World Vision welcomes WFP’s new Country Representative & Director Matthew Hollingworth in South Sudan

Country Programme Director Dr. Mesfin Loha says the partnership is crucial as it serves over 800,000 people in the country.

World Food Programmes new Country Representative and Director Matthew Hollingworth shared his excitement of seeing the work in South Sudan and ensure that the assistance to the most vulnerable people continues. He acknowledged that World Vision is one of WFP’s biggest partners globally and has been a trusted partner to deliver the services even in the most challenging contexts like South Sudan.

Currently, World Vision has 14 field level agreements or operational contracts with WFP implementing projects such as conditional general feeding, cash and food for assets, nutrition, and school feeding. It also supports WFP’s gender and protection program, as well as World Vision’s operations in the Juba and Malakal Protection of Civilians Camps (POCs) for the internally-displaced.

Dr. Mesfin Loha lauded the partnership and the opportunities it can accomplish especially for the children of South Sudan. He shared World Vision’s food assistance footprint and accomplishments during the meeting. Hollingworth also reiterated WFP’s interest for long-term projects building more resilience in the population.

In 2019, the partnership’s planned distributions amounted to 41.000 metric tons and around USD 13.2 million in cash transfers working with eight WFP field offices around the country. The Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) program recently shifted from air drops to river deliveries to help cut costs. The combined total projects value is USD 76.9 million.

The meeting, which was held in Juba, was also attended by WFP’s Head of Programmes Hsiaowei Lee and Simanga Ndebele, World Vision’s Food and Cash Assistance Programme Manager.