Palantir and the World Food Programme: The egregious partnership at the heart of the world´s largest humanitarian supply chain.

16 June 2026

Using publicly available information, sourced from UN transparency portals, reports, evaluations, job notices and other documents this research report provides an overview of the partnership the UN World Food Programme continue to hold with military and surveillance tech firm Palantir. 

In addition to the contravention of UN principles, guidelines and processes this partnership represents, the research finds that at a time when Palantir face widespread pushback, WFP are instead growing, scaling and “investing heavily” in their enterprise data platform provided by Palantir Foundry.

The scope of data ingested into the platform, dubbed “the cornerstone of the WFP data ecosystem” and “WFP´s central data engine” is expanding, and now includes:

There is evidence that WFP and Palantir staff cooperate closely – rather than it being a matter of simply receiving the technology that Palantir have no involvement with. Knowledge transfer, from WFP´s global humanitarian operations, to Palantir, is indicated by the movement of staff – where at least two former WFP staff now work directly for Palantir – and through the description of Palantir roles that interface with WFP.

Palantir staff are broadly expected to incorporate field learnings into cross-Palantir offerings, and share solutions made for one customer to benefit another. WFP are shirking transparency obligations at the same time they are co-leading UN80 reform efforts on the integration of supply chains UN-wide, starting with the humanitarian reset.

What began as a partnership that enabled the optimisation of food baskets has morphed into a scenario where Palantir´s reach is increasing across the WFP data ecosystem.Palantir keenly express their values of US supremacy and military and technological dominance at the same time that the US is upping their military interventions worldwide. When hunger is “being increasingly exploited as a weapon of war” WFP must reassess whether embedding the software of a complicit US and allied-military contractor within their data ecosystem—pertaining to the supply of food—compromises them.

Further, despite global backlash against Palantir, that has led to rejections and blocked deals within even allied states (see articles relating to Switzerland, Germany, and the UK) the contract with WFP, who steward the data of the majority world for humanitarian purposes, has so far flown almost entirely under the radar.

The research findings presented raise many questions for WFP´s leadership. Concerning:

The need for an independent and transparent investigation into the potential harm this partnership has caused or could cause the people and communities WFP are mandated to serve, is of utmost priority.

We are calling on WFP to seek an immediate replacement to the data integration solution offer by Palantir, and to sever the partnership, rather than rolling it out further – and embedding it deeper – as they appear to be doing.