World Food Programme partnership
Our partnership with WFP builds on a long tradition of Unilever as a responsible company, firmly rooted in local communities all around the world.
Every child deserves to fulfil their potential
Together for Child Vitality is our partnership with WFP to improve the nutrition and health of poor school-aged children, while raising funds for WFP's school feeding programme and increasing awareness of the issue of child hunger. The three year partnership, signed in December 2006, fits well with our mission – to add Vitality to life – which unites our business and brings together our portfolio, partnerships and people.
Unilever believes that every child deserves the nutrition and hygiene he or she needs to develop to their full physical and mental potential. Hunger and malnutrition are still the biggest risk to the health of children worldwide, with one child every six seconds dying from hunger and related diseases. Together for Child Vitality supports the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, specifically the first: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and the second: Achieve universal primary education.
The seven countries which benefit from this partnership are Kenya, Indonesia, Ghana, Colombia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka (which started as a beneficiary in 2009).
We know that no one can effectively tackle child hunger alone. The challenges are too large and complex. Partnerships with other businesses, governmental and non-governmental organisations and communities around the world are the best way to achieve our objectives. Together for Child Vitality builds on Unilever's long tradition of responsible corporate behaviour, delivered through businesses firmly rooted in local communities all around the world.
What each organisation brings to the partnership
WFP
WFP brings to the partnership more than forty years of experience in providing food assistance to people, mostly mothers and children, in the world's poorest countries. The agency has unique knowledge of their nutritional needs and food habits, coupled with logistical expertise and extensive government and health authority relationships.
WFP has become the world's largest provider of school meals and take-home rations for poor children. School meals attract children to school and boost primary school enrolment, attendance, performance and completion. WFP feeds 100 million people per year, about 20 million of whom children in school, in nearly 80 countries around the world.
Unilever
Unilever brings to the partnership long-standing expertise in nutrition and health, product development and marketing. The firm reaches a global consumer base and has proven its ability to develop sustainable delivery mechanisms to low income consumers in many different regions of the world.
The total contribution of Unilever to WFP in 2008 was EUR 3.2 million. €1.8 million was used to provide school meals to 76,000 children via WFP's school feeding programme in Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia, Colombia, Pakistan and the Philippines. € 700,000 was spent in an emergency relief operation in Kenya and the remainder was spent on capacity building and on the development of several different activities related to the school feeding programme.
