World hunger can be overcome, and China helps inspire such confidence, the head of the world's largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger said.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the Rome-based United Nations World Food Program (WFP), told Xinhua that she remains hopeful for the long run -- despite recent droughts, rising food prices in many parts across the world, widespread corruption in some of the neediest countries, and what the organization fears is the risk of a "protracted food crisis" in 22 underdeveloped nations.

"We still believe that the battle against hunger is a winnable one," Sheeran said. "Just look at the countries that have beaten the trap of hunger in recent years. We know that China used to be one of the World Food Program's biggest problems, and today it actually helps us fight against hunger in other countries."

She said China is by far the largest of the 30 countries that has turned from a recipient of the WFP's help to actually helping the 10,000-person organization, which has operations in around 80 countries.

Sheeran said hunger remains one of the world's most pressing problems, and that successfully tackling the problem can act as a springboard toward effectively fulfilling other development goals.

"When countries overcome hunger, it creates business opportunities and jobs and new openings for farmers in what really amounts to a win-win situation," she said. "You not only beat hunger, but you also create a lot of new opportunities in the society."

The WFP is relatively new by UN standards, an offshoot of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in the 1960s. But it has experienced rapid growth in recent decades, with its budget doubling in the last 20 years to more than US$3 billion in 2009.

Sheeran, a former United States undersecretary for economic, business, and agricultural affairs, has not shied from controversy in her current post, calling on UN donor countries to step up donations in spite of the world financial crisis.

Last year, she said Israel should offer food aid to the besieged residents of Gaza during the conflict there. She is continuing to be bold and assertive as head of the WFP.

"We have been through what is being called the most profound reforms of the decade," she said.

"We have changed the way we meet the needs of the hungry in the world by protecting local markets ... our new motto is to help people feed themselves. It's a virtue for people to be able to buy food at the local market, because that is a kind of aid both to the ready farmer and to the hungry people able to access the food.

"When we can, we purchase our food from the very poor farmers who suffer because they are not connected to local markets," she said.

"We reach 20 million school children who would otherwise go to school with no food, and that means we can help them learn better and also get the proper nutrition. Twenty years ago, we'd ask whether the [food] cup was full, and now we can ask what's in the cup in terms of nutritional value," she added.

Sheeran, 56, said she has visited China at least 20 times, and will return for another trip later this month so as to better share China's success story in combating hunger with the rest of the world.

"The World Food Program first came to China in 1979, when about one person in three went to bed hungry, so I know China has very deep experiences with hunger," she said.

The WFP, created in 1962, has been striving to reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition globally and strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2010)