streamed into the building.

I remember reading, on one of my first days in FDC(the communications unit), a copy of this verynewspaper and thinking how proud everyone (or atleast those who write for Pipeline) seemed to work atWFP. During my time here, I've worked with someamazing people and learned a great deal from many ofthem…I've also learnt a lot of acronyms! From thePRROs to the EMOPs in DPRK and the HEWS to thePLWHA and the HGSFP (Home Grown School FeedingProgramme - had to look that one up!) it can get a tadconfusing.

But the learning curve doesn't stop there, since beingan intern in Rome is an experience in itself, especiallyon a (very) low stipend. After the rent is paid, little isleft to cover daily expenses, leading some interns towish that WFP could stand for “We FeedPoor…Interns”! I can't tell you how many times we'veeyed those High Energy Biscuits…A popular measureamong interns is to split the wonderful € 4.50cafeteria lunch with an equally broke friend, thusensuring each gets a good serving of meat, vegetables,pasta and fruit, all for € 2.25! It also takes us off thelist of IDPs (Internally Disgruntled People). Ironically,being a starving intern at the World Food Programmemakes you appreciate the organization's work.

On the subject of food, the HQ cafeteria is aninstitution in itself, from the kind, older Italian whodelights in chatting to the “signorinas,” to the peopleserving pasta, who roll their eyes at you should youeven suggest that, yes, you would like someparmeggiano on your salmon pasta. (Putting cheese onany kind of seafood pasta is simply not done. It is,apparently, almost as bad as ordering a cappuccinoafter midday).

Looking back on my experience as a WFP intern, I mustsay it has been extremely rewarding. Along with somesmall but character-building difficulties, I immenselyenjoyed working in Rome, and forging lastingfriendships with people from all over the world, whomI hope to meet again one day - perhaps over an HEB!By Alison Cassells, final year of communications/sociology course at Vancouver University, Canada

THE INTERN LIFE...simple adventure

Sweet treats WFP's HQ interns, helped by Judy Gicharuamong other HR staff, organized a bake sale in earlyJune, enlisting a manager, treasurer, photographer,bakers & sellers from the 10 interns whose nationalities(Italian, American, Swedish, Argentinian, Belgian,English, Canadian, Czech, Dutch and Ghanaian) arealmost as diverse as their “goodies”. After somedeliberation, the interns decided that the € 232 raisedwould go towards Cambodia's School FeedingProgramme.

It began in September, when a request arrived at the Fieldand Emergency Support Office (FESO) in Dubai from WFPChina. They were hoping that FESO, the new home ofgoods and services procurement, could provide trainingfor one of theirprocurement staff. Similarinterest came from Syria.As is typical in WFP, wordgot around and interestgrew – fast!

In October 2007, the FastAdministrative SupportTeam (FAST) decided todevelop and deliver formalcompetency-based trainingand examination.

Covering food, goods andservices, this inauguralcourse aimed to providethe most comprehensive grounding in WFP procurementprocesses to date.

Those of us looking forward to the malls and restaurantsof Dubai… were in for a shock.

So how was the experience different? Well, manuals exist,but…this course gave us an insight into broader issuesand scenarios, above and beyond reference material – the‘how to’ regarding negotiations, defining quality productsand services, and, most importantly, carrying out thisvital function during emergency operations when there is

little time to pause - and little room for error.This was no regular WFP workshop. Never before had aWFP training concluded with a formal examination, and apass rate of 80%! Most of us would admit to sleepless

nights of revision… then,all the nervousness andtrepidation…“When theresults were out, we felt ontop of the biggestmountain,” said CalvinApire, WFP Liberia, “we hadall passed!”

Andres Rodriguez, WFPSomalia, summed it up:“After attending theProcurement CertificationCourse, I feel ready!”

Special thanks to MageedYahia for being the most

terrifying trainer any of us had experienced, and to theFESO travel and admin teams.

By December 2007, 30 staff from 22 WFP Country Officesreceived certification in Procurement.

Over the coming months FAST will be rolling out furthercourses in procurement, admin, finance and HR …tomaximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our ultimateobjective: – the delivery of assistance to WFPbeneficiaries.By Jedda Constantine, Consultant, WFP Dubai

FAST TAKES WFP BACK TO SCHOOL

Procurement certified: Class of 2007

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YUM WORLD HUNGER RELIEF WEEK

WFP's interventions are almost as varied as the places where we work. Webring food to people suddenly cut off from life's sustenance due to naturaldisasters or conflict, but we're also there for those who've been sufferingchronic hunger their entire lives. The people we help are just as diverse andso are their nutritional needs, which depend upon their age, the degree andkind of undernutrition they're suffering and even their surroundings.

There is no singular solution; no “magic meal” to give to all of ourbeneficiaries that will ensure their specific nutritional requirements are met.A two-year-old child in an African malaria zone has particular needs that areentirely different from those of a 14-year-old boy in the Peruvian highlandsor a pregnant woman who is HIV positive.

We at WFP pride ourselves for feeding the world's most vulnerable populationsin the remotest places and under the most extreme conditions. Indeed, ourchallenge is tall and our accomplishmentsimpressive, but getting the food to itsdestination is still only half the challenge. Wehave a responsibility to ensure that what we'reproviding to the world's hungry is the bestnutritional response to their needs - so thatwe're both saving lives as well as providing thebuilding blocks for more robust, productivesocieties.

So, if there is no “magic” in the meal, there is always science - and this iswhere our new corporate partner, DSM, comes in. Headquartered in TheNetherlands, DSM is one of the world's largest producers of vitamins,minerals, enzymes and other components that are used to enhance thenutritional quality of foods and diets. With its strong focus on foodfortification and fighting nutritional deficiencies, the company is well suitedto support WFP.

A team of DSM's leading scientists and nutritionists has joined forces withWFP’s nutrition unit to further the Agency’s strategy, which aims to meet 80-100 percent of the micronutrient needs of beneficiaries by 2012. In order todo this, WFP is looking beyond special programmes, such as Mother to ChildHealth and Nutrition and HIV/AIDS, to increase significantly themicronutrient content of the general food basket. It's a four-front strategy,involving new formulations of food fortification, improvements to fortifiedblended foods, such as corn-soya blend, use of micronutrient powder (alsoknown as “sprinkles”) where appropriate, and the formulation and evaluationof foods or complementary food supplements that help ensure that the highnutritional needs of special groups, such as infants and toddlers, acutelymalnourished, and chronically ill, are met.

The DSM-WFP team has already planned or begun projects in Kenya, Nepal andBolivia, while other countries and projects are still being defined. DSM hascommitted a total of 5.25 million in cash, micronutrient products andexpertise to this three-year partnership. However, the company's support doesnot stop at the partnership projects. Under the Employee EngagementInitiative, DSM will make its expertise available in other areas where it canbe of further value to WFP. An example is the assistance it is providing theBangladesh Country Office in the implementation of a business plan for localfood production and fortification initiatives.

The DSM-WFP partnership promises to strengthen WFP's expertise andeffectiveness in the area of nutrition, increasing the recognition of WFP as aleader in the global food and nutrition community. This will surely help WFPattract other actors that can apply their science to make every WFP meal asnutritious as possible.By Natalie Vaupel, Donor Relations Officer, FDP

If you would like to learn more about the partnership, please contact MonicaMarshall (monica.marshall@wfp.org).

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDINGIncreasingly, WFP is counting on donations from private companies and individuals. But in a world

where competition is fierce, creative fundraising initiatives are needed… Silke Buhr gives a round-up ofsome campaigns through the 2007/08 holiday season:

Private Sector Fundraising's annual call to action raised approximately $200,000 over the sevenweek period to support WFP's child hunger programmes. Corporate partner, Business Objects, led theway in this campaign, with over half the money raised coming from their employees.

