37th CFS Plenary Session, 17-22 October 2011, Rome
The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
Please visit our About section.
24 August 2011 – A shortage of funds has forced the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to halve its food rations for tens of thousands of Congolese refugees in Rwanda beginning on 1 September.
“This is a very difficult decision, but we currently do not have sufficient funds to provide the full recommended daily allowance of 2,100 kilocalories to more than 54,000 Congolese refugees in Rwanda,” said Abdoulaye Balde, WFP representative in Rwanda.
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Brazil has donated 200 tonnes of maize for DR Congo refugees in Congo's northern department of Likouala.
The Brazilian Ambassador to Congo, Paulo AV Wolowski, handed over the donation to the Congolese Minister of Social Affairs, Emilienne Raoul, Tuesday.
The maize was obtained by the World Food Programme (WFP), which purchased it from farmers in the Congo's southern department of Bouenza, to enable them to access national and regional markets to fight against poverty.
According to the Brazilian diplomat, this aid is a response to the call by Congo for assistance to refugees from the DRC.
8 March 2011 – The United Nations humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today for a two-day visit during which she will travel to two of the country’s regions most affected by conflict – the provinces of North Kivu and Orientale in the north-east.
“The situation in the DRC receives far less attention than it deserves,” said Ms. Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on arrival in Kinshasa, the capital of the central African country.
30 July 2010 – United Nations agencies are providing urgent assistance to areas of north-western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after devastating floods, which have destroyed nearly 300 homes and left an estimated 1,500 people homeless.
“The needs are significant, and we must ensure that an appropriate response is swiftly provided,” said Fidéle Sarassoro, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country.
The flooding – which follows last week’s torrential rains in the Basunkusu area in the northern part of Equateur province – has also damaged latrines, causing water contamination, and destroyed fields, striking a blow to people’s livelihoods in an area where 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for survival.
13 July 2010 – Clashes between the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and remnants of a Ugandan insurgency forced an estimated 20,000 people to flee their villages in the troubled North Kivu province of the vast African country, the United Nations reported today.
While the number of those newly displaced as a result of skirmishes between the national army and fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is small in relation to DRC’s estimated 1.85 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), the movement of people is noteworthy because the territory of Beni in North Kivu had until now hosted only 10,000 IDPs, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
16 July 2010 – United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes today allocated some $41 million in emergency funding to boost humanitarian operations in nine countries where people are suffering the effects of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and conflict.
The money from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will help cover funding gaps in key humanitarian projects in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Yemen, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Central African Republic (CAR), Djibouti, Eritrea, Republic of Congo and Nepal.
Humanitarian actors in Chad and the DRC received the largest individual portions of some $8 million apiece.
1 June 2010 – Nearly 1.9 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – half of them children – continue to live away from their homes after having been displaced by armed conflict, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today, adding that a lack of funds was hindering efforts to continue assisting them.
To meet the humanitarian needs of those in need this year, UNICEF has appealed for $133 million, but only $20.5 million has been received to date, Christiane Berthiaume, the agency’s spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.
A UNICEF-led vaccination campaign has reached more than 400,000 people, including 85,000 children under the age of five and nearly 43,000 pregnant women in eastern DRC, where conflict has raged for more than a decade.
29 April 2010 – The top United Nations humanitarian official today arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for a five-day visit intended to highlight relief priorities and urge improved protection of civilians in the central African country where persistent conflicts have created one of the world’s most complex humanitarian emergencies.
John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, will travel to three of the country’s provinces most affected by armed conflict – South Kivu, Orientale and Equateur, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
Press Release No:2010/324/AFR
WASHINGTON, March 30, 2010?The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved today an International Development Association (IDA) grant of US$120 million to increase agricultural productivity and improve marketing of crops and animal products by smallholder farmers in targeted areas of northern Equateur province and the Pool Malebo area located in the vicinity of Kinshasa.
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis