UN World Food Programme, Alibaba Group form strategic partnership to eliminate hunger

United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have formed  strategic partnership to support efforts eliminate hunger globally by 2030. The agreement was signed between WFP Executive Director David Beasley and Alibaba Partner and Chairman of Alibaba Foundation Sun Lijun at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, China.

Key Facts

Under this agreement, Alibaba will lend its cutting-edge technology and resources to support digital transformation of WFP’s operations. In particular, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba will work with WFP to develop digital “World Hunger Map”. The map will help to monitor global hunger and operations to end scourge by 2030 which is one of UN’s key Sustainable Development goals. It also aims to boost efficiency of interventions and shorten emergency response times.

World Food Programme (WFP)

The WEF is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations. It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security. It works to help people who cannot produce or obtain enough food for themselves and their families. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) and part of its Executive Committee. It was established in 1961 after 1960 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Conference. It is headquartered in Rome (Italy) and has more than 80 country offices around the world. It provides food assistance to an average of 80 million people in 75 countries each year.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2018