WFP, Alibaba join forces to fight hunger

The UN World Food Programme and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have formed a strategic partnership to support efforts eliminate hunger globally by 2030.

WFP Executive Director David Beasley and Alibaba Partner and Chairman of the Alibaba Foundation Sun Lijun signed an agreement at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, China.

Under the accord, Alibaba will lend its cutting-edge technology and resources to support the digital transformation of WFP's operations. In particular, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba, will work with WFP to develop a digital "World Hunger Map".

The map will monitor global hunger and operations to end the scourge by 2030 - one of the UN's key Sustainable Development goals - and aims to boost the efficiency of interventions and shorten emergency response times. 

"Alleviating global poverty and fighting hunger is the shared vision of Alibaba and WFP," said Sun. 

"We look forward to joining the global campaign of fighting hunger using our innovative technologies in data intelligence and cloud computing, as well as sharing our experience in China and worldwide." 

Beasley lauded the strategic partnership as a milestone in the relationship between WFP and China's private sector. "We now have a great ally in the fight against hunger," he said. -IANS