EDITORIAL: With the World Food Programme initiative is timely

What you need to know:

  • WFP has come up with an initiative with the melodramatic heading “ZeroHungerZeroAIDS”, implementation of which was formally launched in Dar es Salaam last Friday.

With the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations pledging to ensure ready “access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food” in Tanzania, what Tanzanian, pray, would then go hungry, diseased or malnourished?

WFP has come up with an initiative with the melodramatic heading “ZeroHungerZeroAIDS”, implementation of which was formally launched in Dar es Salaam last Friday.

According to WFP, the programme “is an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to generate innovations that use data and associated technologies to increase agricultural productivity, and (sort out) food security issues that pose serious threats to the health and wellbeing of Tanzanians”.

In this, WFP has partnered with the Millennium Challenge Corporation/President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (MCC-PEPFAR), Dar Teknohama Business Incubator and Data for Local Impact (DLI).

The general idea is to jointly identify and select prospective entrepreneurs who would be granted up-to $100,000 each (roughly Sh223 million), with which to implement innovations designed to rid Tanzania of its perennial shortage of adequate, safe and nutritious food. We can only wish WFP, its partners and the selected entrepreneurs Godspeed in this noble undertaking in the best interests of Tanzanians and their country.