The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a landmark cooperation agreement at the Asia and the Pacific Food Systems Forum 2026 to strengthen collaboration on food systems transformation, emergency assistance, and nutrition-sensitive policies across the region. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to addressing food insecurity, improving resilience, and protecting vulnerable communities from the growing impacts of conflict, climate shocks, and economic instability. This comes at a critical time, as Asia and the Pacific account for more than one in five of the world’s hungry population, with 69 million people facing acute food insecurity.
The agreement focuses on five major areas of cooperation: transforming food systems, delivering emergency assistance, producing analytical and knowledge products, supporting policy dialogue, and building institutional capacity. Together, these efforts aim to diversify agricultural production, strengthen value chains, improve access to safe and affordable nutritious food, and promote sustainable and climate-resilient food systems across the region.
By combining ADB’s investment capacity with WFP’s operational reach, the partnership is expected to scale practical solutions that improve food security and nutrition, particularly for the most vulnerable populations. The collaboration will support the design and implementation of policies and investments that integrate nutrition into national strategies, while also promoting behaviour change and awareness to improve diets and health outcomes.
A key priority of the partnership is supporting fragile and conflict-affected settings through a dual approach that combines immediate food assistance with medium-term livelihood recovery and resilience-building measures. This will help vulnerable communities not only respond to urgent crises but also strengthen their ability to withstand future shocks.
The agreement also places strong emphasis on generating evidence-based knowledge products and operational tools to guide policy and programme design. Through stronger policy coordination across agriculture, climate, and rural development agendas, WFP and ADB aim to create an enabling environment for nutrition-sensitive food systems. Capacity development efforts will further strengthen the technical and institutional capabilities of governments and local stakeholders, helping them scale impactful interventions and drive long-term food systems transformation across Asia and the Pacific.
