Nils Grede

Nils Grede assumed the position of World Food Programme Representative (WFP) for Turkey in September 2017.  Before arriving to Turkey he was the Representative in El Salvador.

During his tenure in Turkey, Mr. Grede managed WFP’s assistance to Turkey in running the world’s largest humanitarian cash transfer programme, the EU-funded Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN). The programme  was reaching close to 1.7m refugees in 2019. Major recent changes to the programme included introducing a disability allowance, giving local government social workers more influence over the targeting process and preparing for a graduation strategy for some beneficiaries.

While in El Salvador and building on his experience as Deputy Chief of Nutrition at WFP Headquarters (2009-12), Mr. Grede dedicated a lot of effort towards continuing the progress of reducing chronic undernutrition. El Salvador is the first WFP country to implement an innovative model to distribute specialized food to pregnant and breastfeeding women through a voucher. El Salvador was also the first WFP country office to create a programme to work with vulnerable youth on arts and WFP’s first chef apprenticeship programme.

Prior to joining WFP, he was Director of International Recruitment Marketing at Boston Consulting Group (2008 and 2009) and Principal Director at Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles, California (2001-2005).

Mr. Grede is a German national and is fluent in eight languages. He is working on improving his Turkish. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern Sciences received from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Grede has also received an MBA from Stanford University.