For over 50 years, the World Food Programme (WFP) has provided emergency assistance, to save lives in a wide variety of conflict, post-conflict or natural disaster situations. In 2018, the WFP delivered supplies to provide relief support for a number of emergencies, including an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, earthquakes in Papua New Guinea, a cyclone in the Socotra island in Yemen and floods in Somalia. However, while humanitarian relief has saved lives and restored the livelihoods of millions, it does not always solve the root causes which led to the crisis, meaning that they could happen again. In addition to shipping food and other essential supplies to disaster areas, another aim of the WFP is to 'embed resilience' so that communities can recover and rebuild after disasters and thus reduce the need for on-going crisis response. "As well as food, we also fly in workers who can assess the situation and organise its distribution," explained Philippe Martou, Chief, Aviation Service, Supply Chain Division, World Food Programme. "Our work has increased in recent years due to an increase in global conflicts. Our aim is not just to relieve problems when they occur but also to try to reduce the need for future assistance."
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