In October, TNT launched a Dutch cookbook “Top Chefs for Home Cooking” with 52 recipes by famouschefs from around the world. Yummy ideas from the likes of English domestic goddess NigellaLawson's clementine tart and Dutch TV Chef Ramon Beuk's baked savoury bananas have shot the bookonto bestseller lists in the Netherlands over the Christmas period. About 115,000 copies of the bookwere sold, raising almost € 400,000 for WFP operations in Malawi. The book is on sale in all majorbookstores in the Netherlands or online: www.allemaaleenwereldmaal.nl.

Another corporate partner, Unilever, in December published a charming collection of 35 ideas fromDutch schoolchildren (aged 7 to 12) on how to solve the problem of hunger in Africa. The ideas,presented in their original hand-written forms, spelling mistakes and all, include gems such as “Ifchildren in the Netherlands don't finish all the food on their plate, they have to send their pocket

money to Africa”, and “Someone shouldinvent a chicken that can lay a billion eggsa day” or more creatively, “If I had a magicwand I would make food and drink andgive it to poor children”. With artworks bytwo famous illustrators, the book costs € 7.95, of which € 2.90 will be donated toWFP school feeding in Kenya. The book, inDutch, is at www.blueband.nl/wfp.

Employees of Unilever in Sweden wereeach given 300 Swedish Krona (about 50USD) to donate to a project of their choice

- including the option of WFP school feeding. The initiative raised a total of 15,000 Krona, or justover $2,300. Unilever in Finland also dedicated their staff Christmas initiatives to WFP.

“Menu for Hope”, the fundraising initiative launched by food blogger Pim Techamuanvivit, this yearraised over $90,000 for WFP operations in Lesotho. Pim is a San-Francisco-based food lover who hassupported WFP for three years by organising online raffles for great culinary prizes. A 10-dollar ticketallows entry in the draw for goodies such as a tour of El Bulli in Spain (possibly the best restaurantin the world), meals at various tastebud Meccas in the USA, Europe and Australia, autographedcookbooks, vintage wines…. The mouth-watering list goes on - no wonder that so many peopleparticipated.

HOLIDAY GIFTS TO WFP

Two talented youngsters from Guinea Bissau won prizesin WFP's 2007 school drawing competition which inspi-red a large number of entrants from 40 schools in fourdifferent regions of the country. Valentim Lé, 11, andUssumane Balde, 12, were presented with their awards ata ceremony attended by members of the Ministry ofEducation, UN coordination officers and journalists.After appearing on TV, in a newspaper article, and beingheard on the radio, the two boys may be Guinea Bissau'syoungest celebrities!

The media also reported on the dramatic impact ofschool feeding. Sao Carlos Lwanga School, where theceremony took place, was founded in 1997 with 50 stu-dents (30 boys and 20 girls). After WFP started a schoolfeeding programme there in 2002, the number enrolledsurged to at least 700, more than half of them girls!

Before school feeding started, the Principal at Sao Carlosrecalled how often children would faint during classes.Walking to school on an empty stomach, sometimes ajourney of several hours, came at a heavy price. Now,thanks to WFP's assistance, the problem has virtuallydisappeared and attendance rates are right up. By Hiro Matsumura, CD, WFP Guinea Bissau

DRAWING A BRIGHT FUTURE

Yum! Brands inaugural “World Hunger Relief Week”which ran from 14-20 October raised $10 million in cashfor WFP's greatest needs. The campaign, which alsofocused on raising global awareness of hunger andvolunteerism, is an annual event. WFP has initiallydecided that some of the funds will be spent in twopriority countries - Somalia and Colombia - whereoperations have been jeopardized by pipeline breaks.

Funds from World Hunger Relief Week were raised at

grassroots events, online and in thousands of Yum'sworldwide network of more than 35,000 restaurants andfranchises including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.

