Academia and think tanks

The World Food Programme (WFP) has long-standing partnerships with think tanks and academia with expertise in a diverse range of subject areas.

Organizations involved in emergency preparedness, nutrition, food security, safety nets, food safety, supply chain management and logistics, as well as public health and agricultural development, bring their unique know-how to help pave the way for a world with zero hunger. Many of these partnerships are geographically based, focused on research specific to a particular region.

Collaboration with these specialist partners offers a unique platform for WFP to learn and apply the latest research to real-life humanitarian and development challenges. This is true of the many partnerships that focus on early-warning data, where analyses and tools shared by these organizations can immediately benefit WFP’s crisis response. For its part, WFP’s strong field presence and connections to communities provide researchers with a bridge to operations on the ground.

The research resulting from these partnerships serves to keep hunger and nutrition issues on the global agenda, informing policy makers at the global, national and regional levels. Research results inform advocacy, facilitate evidence-based policymaking and guide programming in areas from climate change to resilience.

Around 16% of all of WFP’s partnerships are with academia and think tanks. The organizations we collaborate with include the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, European Centre for Mid-Range Weather Forecasts and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).