WFP ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH VODAFONE GROUP
FOUNDATION AND UN FOUNDATION
NEW YORK -
In a fast moving world that is increasingly struck
by disasters, the United Nations World Food Programme
announced a partnership today with The Vodafone
Group Foundation (VGF) and the United Nations
Foundation (UN Foundation) that will help expand
the efficiency and speed with which WFP - and
other humanitarian agencies - respond to global
emergencies.
A joint donation of US$832,000 from VGF and UN
Foundation is being used to train ICT team leaders
and technicians, develop new WFP information and
communications technology (ICT), best practices
protocol, and update WFP ICT deployment technologies
and technical standards. This funding will support
UN emergency response teams across the planet
and will significantly affect the way the entire
humanitarian community copes with disasters.
"Through this partnership, WFP can become
more efficient in delivering disaster relief,"
said Ernesto Baca, Director of WFP's Information
& Communications Technologies Division. "When
an emergency hits, technological support is critical
in kick-starting the disaster response initiative
because being able to communicate not only enables
us to plan, prepare and provide humanitarian relief
as quickly as possible, but mostly saves lives."
“The Vodafone Group Foundation is pleased
to support WFP in strengthening communications
resources to emergency response teams,”
said Andrew Dunnett, Director of The Vodafone
Group Foundation. “Such facilities are essential
in strengthening relief operations. Vodafone Group
Foundation has a long term commitment to this
work and we are pleased to be scaling this up
with WFP.”
"Communications technologies have become
critical to every phase of emergency response
for the UN and we're pleased to partner with the
World Food Programme as it continues to use these
technologies to save lives around the world,"
said Timothy E. Wirth, President of the United
Nations Foundation. "We're proud that our
partnership with The Vodafone Group Foundation
can foster public-private partnerships that pair
valuable corporate resources, knowledge, and experience
with the lifesaving work of the UN."
On behalf of the United Nations, WFP takes the
lead role in emergencies for food aid, security
telecommunications and logistics. Already a world
leader in managing communications in disaster
situations, WFP has shouldered the main responsibility
for providing vital links at the very outset of
an emergency. Amid devastation in almost every
corner of the globe - from the massive Indian
Ocean tsunami to the drought and locust infestation
in Africa, the earthquake in Kashmir, the hurricanes
that have battered Central America as well as
the floods across Europe and Asia, WFP is pivotal
in ensuring rapid communications that save lives
and livelihoods.
# # #
WFP is the world's largest
humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to
an average of 90 million poor people to meet their
nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry
children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest
countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For
just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give
children in poor countries a healthy meal at school
– a gift of hope for a brighter future.Visit
our website: www.wfp.org
WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists
keep up with the latest press releases, videos
and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For
more details see: http://www.wfp.org/english/?n=999.
WFP now has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for
quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.
For more information please contact (email address:
firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Brenda Barton, Deputy Director of Communications,
WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-06-65132602, Cell. +39-3472582217
(ISDN line available)
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001,
Cell. +44-7968-008474
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564,
Cell. +41-792857304
Ellen Gustafson, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-917-3675070,
Cell. +1-917-6171276, gustafsone@un.org
For more information about
the United Nations Foundation, please visit www.unfoundation.org
