Better Food. Better World.

"Conflict and hunger, peace and food security. These are really inextricably linked."

As Afghans prepare for winter, they are on the brink of another crisis — hunger. War and conflict have shut down the economy, displaced hundreds of thousands, and caused food prices to rise. 22.8 million are facing acute food insecurity. People who have survived years of war are now at risk of dying without a single shot being fired.

People around the world face severe challenges to access food because of war. In Episode 5 of Better Food. Better World., Elizabeth Nyamayaro and her guests explain why conflict and war are some of the leading causes of hunger. First-hand accounts from the assistant executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Valerie Guarnieri, and Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Programme country director of Afghanistan, lay out the stark choices of many people, especially women face day in and day out when living in a conflict zone. Yet, there is light to be found even in the darkest times. Opera singer and UN WFP Advocate, Zeina Barhoum shares her message of love and the moments she has experienced that gives us hope.

Key Moments:

• 1:50 - Mary-Ellen McGroarty opens the episode with an urgent call to action.
• 3:09 - Elizabeth Nyamayaro introduces this week's episode.
• 4:00 - Valerie Guarnieri shares her first-hand experience with communities facing conflict and hunger.
• 8:47 - Mary-Ellen McGroarty describes her meetings with Afghans during visits to field offices in Fayzabad and Kunduz.
• 13:48 - Listen to a snippet of "Wings of Love" from Jordan artist Zeina Barhoum.
• 19:35 - Zeina Barhoum shares what she learned from visiting Syrian refugees in Jordan.
• 22:49 - Elizabeth asks Zeina Barhoum and Mary-Ellen McGroarty to share their wish for better food and a better world.

Selected Links:

https://www.wfp.org/

Join the Conversation on Social Media:

#BetterFoodBetterWorld

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldFoodProgramme

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WFP

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-food-programme

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Worldfoodprogramme/

Connect with Elizabeth and Our Guests:

Elizabeth Nyamayaro

Humanitarian and author of 'I am a Girl From Africa', Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/enyamayaro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enyamayaro/

Valerie Guarnieri - WFP Assistant Executive Director

Since January 2018, Valerie Newsom Guarnieri has been WFP Assistant Executive Director. In this role, she leads cutting-edge program and policy development to end hunger. This includes spearheading WFP efforts to ensure protection and inclusion, expand school meals and nutrition programmes while empowering women, build resilient food systems, support cash transfers and ensure social protection.

Before WFP, Valerie worked in the U.S. Government, at the National Security Council and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of dedicated, interdisciplinary teams trained to save lives and help create conditions for sustainable peace, with a particular focus in Africa.

Mary-Ellen McGroarty - WFP Country Director of Afghanistan

Ireland-born Mary-Ellen McGroarty is the Country Director of Afghanistan at the World Food Programme. A lawyer by trade, Mel began working with the UN World Food Programme in 1997. Mary-Ellen's roles with the World Food Programme have taken her to numerous countries including Chad, South Sudan, Burundi and now Afghanistan. For her work in Afghanistan, Mary-Ellen has been interviewed and featured in the Irish Times, NY Times, on PBS, NPR and with other numerous media outlets across the world.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcgroartyme

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-ellen-mcgroarty-57681437/

Zeina Barhoum, Opera Singer

Zeina Barhoum is an award-winning Opera singer and UN WFP Advocate. In 2017, she founded the Amman Opera Festival, the first Opera festival in the Arab World, under the Patronage of HRH Princess Muna Al Hussein. Her album Alcantara, released in 2017, was produced with the goal of bridging cultures through music. On the 25th of October 2020, in collaboration with Opera for Peace and UNESCO Zeina represented Jordan at World Opera Day. Zeina has performed on some of the world's most prestigious stages in Italy, Austria, the UK, France, Ukraine, China, Jordan, UAE and Lebanon.

In 2022, Zeina's first pop album, "Wings of Love" is scheduled to be released.

