World Food Programme: Project Laser Beam

Combating hunger

Malnutrition afflicts millions of children worldwide, robbing them of a bright future. When a child chronically lacks the right nutrition, mental and physical damage is irreversible.

This lack of nutrition makes children more susceptible to illness throughout their life and less productive members of society.

Individuals lose more than 10% of lifetime earnings, and many countries lose at least 2-3% of their GDP due to child malnutrition.

This preventable situation is getting worse. The call to action is clear: Investing in nutrition is an investment in the next generation.

Eradicating poverty & hunger

The Unilever Foundation is partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Project Laser Beam, a public-private partnership that aims to create a scalable, replicable and sustainable model to improve nutrition, health, and livelihoods focusing on Bangladesh and Indonesia.

WFP, Unilever and many other partners, such as Kraft Foods, DSM and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) have made a joint commitment through to 2015 to help to deliver on the first Millennium Development Goal – “eradicating poverty and hunger” – by encompassing a holistic approach to combat child malnutrition.

Together we will

• Improve the nutrition of up to 500,000 children.

• Provide access to clean drinking water, sanitation and basic healthcare to whole communities.

• Reach more than one million people with life changing hygiene training in schools and amongst communities.

• Enhance the livelihoods of 3,000 women in ultra poor households.

We are determined to make a sustainable difference in the lives of more than two million people in two of the poorest countries in the world.

We believe that Project Laser Beam will serve as a model for public-private partnerships that will be able to be replicated in other countries around the world to combat malnutrition.