Global food insecurity is putting millions of people at risk, and during hunger crises women are more vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition.

Rukia Yacoub is the World Food Programme’s deputy regional director in East Africa. A nutritionist by trade, Rukia currently oversees the UN agency’s efforts to provide food to people in crises in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. In the past, Rukia worked to tackle malnutrition in Yemen, Ghana and Rwanda.

Neha Mankani is a midwife from Pakistan. In 2015 she started the Mama Baby Fund, a charity providing women with emergency medical treatments and food supplies. She has been working in the poorest regions of Pakistan, including remote islands in the Arabian Sea and in the Sindh province, which was devastated by floods in the summer of 2022.

Produced by Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Neha Mankani, courtesy of Neha Mankani. (R) Rukia Yacoub, credit WFP/Alessandro Abbonizio.)