In Cameroon, 47 UN Volunteers supported the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2020, bringing 16 different profiles to the organization. Some 77 per cent of these UN Volunteers were national volunteers serving under the community, specialist and youth modalities, and 60 per cent of them were women. In the below video, Ms Wanja Kaaria, WFP Country Director, shares her experience working with UN Volunteers.
UN Volunteers have been key in improving food security in Cameroon to achieve WFP's zero hunger goal... Their youth, their passion for the work and their zeal to give out their expertise for humanities' sake makes them unique. -- Ms Wanja Kaaria, Country Director of WFP, Cameroon
Globally, the collaboration between WFP and the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme has increased over the past three years. Compared to 116 UN Volunteers with WFP in 2018, 243 were deployed in 2020. These volunteers supported WFP operations in monitoring & evaluation, community development, logistical support and nutrition.
One such national UN Volunteer is Elodia Chetou, fondly called the mother of babies. Elodia supported the implementation of programmes for young children such as the Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme (BSFP) and Food by Prescription (FbP). She also participated in a social intervention programme for people living with HIV. Elodia monitored the prepositioning of food in 22 distribution sites for over 13,500 beneficiaries.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two partners aims to increase the deployment of UN Volunteers with WFP in support of the 2030 Agenda.