The power of such global leverage meant the companyreached a vast public in addition to generating some$50 million-worth of awareness through public relations,advertising, PSAs, in-store posters, and online activitiesincluding a new website, www.fromhungertohope.com,which attracted more than 10 million visitors from 183

countries.

“I'm incredibly proud of the overwhelming globalresponse to World Hunger Relief Week which transformedinto the world's largest volunteer effort, with nearly onemillion people across the globe volunteering four millionhours of their time to fight hunger,” said David Novak,Yum's chairman and CEO, who has also dedicatedproceeds to WFP from his new book, “The Education ofan Accidental CEO”.

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Mr. Abdelwahab, Mahmoud Jeme, P-5, Country Director, ODC Jordan, AmmanMr. Aklilu, Petros, D-1, Chief, PDPE Economics Anlysis & Dev Policy UnitMr. Ala-Outinen, Jouko, P-4, Deputy Country Director, ODD Cote d'Ivoire, AbidjanMr. Amolat, Pedro, P-4, Programme Officer, ODK Uganda, GuluMr. Araia, Tzeggai, P-4, Programme Officer, ODS Sudan, JubaMr. Ayelign, Asfaw, P-5, Logistics Officer, ODB Afghanistan, KabulMr. Azaglo, Anthony Yao, P-3, Administration/Finance Officer, ODS Sudan, JubaMr. Blamoh, Gregory, P-3, Head of Field Office, ODB Indonesia, CalangMs. Bonnevaux, Beatrice, P-4, Bureau Liaison Officer, ODC Liaison OfficeMs. Brown, Lynn Rita, P-4, Development Policy Officer, PDPE Economic Analysis ServiceMs. Butao, Ruth, P-4, Programme Officer, ODS Sudan, El GeneinaMr. Choudhery, Muzaffar, P-5, Country Director, ODC Armenia, YerevanMr. Czerwinski, Christoph, P-5, Head of Area Office, ODS Sudan, El FasherMr. De Gaay Fortman, Marius, P-5, Country Director, ODC Algeria, AlgiersMs. Delgadillo, Rosa, G-6, International Admin Assistant, ODB Korea, DPRKMs. Denny, Annette, P-5, Chief, CFOF Field Coordination BranchMr. Ditta, Allah, G-4, Clerk/Typist, FDD Donor Relations DivisionMr. El Guindi, Tarek, P-5, Country Director, ODB Timor-Leste, DiliMr. Fitzpatrick, Bryan, P-5, Reg. Finance/Admin Officer, ODB Regional Bureau BangkokMs. Franken, Carol, G-4, Administrative Clerk, ADHS Staff Relations BranchMr. Gabriele, Alberto, P-4, Trade Economist, PDPE Economic Analysis ServiceMr. Garofalo, Vladimiro, P-5, Director, ODC Turkey, AnkaraMr. Geronzi, Ermanno, P-4, ICT Officer, ADW2P WINGS II ProjectMr. Giordano, Antonio, G-5, Communications Technician, ADIS Infrastructure Services BranchMs. Gowtage Sequeira, Valerie, D-2, Director, FDD Donor Relations Division Mr. Gragne, Kumela, P-4, Logistics Officer, ODK Kenya, NairobiMr. Grasso, Bonaventura, G-4, Security Guard, ADMH HQ Security BranchMs. Guevarra, Fe, P-3, Programme Officer, ODC Occ. Palestinian Ter., East JerusalemMs. Ibrahim, Rahana, P-1, Logistics Officer (Pipeline), ODS