From hunger to harvests: how land restoration is transforming the Sahel - UN World Food Programme

Restoring visual function A gene therapy that makes surviving retinal ganglion cells light-sensitive allows blind patients to detect objects using stimulating goggles. (Courtesy: ©IOB, Veronique Juvin, 2021) Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited degenerative condition that destroys photoreceptors in the retina and can eventually lead to irreversible blindness. In a clinical trial first, an international research team has demonstrated that optogenetic therapy is safe to use and shows potential for restoring visual function in patients with late stages of this disorder.

As the international community marks World Porridge Day on 10 October, the story of a young Malawian woman whose life was transformed by a daily school meal offers a reflection on the importance of school feeding programmes in the fight against hunger. Through the documentary Lettie, Mary's Meals revisits a story first told more than a decade ago, tracing one woman's journey from childhood hunger to hope. When Mary's Meals first met Leticia, known to many as Lettie, she was 11 years old. Recently orphaned and hungry, she had been forced to leave school and care for her two younger brothers. Her story was first shared in Child 31, the award-winning 2012 documentary that introduced audiences around the world to the reality of child hunger in Malawi. Now, more than a decade later, Mary's Meals has returned to Lettie's story.

An El Niño-intensified drought in early 2026, in Central America's Dry Corridor, will have knock-on effects for agriculture and food security in the region. Photo: WFP/Darlan Bautista WFP has been warning for months about this 2026-27 El Niño. Now that it’s arrived, what are we seeing?

A man displaced from his home sits in a tent at Al-Firdous Camp in Aden governorate, Yemen, where WFP is providing emergency food assistance. Photo: WFP/Mahmoud Mohammed Hunger is accelerating rapidly across Yemen as conflict intensifies, pushing more people deeper into crisis and threatening consequences far beyond the country’s borders, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. For families across Yemen, the deterioration is immediate, as conflict forces people from their homes, disrupts livelihoods and makes it harder to reach communities with assistance.