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How humanitarian Elizabeth Nyamayaro is fighting world hunger

Photo credit: Courtesy
Photo credit: Courtesy

Award-winning humanitarian, author and former UN Women Senior Advisor, Elizabeth Nyamayaro, is continuing her work to drive global change and ensure that no child or family goes hungry, through an enormously influential new role.

Photo credit: Courtesy
Photo credit: Courtesy

The multi-hyphenate political scientist has been appointed Special Advisor for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) - a Rome-based agency, which works across more than 80 countries. It provides food assistance to around 100 million people every year.

Nyamayaro’s appointment comes at a time when an estimated 270 million people, many of them in Africa - her own place of birth - are facing acute food insecurity and need urgent assistance. The humanitarian experienced firsthand the vital impact of the agency when she was a child.

"I am only alive because of a simple bowl of porridge from the United Nations that saved my life when I came close to dying from hunger as a child – so the Zero Hunger agenda is truly personal to me,” said Nyamayaro. “Hunger remains the leading cause of death in the world, and I am determined to play my part in ensuring that we reach every child and family in need - especially on my own continent of Africa.”

Nyamayaro has worked tirelessly at the forefront of global development for the last two decades; perhaps most notably, she launched the phenomenally successful HeForShe movement, in partnership with Emma Watson, calling for men to join the fight for gender equality.

This past International Women's Day, Nyamayaro joined Harper's Bazaar in a discussion about finding strength in adversity, during which she emphasised that anyone can be an advocate for change.

“Try doing small things at a time; drink one cup of water a day; write that one page in your book; read that one page of a book; call one friend," she suggested. "The important thing is to do just one thing each day at a time. And you repeat that the next day until you find your purpose again.

"The important thing is just to keep moving and keep acknowledging that none of us are too small to make a difference. In fact, one of my favourite African sayings is, ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending a night in a room with a mosquito’. No one is too small to make a difference!”

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