The Path to Zero Hunger

As global leaders gather in Davos to discuss the world’s most urgent challenges, 340 million people face life-threatening acute hunger.

At the World Food Programme (WFP), our mission is to end hunger – for good. Today, we have the tools, technology, and knowledge to achieve zero hunger, but international commitment is lacking. As humanitarian needs soar and funding shrinks, WEF 2025 offers a unique opportunity for governments, businesses, and humanitarians to unite and chart a bolder, better path forward.

WFP's Assistant Executive Director Rania Dagash-Kamara breaks down the outlook for 2025, highlighting challenges and opportunities.

My work with communities facing hunger and other challenges has shown me the power of breaking big problems into smaller ones and identifying how each of us – governments, companies, or citizens – can contribute to the solution.

WFP’s operational needs for 2025 are projected to stand at US$?16.9 billion. While this figure may seem enormous, let’s put it into perspective and let’s break it down by comparing it to global spending habits:?

• US$?16.9 billion is roughly what the world spends on coffee in just 2 weeks.
• It’s what the world spends on streaming services in just over 6 weeks.
• It’s only 0.03% of the GDP of the combined G7 countries.
• And it’s just 1.5% of what companies around the world spend on advertising in one year!

But more importantly, let’s break it down into what these resources could do.

Crisis Response (US$12.6bn)?

WFP was founded sixty years ago as a crisis-relief organization, and three quarters of our work today still focusses on helping those impacted by conflict, climate extremes, and other disasters. Today, 65% of people who cannot feed their families live in conflict-impacted areas.

Over the past six decades, WFP has been the first on the ground in countless crises, leveraging our expertise and experience to reach affected families, even in remote and hard-to-access locations, ensuring that they have what they need to survive.

When crises strike, we work to provide essential food and other aid as swiftly as possible. In contexts where markets are still operational, we also provide cash assistance, including through an innovative blockchain system, to empower vulnerable families to make their own purchasing choices. From nutrition assistance to emergency school meals, we’re on the ground to help bring food, help, and hope.

From Ukraine to Gaza, from Afghanistan to Haiti, and around the world – whether in conflict or climate disaster settings, WFP emergency response operations offer a lifeline for millions around the world: in 2023 alone, WFP reached 103 million people with assistance in emergencies.

Resilience-Building (US$3.7bn) and Root Causes (US$0.6bn)

Our goal is to ensure that everyone, everywhere has consistent access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food. To achieve this, communities must be able to withstand shocks brought on by extreme weather events and other hazards. In 2025, WFP aims to empower 23 million people to build resilience through programmes that strengthen livelihoods, restore ecosystems, and improve supply chains, while also providing climate protections such as crisis risk financing and anticipatory action initiatives.

In Malawi, 90 percent of farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture for survival. 2015, WFP has been working with smallholder farmers in the seven districts most susceptible to drought, introducing innovative solutions like solar-powered small-scale irrigation systems. So far, 22 solar-powered irrigation systems have helped 1,820 farmers irrigate 112 hectares of land. This has provided sustainable livelihoods for the farmers and their families, while also enabling them to generate surplus produce that they can sell in local markets.

School meals change lives. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re hungry, so how can we expect children to learn, grow, and thrive on an empty stomach? Many children in the schools WFP supports are sent to school just to receive a full meal – often the only meal that day.

School meals support education, enhance nutrition, and unlock opportunities for vulnerable children. Crucially, in WFP’s home-grown school feeding programmes, they also provide a stable market for smallholder farmers who supply the schools with their produce, creating jobs and transforming food systems for the better.

WFP plans to reach 27 million children in 83 countries with school meals this year. We also support governments in 77 countries with expertise on how to establish sustainable school meals safety nets in their countries.

For WFP, innovation is vital to address the many types of complex challenges that we face every day, and it can take many forms: A new style of parachute revolutionizes air drops, a different way to fortify rice provides a critical source of nutrition, AI-powered tools that measure soil carbon to help prevent harvest loses, and blockchain helps to deliver cash assistance in a secure, protected way. ?

But innovation isn’t always high-tech. Through the H2Grow programme, launched in 2016, WFP has introduced locally adaptable hydroponics systems in 21 countries. This technique can use up to 90% less water and 75%?less space while producing crops up to twice as quickly as traditional agriculture, making it a extremely versatile, affordable, and a locally relevant solution for vulnerable communities around the world, empowering them to grow food in development and emergency contexts.

For instance, Sahrawi refugees in the Algerian Sahara Desert have used hydroponics to provide a stable source of food to their livestock, and we’ve seen the impact of hydroponics on the production of fresh vegetables in refugee camps as well. In several countries, WFP has introduced hydroponics programmes in schools, which not only introduces schoolchildren to climate-friendly farming, but also provides nutritious, fresh foods for school meals.

Want to help us end hunger?

Your support can help save and change lives for the better. If you have the resources, knowledge, or tools to help WFP, visit wfp.org/private-sector

To learn more about the challenges facing WFP and the communities we support, read the WFP 2025 Global Outlook

Thank you!

Rania Dagash-Karama

WFP Assistant Executive Director, Partnerships and Innovation