Sudan, KhartoumMs. Iono, Helena, G-5, Programme Clerk, ODMP Programming ServiceMr. Johnson, Alan Glynn, P-4, Logistics Officer (Coordination), WFP Shipping ServicesMs. Kagaruki Kajuna, Theoney, P-3, Programme Officer, ODS Sudan, JubaMr. Kapoor, Amrit, P-5, Finance Officer, CFOAG General Accounts BranchMr. Kasse, Ibrahima, P-4, Programme Officer, ODS Sudan, El FasherMs. Larsen, Else, P-5, Bureau Liaison Officer, ODJ Liaison OfficeMs. Lewanika, Constance, P-3, Programme Officer, ODS Sudan, KapoetaMr. Lucarini, Gian Piero, P-3, Statistician, ADI Info & Communications Technology DivisionMr. Lucke, Lewis, D-2, Sr. Adviser to Sr. Deputy Executive Director, OD Operations DepartmentMs. MacMaster, June, G-6, Sr. Administrative Assistant, FDC Communications Division Mr. Martini, Massimo, P-3, Programme Officer (VAM), ODK Dem. Rep. of Congo, KinshasaMs. Mcgowan, Helen, P-4, Reg. Human Resources Officer, ODK Regional Bureau KampalaMr. Menhinick, Mark Edward J., P-3, Editor/Reviser, PDBT Translation & Documents UnitMr. Meredith, Howard, P-3, Logistics Officer, ODB Afghanistan, KabulMr. M'Nassri, Taoufik, P-3, Logistics Officer, ODK Djibouti, DjiboutiMr. Morris, James Thomas, USG, Executive Director, World Food ProgrammeMr. Muzwidzwa, Robert Wilson R., P-4, Logistics Officer, ODJ Zambia, LusakaMr. Nass, Ulrich, P-4, Logistics Officer, ODK Dem. Rep. of Congo, GomaMs. Nixon, Minta, P-2, Human Resources Officer, ADHCR Recruitment BranchMr. Oung, Toe, P-5, Finance Officer, ODB Korea, Dem. People's Rep, PyongyangMr. Plaza Jimenez, Antonio Arturo, P-5, Emergency Response Officer (VAM), ODP Regional BureauMs. Ronchini, Gianna, G-5, Administrative Clerk, ADMPMr. Rose, William Robert, P-4, Programme Officer, ODK Kenya, NairobiMs. Ryan, Sylvia, G-6, Sr. Staff Assistant, OD Operations DepartmentMr. Savage, Enda, P-5, Sr. Logistics Officer, UNJLC U.N. Joint Logistics CentreMs. Serrano, Diana, D-2, Director, LEG Legal Services DivisionMr. Sirelkhatim, Elsaeid Abdelgalil, P-3, Logistics Officer, ODB Pakistan, IslamabadMr. Siwingwa, Nicholas, D-1, Sr. Reg. Programme Adviser, ODK Regional Bureau KampalaMr. Stayton, Michael B., D-2, Chief of Staff, Director OED, OED Office of Executive DirectorMr. Tejno, Soren, P-5, Sr. Adviser, PDPS Social Protection &Livelihoods ServiceMs. Tempella, Maria, G-7, Administrative Assistant PDB Executive Board SecretariatMr. Tuinenburg, Cornelis Dirk, D-1, Director, OEDE Office of EvaluationMr. Usnick, Michael, D-2, Director, OEDR Results-Based Management DivisionMs. Zanelli, Cecilia, G-6, Administrative Assistant, ADHOE Entitlements and BenefitsMr. Zarkovacki, Sasa, P-4, Logistics Officer, ODC Occ. Palestinian Ter., East JerusalemMr. Zekrya, Tadj Ahmad, P-5, Programme Officer, ODB Afghanistan, KabulMr. Zergaber, Techeste, P-5, Country Director, ODJ Lesotho, Maseru