Web: https://zeinabarhoum.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeinabarhoum/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeinabarhoum

"While feeding ourselves, we should feed nature because it's by feeding nature that we will feed ourselves again."

There was a frenzied tension and intensity at COP26. In the final days of the conference, delegations from around the world were deep in negotiations to address our world's most dire crisis – climate change. Young people were leading the way. The biggest youth delegation ever called on world leaders to make the drastic changes needed to ensure our planet has a future. But will they listen?

Episode 4 of Better Food. Better World. takes us to the climate conference where Elizabeth Nyamayaro meets with the young people fighting for change. She speaks with Gernot Laganda, the Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at the World Food Programme, to discuss the relationship between climate change and hunger before taking the time to talk with two youth leaders, Andrew Tangang of Restless Developments and Marie-Claire Graf of YOUNGO. They are the young leaders of today fighting for our tomorrow.

Key Moments

• 4:30 - Elizabeth describes how young people are more engaged than ever before on Climate Change.
• 5:14 - ​​Gernot Laganda, the Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at WFP discusses the huge task the WFP has before them and how progress on hunger has been rolled back by a decade due to climate change.
• 10:03 - Youth leader Tangang Andrew tells Elizabeth fighting climate change should be a lifestyle.
• 17:15 - Marie-Claire Graf discusses the progress being made and work that still needs to happen.
• 23:00 - Gernot Laganda returns to highlight how it's all about the system.
• 25:00 - Andrew Tangang and Marie-Claire discuss Greta Thunberg's 'Blah, Blah, Blah' speech.
• 27:28 - Elizabeth and her youth guests share their wishes for a better food and a better world.

Selected Links:

https://www.wfp.org/

Join the Conversation on Social Media:

#BetterFoodBetterWorld

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldFoodProgramme

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WFP

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-food-programme

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Worldfoodprogramme/

Connect with Elizabeth and Our Guests:

Elizabeth Nyamayaro

Humanitarian and author of 'I am a Girl From Africa', Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/enyamayaro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enyamayaro/

Gernot Laganda - Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at WFP

A geoscientist by training, Gernot Laganda has spent the past 20 years working at the nexus between disasters and development. In his role as the Chief of Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programs for United Nations' World Food Programme, Gernot supports WFP country offices and the governments they serve developing food security strategies that benefit from innovation and strategic actions, while working with vulnerable communities. A 2016 Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University, Laganda has worked with the UN and NGOs in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, South Africa and the Asia/Pacific Region.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WFP

Andrew Tangang - Youth Power Climate Rep

Andrew Tangang is a member of the Restless Development's Youth Power Panel - a group of activists holding leaders to account for their global goal commitments. He is a community activist in Cameroon and has worked with ICAD Enterprise (a social enterprise working on climate change) in implementing their 'Green City' project in the University town of Dschang, and to set-up a waste recycling centre. Ahead of COP26 Andrew worked with the Local Youth Corner team to mobilise over 1000 young people across Cameroon to engage in initiatives aimed at combating climate change.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tangangandrew

Restless Development

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RestlessDev

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/restlessdev/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restlessdevelopment/

Marie-Claire Graf - Global Focal Point of YOUNGO

Marie-Claire Graf is the Global Focal Point of YOUNGO, the youth constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Graf is also the Co-founder and Advisor of Sustainability Week For Business. As the leader of several organizations, Marie-Claire Graf is a youth advocate who champions numerous causes including climate action, youth and women empowerment, and food system transformations.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marieclairegraf

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marie.claire.graf

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-claire-graf

YOUNGO

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iycm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngo.unfccc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngo.unfccc/

"Honduras has the potential to lead on solutions to address climate change"

In the midst of Honduras' rolling mountains and green forests, there are greenhouses growing mouth-watering fresh vegetables. Communities come together to prepare meals with these vegetables and sell the produce. Recurring droughts, intense floods, bark beetle, and more put Honduras on the frontlines of climate change. Despite the devastation, there is joy and hope to be found. Communities are coming up with solutions like greenhouses that will help them not only survive but also thrive.

