عربي , Français, Español 👇

After two years of layoffs, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) will remove another 6,000 staff members by year’s end—about 25% of its workforce.

The majority of these cuts target holders of temporary contracts—SSAs, SCs, and consultants. These are the operational staff who make WFP’s work possible:

• Based in duty stations across Africa, the Middle East, South America, and East Asia
• Often in high-risk, hardship environments
• Serving in the toughest conditions for years, sometimes decades

Meanwhile, approximately 300 fixed-term staff—mostly in headquarters or wealthy capitals—are being paid full salaries to stay home for over a year, awaiting reassignment.
Another 600–800 are offered early retirement with generous packages.

This is not just an administrative imbalance—it is racial, classist, and structurally unjust. Those who risk the most are being discarded first, while the most secure are shielded.

 
Real voices from the field:

“For 7 years I've served in conflict zones, carried the load of a programme initiative in the field. Now I’m being told I get nothing—not even a month compensation for all this work —while colleagues in Rome are paid to sit at home.” — S.S.A, East Africa

“I moved three times for WFP. Now I’m left with no severance, no health coverage, and no recognition for my service.” — Consultant, MENAEE

“We are made food distributions possible. But in this crisis, we are treated as if our years of dedication meant nothing.” — S.C, South Africa
 
Our demands
We call on WFP leadership and the Executive Board to immediately:

1. Provide fair severance: 1 month of pay per year of service for all laid-off S.S.As, S.Cs, and consultants; 2 months per year for those in hardship posts.
2. Commission an independent audit of all layoffs, disaggregated by race, contract type, duty station, and seniority.
3. Suspend discriminatory layoffs until equity and transparency are ensured.
4. Hold leadership accountable, including Executive Director Cindy McCain, for the structural failures that led to this unjust burden on the most vulnerable staff.
    
   WFP cannot claim to feed the world with dignity while treating its own staff as disposable. Humanitarian values start at home.

📢 Sign this petition to stand with WFP’s frontline workers and demand fair, dignified treatment.