The World Food Programme's contribution to improving the prospects for peace in Sri Lanka / [electronic resource] Simone Bunse and Vongai Murugani

SIP2323

"May 2023".

The World Food Programme (WFP) has supported food security and nutrition in Sri Lanka since 1968. Based on research conducted in the Monaragala district in the south, and the Mullaitivu district in the north, on gender dynamics and community resilience, this report aims to identify the ways in which selected WFP projects impact the prospects for peace. The study analyzes the linkages between gender and social cohesion of two WFP resilience-building projects. Its results show that WFP’s projects had the potential to improve social cohesion, especially through the involvement of women in higher-value agriculture and the provision of sustainable income sources. The report highlights the possibilities of strengthening gender transformation through WFP engagement and of contributing to sustainable peace in a particularly difficult operating context where ethnic and religious divisions are wide and gender grievances are often ignored.

Established in 2018, the SIPRI–WFP Knowledge Partnership seeks to improve understanding of the relationship between food, security, stability and peace. The partnership aims to assess how and how far the WFP’s programming contributes to improving the prospects for peace, while at the same time asking whether that programming has any unwanted negative effects.

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