Dar-es-Salaam — The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, today begins a two-day visit to Tanzania. While in the capital, Dar-es-Salaam, she will visit WFP's port operations to see a central logistics hub that is vital to WFP's work in Africa.

Also on the agenda are meetings to discuss WFP's work in Tanzania with President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda.

This visit is Cousin's first to Tanzania as Executive Director of WFP. While in the country, she will meet up with WFP Ambassador Against Hunger Howard G. Buffett who is also visiting Tanzania.

WFP's programmes in Tanzania include:

• school meals for more than 500,000 primary school children in 1,100 schools

• supplementary feeding to address malnutrition among pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children

• food for low-income community members in exchange for work on infrastructure projects such as irrigation, terracing, soil and water conservation

• food distributions and supplementary feeding for 87,000 refugees and members of host communities in north-western Tanzania

• a Purchase for Progress initiative that connects farmers to agricultural markets and helps them become competitive players in their local economy

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.