EVENT

The World Food Crisis

Josette Sheeran, UN World Food Program

Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC

May 6, 2008

Summary

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), addressed the world food crisis  at a Peterson Institute for International Economics event on May 6, 2008. Sheeran is one of the leading coordinators of the global response to one of the most important and urgent problems facing the world: skyrocketing food prices and global hunger.

Sheeran became the eleventh head of the WFP in 2007. It is the world's largest humanitarian agency, extending food assistance to some 80 million people annually in around 80 of the world's poorest countries. She was formerly under secretary for economic affairs at the Department of State and deputy US trade representative.