Since July 2022, we have assumed an audit mandate of utmost importance: The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations (UN) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization. WFP’s top priorities include to fight hunger, to improve nutrition, to ensure access to food and to promote sustainable agriculture.

To that end, WFP contributes to two Sustainable Development Goals in particular: “zero hunger” and “revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”.

According to WFP, in 2022, WFP was active for more than 158 million people in 122 countries and provided people in need with food, cash and vouchers. WFP had a record amount of $14.1 billion available to achieve this purpose. In 2022, Germany’s contribution totalled $1.7 billion, making it the second largest donor after the United States.

President Scheller appointed as External Auditor

The Executive Board appointed Kay Scheller, our President, as External Auditor for the period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2028.

Our mandate to audit WFP follows up on the membership in the UN Board of Auditors which ended in June 2022.

The better the WFP’s structures and processes, the more effective WFP can provide help. With our work, we wish to contribute to this.

The Executive Board is WFP’s supreme governing body. It consists of representatives from 36 member states and meets at least three times per year in Rome.

WFP is headquartered in Rome from where it coordinates its more than 20,000 staff in implementing the decisions made by the Executive Board. In addition to its headquarters, WFP has six regional bureaux in Bangkok, Cairo, Nairobi, Panama City, Johannesburg and Dakar, and more than 80 country offices globally. Since April 2023, the American Cindy Hensley McCain has headed WFP. In a first press release she stated that, “We need to learn how to do more with less.” Cindy McCain previously served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the United States Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome.

Set-up and areas of focus

The unit WFP within the Bundesrechnungshof reviews the financial statements and the efficient use of funds. In addition to the audit activities carried out at the headquarters in Rome, our WFP audit team also conducts fieldwork at the regional bureaux and country offices. Since the beginning of the mandate, the auditors have visited the regional bureaux in Johannesburg and Cairo and several country offices, including Jordan, Lebanon, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. For 2023, our WFP audit team plans to conduct fieldwork at regional bureaux and country offices in South America and West Africa.