Stanlake Samkange and Ryan Anderson Present the WFP at JCU
On Wednesday, September 14, the JCU Universities Fighting World Hunger Club (UFWH), with the support of the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs, hosted an event featuring presentations by Stanlake Samkange and Ryan Anderson, from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). JCU professor Margaret Kneller moderated the event.
Ryan Anderson (seated) and Stanlake Samkange
Presenting first was Ryan Anderson, a John Cabot alumnus who works as a Programme Policy Officer at the WFP. Anderson graduated from JCU in 2002, and went on to receive his Master’s from Tufts University. During his career at the WFP he took part in many field operations in Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Sudan, and Sierra Leone. Dean Mary Merva, who was also in attendance, fondly shared a few memories about Anderson during his time at JCU and complimented him on his accomplishments.
After completing his introduction, Anderson passed the floor to Stanlake Samkange, the Director of the Policy and Programme Division of the WFP. Samkange, a national of Zimbabwe, previously served as Regional Director for East and Central Africa, WFP’s largest regional bureau. From 2008 to 2011 he was the WFP Representative and Country Director in Uganda. He also served in Rome as WFP Director for Policy, Strategy and Programme Support from 2003-2007. Prior to that he had been appointed as Director of Research for the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (which coined the term “Responsibility to Protect”), and was a Member (Rapporteur) of the Security Council’s Panel of Experts set up to investigate the violation of sanctions against UNITA in Angola. He was educated at Harvard University (A.B.), Oxford University, and Stanford University Law School (J.D.).
Samkange discussed the broad global goals of the WFP and why they are important. WFP pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman, and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. As the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger, WFP strives to improve the lives of developing countries by attempting to address various humanitarian issues worldwide. Samkange mentioned that the WFP has 17 sustainable development goals such as eliminating extreme poverty, providing health improvement and healthcare to all, administering quality education, and addressing gender equality on a global level. Samkange also addressed the term “zero hunger”, what it means, and how WFP is encouraging countries to realistically achieve this goal. Samkange stated that “you cannot achieve zero hunger if you are not making process on any of the other goals.”
The UFWH hopes to continue hosting events and bringing in more guest speakers in order to raise awareness of global hunger in the JCU community.
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