Episode 3 of Better Food. Better World. finds Elizabeth Nyamayaro on the ground in Honduras where she falls in love with the community, the people, and the food while investigating the dire effects of a repetitive cycle of drought and flooding on the food system. She speaks with the people working to combat climate shock, Climate Change Country Expert Carlos Javier Rodriguez, Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras Etienne Labande, and Community Leaders Iris Sanchez and Gloria Lopez along with community members like Gabriel Gomez. Where some might see only devastation, Elizabeth sees hope, resilience, and lessons we can all use to make better food and a better world.

Key Moments:

• 1:32 - Elizabeth explains the devastating impact of two hurricanes on Honduras crops
• 2:52 - Local food, nutrition and environment expert Carlos Rodriguez describes the climate risks Honduras faces.
• 5:51 - A visit to a casa maya or a greenhouse, which feeds the community and provides a source of income.
• 6:42 - A drive through the mountains with Etienne Labande to learn what communities and the WFP are doing to combat climate risks.
• 10:55 - At the market with Iris Sanchez as she sells her produce and describes the impact of climate change on her community.
• 12:51 - Joining a community meal with Iris at a casa maya.
• 15:01 - Gloria Lopez, a community leader working with farmers, shares her concerns about climate change.
• 16:25 - Gabriel Gomez is still smiling after all they have gone through due to climate change.
• 17:52 - Community members Margarita and Iris share their wishes for better food and a better world.
• 22:55 - What we can all learn from Honduras' accomplishments about how to live sustainability and with dignity.

Selected Links:

https://www.wfp.org/

Join the Conversation on Social Media:

#BetterFoodBetterWorld

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldFoodProgramme

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WFP

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-food-programme

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Worldfoodprogramme/

Connect with Elizabeth and Our Guests:

Elizabeth Nyamayaro

Humanitarian and author of 'I am a Girl From Africa', Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/enyamayaro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enyamayaro/

Carlos Javier Rodriguez - UTSAN

Honduras government environment expert

Carlos Rodriguez has over 15 years of experience working in food security, nutrition and gender programs. Working in the Honduran dry corridor, he is in charge of three regional food security projects. A graduate of Texas A&M University's Agricultural Economics department, Mr. Rodriguez is the government's representative on the Humanitarian Response team in Honduras.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlosR32738659

Etienne Labande - Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras

Born in the French Alps, after 13 years working in the private sector Etienne joined French NGO Première Urgence as a Program Officer in Guinea during the Guinea Civil War, quickly becoming their country director and eventually their regional director. When refugees from Cote d'Ivoire began to flee to Guinea en masse, he was recruited by the WFP. Now with over twenty years of experience in emergency response and food assistance, Etienne has been involved in critical actions in Guinea, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Iraq. Currently, Labande is the Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/etienne.labande

Iris Sanchez

Iris is a community leader in the drought-affected region of Las Mercedes, Opatoro, La Paz.

Gloria Lopez - REDMIAH

Gloria Lopez is the president of Red de Mujeres Indígenas y Afro-hondureñas (REDMIAH), the Network of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Women. REDMIAH is actively involved in human rights and food security programs in Honduras.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/redmiah2012

Raul Bardales - National Program Officer for WFP in Honduras

Raul Bardales is Elizabeth's translator on her visit to Honduras.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raul.bardales.98

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raul-bardales-63002047/

How do we 'do food better?' Better Food. Better World. poses this very question to listeners working in food policy and concerned global citizens alike. Over the course of 6 episodes, author Elizabeth Nyamayaro paints an audio picture of food systems around the world and the people involved from production to consumption, from farm to plate. In a world, where 811 million people go to bed hungry every single night while enough food to feed 2 billion people is wasted every single year, this podcast challenges all of us to think differently about food.

Better Food. Better World. is a United Nations World Food Programme initiative. WFP works across 88 countries to bring life-saving food to a hundred million people displaced by conflict, disasters, and climate change. In 2020, the WFP was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in recognition of its work.