LightCastle Partners to support strengthening Social Protection and digital financial inclusion for vulnerable women in Bangladesh. LightCastle Partners. September 24, 2026 LightCastle Partners has partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) Bangladesh to support the design phase of an integrated pilot programme addressing livelihood inclusion and digital financial literacy for vulnerable women in urban Bangladesh. Addressing a Critical Urban Social Protection Gap As Bangladesh undergoes rapid urbanization, the country's social protection architecture faces an urgent challenge, while rural poverty reduction has advanced significantly, urban poverty reduction has lagged, declining by less than one percentage point annually over the past decade. Despite this, Bangladesh's flagship Family Card Program, a digital initiative designed to reach 20 million vulnerable households through direct government-to-person payments, remains underutilized among urban women beneficiaries, many of whom face barriers to formal financial access, limited livelihood pathways, and low digital financial capability. Current evidence suggests that cash transfers alone, while essential, are insufficient to facilitate sustained economic inclusion without complementary investments in skills development, market linkage, and financial autonomy. This assignment will seek to generate evidence-based insights to address this gap. Building Evidence for Integrated Program Design Through this assignment, LightCastle Partners will lead a comprehensive research and design initiative, combining social protection analysis, urban livelihoods assessment, and digital financial inclusion diagnostics. The engagement will involve extensive stakeholder engagement, primary data collection across multiple urban centers, and participatory analysis to understand the specific constraints, aspirations, and support needs of urban vulnerable women. The resulting insights will inform the development of a pilot program of WFP, integrating cash support, livelihood pathways, blended financing mechanisms, and tailored digital financial literacy interventions, all designed to operate within Bangladesh's existing urban social safety net architecture.

UN appoints Trump nominee Lindberg to head World Food Programme. Lindberg succeeds Cindy McCain, who stepped down for health reasons from the Rome-based agency. By reuters. Updated - September 19, 2026 at 12:27 PM. The WFP said some 266 million people were facing acute food insecurity worldwide. The UN's World Food Programme, the world's biggest humanitarian agency, on Friday named US President Donald Trump's nominee, Luke Lindberg, as its next executive director, a statement said. Lindberg, currently a senior US agricultural official, was appointed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Qu Dongyu, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, after consultation with the WFP board. He succeeds Cindy McCain, who stepped down for health reasons from the Rome-based agency and was succeeded on an interim basis by her deputy, Carl Skau. THIS AD SUPPORTS OUR JOURNALISM. SUBSCRIBE FOR MINIMAL ADS.

Statement by World Food Programme Executive Board President on appointment of new Executive Director. ROME - President of the Executive Board of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Her Excellency Carla Barroso Carneiro, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Brazil, today congratulated Luke J. Lindberg on his appointment as WFP's next Executive Director. "I congratulate Luke Lindberg on his appointment as WFP Executive Director and wish him all the success in his mandate," said Barroso Carneiro. "Addressing global hunger together has never been more urgent, and I look forward to his collaborative partnership with the WFP Executive Board in guiding the organization forward, in its central mandate to save and change lives." The appointment was made by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu, after consultations with the WFP Board at a special session at WFP's Rome headquarters. Lindberg succeeds Cindy McCain, who served as WFP's Executive Director from April 2023 through May 2026, and stepped down due to health reasons. In June, Carl Skau, WFP's Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, took on the role of Acting Executive Director while the search for a new WFP Executive Director was conducted. "I want to express my appreciation to Carl Skau for his leadership during this transition, and thank all WFP staff for their commitment to pushing back on hunger in a period of complex crises and ever-increasing humanitarian needs," said Barroso Carneiro. Lindberg, a US citizen, currently serves as Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Before joining USDA in 2025, he founded and led, South Dakota Trade, a public-private partnership focused on expanding international markets for the state's exporters. He served as the organization's President and CEO from November 2022 through to August 2025. Earlier in his career, Lindberg was Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. He has worked for Sanford Health as Director of External Affairs, and as Director of Global Operations for Sanford World Clinic, where he led global health operations across seven countries. Lindberg holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, Master of Public Policy, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Brittany Lindberg have two children. Across the globe today, as many as 266 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity due to increased conflict, extreme weather and economic hardship. The World Food Programme works on the frontlines of hunger, assisting more than 100 million people, across 83 countries, supporting communities at greatest risk of food insecurity. The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of weather extremes. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. Topics.