WWFFPP SSEEPPAARRAATTIIOONNSS01/04/2006 through 30/11/2007

WWFFPP OOBBIITTUUAARRIIEESS01/04/2006 through 31/10/2007

Mr. Bhatti, Nadeem, P-3, ICT Officer, ODS Sudan, JubaMr. Khan, Mohammed Younus, P-3, Human Resources Officer, ODB Pakistan, IslamabadMr. Pirinis, Ioannis, P-3, Logistics Officer, ODC Libya, Al Khufra

Gene Luna, 1959-2007Gene Luna was among 17 UN staff members killed duringthe bombing on 11 December of the UN offices in Algiers.

UN Secretary-General's letter to staff: Today is a dark dayfor the United Nations family. We have lostirreplaceable colleagues in the attacks against the UNoffices in Algiers -- attacks not only against the United

Nations, but against humankind itself. Our colleagues there were working with noother mission than to support the people of Algeria in building a better future. Wordscannot begin to express my sense of grief and outrage…

From WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran to Gene’s family: “On behalf of all WFPstaff, I wish to convey my deepest sympathies to your family following the tragic lossof your sister and our colleague, Gene, on 11 December 2007. Gene joined WFP'sefforts to combat hunger in Afghanistan in March 2002. She served WFP with greatdedication and steadfastness. Her last assignment as an international finance officerwas to Algiers, Algeria, where she had transferred barely over a week ago. Gene wasconstant and unswerving in her commitment to duty and was a valuable member ofWFP. Her work under challenging conditions in disadvantaged areas of the world, andfinally, her tragic death in the line of duty, is testimony to her belief in the difficultbut vital mission of WFP. Colleagues who knew her personally and in particular thosewho worked with her in Afghanistan and Algeria, will fondly remember her as a caringand compassionate person. She was already ready to help others and was an incrediblesource of comfort and strength to her colleagues. Gene will be truly missed by the WFPteam . . . please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family inthis time of great sorrow.”

From the UN Resident Coordinator for the UN Country Team in the Philippines, Ms.Nileema Noble: “On behalf of the UN family in the Philippines, I would like to expressour sincere condolence over the tragic loss of our sister Gene who was our friend andUN colleague. It is in this time of grief that we join all of you in remembering herdedication as she upheld the ideals of the United Nations. Although we may not haveknown Gene personally, she personified the many courageous Filipinos who havechosen to leave their families and work for the UN in many parts of the world. Genesacrificed her life to show us the nobleness of our cause and conviction in working forthose who are in much need despite the many threats that face us.”

From WFP Philippines Country Director and Representative Valerie Guarnieri: “. . . noneof us is ever prepared to lose a colleague, a friend.”

From WFP Philippines Deputy Country Director Alghassim Wurie: “For me Gene was notonly a colleague but a sister. Gene . . . visited me three weeks ago.......it's reallyunbelievable that she is no longer with us. She left us in a very tragic way; we mustcondemn this barbaric and cowardly act.”

From Regional Bureau for Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Cairo, Egypt,Regional Director Ms. Naila Sabra: .. . I met Gene last July in Algeria when she wason a 3 month TDY. I remember her as a very warm smiling and very committedcolleague. She seemed to have quickly adapted to the country and was very much likedby all the staff.

Gene as well as Lynda Matougui, National Programme Officer, was in the WFP officepreparing documents for the external auditors when the bomb exploded. . . Lynda andGene remained trapped in the building under the rubble for almost a whole day.Gene did not survive; Lynda was saved and taken to hospital and is now recovering.

Two memorial services have been held for Gene - in Manila on 19 December and inRome on 23 January. Gene is survived by her sister Lillian, her brother Arthur and hertwo nephews. The flight carrying Gene's body was received by her family and WFP on19 December and WFP took the responsibility to organize the first memorial service.Rick Corsino travelled from Afghanistan (where Gene worked for five years) to lead theWFP delegation, which also included WFP/Philippines staff and Armando Diaz, the ODCRegional Finance Officer. The UN RC and an Assistant Secretary from Department ofForeign Affairs also attended, along with UN agency staff, friends of Gene from herprevious NGO work, and of course her family.

The Phillippines Government awarded Gene a Presidential Citation.

