WORLD’S FIRST HUMANITARIAN INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme announced today that AXA RE has been awarded the world’s first insurance contract for humanitarian emergencies. The contract provides US $7 million in contingency funding in a pilot scheme to provide coverage in the case of an extreme drought during Ethiopia’s 2006 agricultural season.
HIV/AIDS AGGRAVATES CHRONIC HUNGER DESPITE BETTER HARVESTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA JOHANNESBURG – The United Nations World Food Programme warned today that despite better harvests across southern Africa, more than three million people would remain short of food because of chronic vulnerability caused by grinding poverty and the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS.