At Global Festa Japan 2026, held on October 17 and 18, we spoke with Mr. Kei Ishikawa, Domestic Programs Director of Hunger Free World, a certified nonprofit. It works to solve world hunger, centered on three African countries: Uganda, Benin and Burkina Faso.
As climate change casts a shadow over food production, he told us about its distinctive approach of facing the problem “led by local people” without stationing Japanese staff abroad, and what we in Japan can do now.
Serious food problems brought by climate change
At aid sites in Africa today, harvests have become very difficult because of climate change, including global warming.
“Weather is changing: it does not rain, or it rains too much, out of step with the cycles we used to know.”
So says Mr. Ishikawa. Farming becomes hard to plan, and in the end people cannot get enough food. Such extreme weather has been reported often in Japan in recent years too, a reminder that this is not only a problem of faraway countries.
No Japanese staff stationed abroad: the walls and strengths of local leadership
The defining feature of Hunger Free World’s work is that local staff handle all operations on site. Not a single Japanese staff member is stationed there.
It is hard to manage progress directly from Japan, and the ways of working that are standard in Japan do not always apply. But the setup has a great advantage: local staff and residents face the problem as “their own problem” and grow the ability to seek and carry out solutions themselves.
“Graduating” from aid: results toward self-reliance in Benin
Because local people take the initiative, remarkable results are appearing. As a recent happy development, Mr. Ishikawa said, “there are cases in several branches where they have reached self-reliance.”
In Benin, for example, support in the current project area is due to end around the beginning of next year. This is not a cutoff of support: it is because resident groups there can now secure food and run their business sustainably even without Hunger Free World’s help. It is exactly what the ideal goal of aid, “graduation,” means.
The organization plans to expand into other areas that still need support, carrying out projects in step with the way local people think and do things.
Seeing Africa’s distant problems as “our own”
Finally, Mr. Ishikawa had this message for readers in Japan:
“Africa is geographically far away, but food problems and climate change are connected to Japan too. I hope you will always keep an interest, as ‘your own’ issue.”
The first step we can take is to take an interest. Join an event to deepen understanding, back the work with a donation, or even become an NGO staff member and take part directly: each of us is asked to think of what we can do and act.
About the organization: Hunger Free World
You can read an overview of Hunger Free World in our NGO profile.
Read the NGO profile of Hunger Free World → / Official website: https://www.hungerfree.net/
Interview information
Interview: NGO network Japan editorial team / Event: Global Festa Japan 2026 (booth no. 105) / Dates: October 17–18, 2026