Holdbrook Arthur 1945-2008

Message to staff from Susana Malcorra: It is with deepsorrow and regret that I announce the very sad newsthat Holdbrook Arthur passed away on Friday, 11January in New York. As many of you are aware,Holdbrook had retired in March 2007 as RegionalDirector of the East & Central Africa Bureau after a

distinguished and exemplary career with WFP that began in 1985 when he worked inChad as a Food Aid Logistics Coordinator. Over the years, Holdbrook served theOrganisation with tireless dedication. He showed willingness and loyalty to theProgramme in accepting challenging assignments including the Somalia and Iraqoperations, as well as responsibilities that fell outside of his regular duties. Mr. Arthurwas known for his managerial skills and was renowned for the respect with which hetreated all his co-workers. He will be particularly remembered for his wisdom, integrity,negotiation skills, dedication and friendship.

WFP staff member Linda Charlotte Larsdotter passed away on 10 January. Lindajoined ODK as a JPO in the Programme Unit on 30 September 2007. She sustainedhead injuries after a fall while horse riding in Jinja on 3 January.

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At the November Executive Board in Rome, a special eventwas held in honour of Jean-Jacques Graisse, Senior DeputyExecutive Director, on his retirement at the end of 2007after 44 years serving the UN and the World FoodProgramme.

Excerpts from the ED’s address recalling how, at the age of23, JJG was selected asthe UN's (and Belgium's)first junior professionalofficer. A true pioneer,his career moved from onecutting edge to the next -from technical assistanceto the UN EnvironmentProgramme, then from theUN Centre for Trade &Development to WFP.

Jean-Jacques joined WFPin 1996 as Director ofOperations and proceededto orchestrate the WFPresponse to the world'sbiggest and mostdemanding emergencies:the famine in DPRK, theKosovo refugee crisis, thewars in Afghanistan andIraq, the Indian Oceantsunami, the Lebanon crisis, the emergency in Sudan, theearthquake in Pakistan and so many others. Under hisleadership, WFP evolved into the world's largesthumanitarian agency and the logistics lifeline of the UNsystem.

For WFP staff working in emergency operations, Jean-Jacques is a familiar figure. You see him on the groundmonitoring operations, meeting the staff and sharing thehardships, the hard work and always the cameraderie. Healways asks the tough questions and is quick to spot theways food can get there faster and more efficiently.

Here is how one staff member remembers Jean-Jacques'visit to the WFP emergency operation in Banda Aceh in2005 after the tsunami struck: “He arrived at our basecamp looking pretty fresh for someone who had travelledovernight from Rome; he made a point of meeting andtalking with the national staff and the junior officers,some of whom were a little in awe of him, but heimmediately made them feel at ease. He settled down forthe evening dinner with us in his flip-flops” - this is hardto imagine - and they remember! “Finally he brought ahuge box of chocolates from Italy for us as a treat. Beforehe left he held a small ceremony to deliver personally amerit prize to a staff member who could not leave thefrontlines to come to headquarters to accept it himself inthe annual award ceremony.”

Jean-Jacques stands up for his staff, advocates for therecognition of hard work well done. It is no wonder thathe commands the loyalty, love and respect of so manypeople who have come under his leadership.

Jean-Jacques, you have made an unparalleledcontribution to international public service but you havealso touched the hearts and minds of the people aroundyou; you have left an indelible footprint for us all tofollow. We will miss you and we will have a hard timefilling your shoes but we can also take pride and comfortin the fact that your inspiration will remain for so manyother dedicated brave and committed WFP staff members.They will carry the torch that you pass on. With that Iwould like to make one presentation.

To you Jean-Jacques, this is our Champion against Hunger

Award and plaque from the WFP staff to you. (Applause,followed by tributes from Jan de Brock, the BelgianPermanent Representative, Louis Michel, EuropeanCommissioner and James Melanson, EB Chairman.)

Jean-Jacques Graisse : (excerpts, starting in French abouthis « directness », he went on to praise one of the

interpreters and described some of the « greatpeople » he had worked with.)

During the first session of the Executive Boardthat I attended, I had just arrived from UNDPand I was puzzled by an intervention from adelegate whom I shall not name nor identifythe country, regarding the school feedingprogramme that we had presented then forCape Verde, and I thought the intervention wassomewhat tough by suggesting that three yearsshould be the maximum length. Since this wasmy first Board and since I came from UNDP, Ithought it was awkward that we should be putunder such pressure to finish a school-feedingprogramme in Cape Verde and I said so.

The delegate then asked for the floorimmediately and produced not a real one but ayellow carton saying “do not ever dare saysuch a thing again”. I am still waiting for thered carton, maybe it willcome after this

intervention...

Mr Commissioner, Cape Verde did notexpect to receive assistance in schoolfeeding forever. As a matter of fact,we are now in the last phase of theschool-feeding programme in CapeVerde where school after school havegraduated from the programme andthey will definitely graduate totallyfrom our assistance in 2010. So have,I believe, 26 countries in which wehave graduated our programmes ofschool feeding.

The first thing that Catherine Bertini -another great leader that I workedwith - asked me to do when I arrivedwas to close 20 country offices, in1996. And so we closed thePhilippines, Brazil, Guyana, Mexico,Jamaica and many, many more. The last ones were Chinaand Morocco and Dominican Republic, because all thesecountries indeed have graduated from food aid...

There are many of these countries where I wish many ofyou could have accompanied me on some of my field

visits, because I am sure you would have come back herewith a somewhat different impression of some of theactivities that we undertake... our project in Myanmarfeeding young mothers... in some of the hills ofGuatemala, where people had over years been able to feedthemselves for about four or five months of the year withcorn on steep slopes, who after one or two years of foodfor work programmes where we managed to get them tofeed their entire family for two years, as they wereterracing their hills and introducing irrigation systems...

The poor people who are still dependent are probably theBhutanese refugees in Nepal or the Somali refugees inDadaab and those people unfortunately are totallydependent on food aid because they have no way ofhaving a better life...

For those of you - and I heard you very clearly today MrCommissioner - you do not want us to be only anemergency operation but some people do because we arevery good at emergencies, and I want to tell you onething. If we were to become an emergency organizationonly, there is one job I would no longer want to have,and that is Chairman of the Reassignment Committee. Wetoday have staff working in our 193 duty stations, 90 ofwhich are either non family duty stations or as-if nonfamily duty stations. More than half of our maleprofessional staff who have dependants work year after

year in non-family duty stations,separated from their families.

And I remember the first meetingof the Reassignment Committeethat I chaired when I said “Howthe hell do you want me to chairthis meeting? I do not know anyof these people”, and somebodyvery wisely told me, you will seehow much more difficult it will beonce you know them all, and thatis indeed what I feel each time.For the third time, we aretransferring a staff member fromPyongyang to Mazar i Sharif, fromKas to Khor Abashi, to so manyother places, where unfortunatelytoo many of our staff have to livenowadays.

Now you cannot run anorganization forever with staff whoare either going to have to be

single or divorced, and this is what we have to realize. Noemergency only organization will be able to function,because you cannot pull people out of Darfur to sendthem to Afghanistan; you cannot take them out ofAfghanistan to send them in a hurry to Iraq. We willremain a great emergency organization and that, I agree,is our main business today only if we can manage also tohave an impact on the lives of people through ourdevelopmental activities in duty stations where we stillcan have a few families living together.

I started my job as a Belgium JPO in Tunisia, it was agreat experience, I lived in Carthage, I retire in Rome -which for a student of Latin and Greek is a great pleasure.Now I am not going to say goodbye because, even thoughI retire on 31 December 2007, I am not saying goodbyebecause there is still another two and a half months togo and I intend to work at it.

Thank you very much Madam Sheeran, Mr President, MrCommissioner, Mr Ambassador, thank you very much to allof you dear colleagues and friends.

HOMME D’ACTION - JEAN-JACQUES GRAISSE

Still young in spirit - receiving a memento after more thanfour decades’ service.

Being inspirational - and direct - at the2004 Global Meeting.

Commanding love, loyalty and respect inEthiopia - as elsewhere.

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