Food on the Frontlines
Africa Needs Food, Too

April 16, 2003

Laura Engelson
Farm Progress

"The first thing poor families affected by HIV/AIDS ask for is not cash or drugs, it is food." That's according to James T. Morris, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Food is one of the "front line defenses" for those infected with the disease, helping to prolong lives and improve quality of life. It's for that reason that WFP is putting food on the HIV/AIDS frontlines to counter the worldwide humanitarian crisis. Morris says the World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian program in the world. Last year the organization fed about 80 million people in 80 countries, targeting its assistance to the most needy. The challenges to feed those affected with HIV/AIDS are unprecedented, says Morris.

The disease's impacts are many fold. In Africa, 58% of those with the disease are women. African women have the combined responsibility of feeding the family, carrying out most of the farm work, and being the caretakers. Morris says 11 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are orphaned because their parents died of HIV/AIDS.

The availability of food plays a major role since people with good nutrition have better resistance against other diseases made very susceptible by HIV/AIDS, such as tuberculosis and polio. WFP's school feeding program "is, in some respects, the most important thing WFP does," says Morris. The program gives an incentive to children to attend school. "It's economically, socially, politically and spiritually the single most powerful leverage the world can make for children," says Morris.

The United Nations has a goal to cut hunger and poverty in half by 2015, says Morris. U.S. agriculture plays a large role in that goal. Morris says the U.S. is the largest supplier for WFP, providing 60% of the program's supplies in 2001 and 50% in 2002.

The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) also plays a part. U.S. soybean growers launched the initiative in 2000, identifying a greater role for soy in international HIV/AIDS programs. Soy is recognized as a key ingredient in nutrition programs for people affected with the disease. Even when consumed in small doses, soy may be ideally suited to help nutritional requirements of high-quality protein, calories and more.

The WISHH program not only benefits the needy, but can provide a payback for those who give. "Developing countries of today are customers for tomorrow," says Criss Davis, a United Soybean Board director and Shullsburg, Wis., farmer. To learn more about the WISHH initiative, go to www.wishh.org