Beneficiaries Storytelling

A 30 metre-long mural outside the Country Office in the Republic of the Congo is telling the stories of United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) programmes through the faces and words of the people it serves. The urban artwork provides a cost-efficient way of raising visibility in times of much-needed funding. The mural features a series of six portraits – two for each WFP programme in the country. Each one is accompanied by the story of those featured and a description of the programme. Working with a minimal budget Zeitwille printed the full-size design onto 1,200 A4 sheets of paper and pasted them to the wall like a puzzle, using homemade organic glue and paint-protection film. In the heart of Africa despite being one of Africa’s top oil-producing countries, nearly half of the Republic of the Congo’s population lives in poverty and more than 121,000 families are food-insecure. WFP has been present in the country since the 1970s, when it helped the government introduce the first safety net programmes through school meals. Today its work focuses on three main areas: school meals, safety nets through e-vouchers and nutrition supplements, and food assistance for refugees. Even with host government support and contributions from a handful of faithful donors, WFP has been suffering from a lack of funding in the country, and in 2014 was forced to temporarily suspend its safety net activities. The Country Office responded by stepping up its fundraising and visibility activities. The creation of the mural was one of these – a unique way to boost visibility with minimal cost.

(Written content includes excerpts of an official blog post of UNWFP)