Here in the small country of Qatar, the warm breeze from the sea smells fresh, and as you wander the streets in the old souk or along the boardwalk, one is struck by how clean the capital Doha is - pristine would even be a better word. Qatar is considered the world's richest nation with the highest GDP per capita. In fact, the United Nations has classified it as a country of very high human development, ranking it 33 out of 188 countries and territories. This means that the general population has a higher standard of living compared to most countries; even among its fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) neighbours. But, Qatar also has a huge food wastage problem. According to ECOMENA, a Qatari-based research organization, the country has the highest rate of food wastage in the Middle East. According to data in 2014, the average Qatari wastes up to 250 kilograms of food per year, compared to just 70 kg in other regions. The problem caught the eye of Wardah Mamukoya, an Indian national who has been living in Qatar for two years. She founded Wahab, which means in Arabic to give. And it’s an organization determined to give to the community by addressing this growing problem. “I've seen lots of food wastage here,” explains Mamukoya. “They have no concern regarding food wastage. I mean people want to do something, I've seen people talk about food wastage here, but it's crazy the amount of food wastage here, it's like why isn't anyone doing anything about it?” She repeats a prophetic saying which reminded her that addressing this problem is important: “He is not a believer who eats to his fill while his neighbour is hungry.” Mamukoya says it was this thinking that got her worried: “As a society we have failed, we can't identify who goes to bed hungry, and it doesn't have to be because of poverty issues, anybody could fall sick, there could be no food delivery to their house, various issues.” Wahab’s birth And so a year ago, Wahab was born. The young organization is currently run by five members, all foreigners save for the one Qatari, Shiekha al-Anoud al-Thani. At Georgetown University in Doha, I sit down with the ladies to discuss how Wahab has been received in Qatar. Kim Wyatt, from Australia, is the Chief Information Officer for Wahab, and a food editor. She says that Qatar, like many other countries has the “perception that food is there, it’s convenient; there is no social responsibility for it.” And in the case of Qatar, she adds “I think here in Qatar, certainly we’re a very disposable society”. Even though booming industries have afforded Qatar a high quality of life, attitudes towards social responsibility in food waste is not always apparent, especially when nearly 90 percent of the food is imported. That’s why Wyatt adds that part of their mission is to “try and inform people into reducing that and also rallying with government and other institutions to try and educate people into reducing food wastage.” Contributing To Food Waste Turkish nationals Emel Aktas and Hafize Sahin work closely with the Wahab team. They work on the Safe-Q project that has been studying the statistics of food waste in Qatar. Aktas says that after conducting 62 field interviews of people from the logistics companies, hospitality sector, retailers, hotels and consumers, they were able to identify “61 different factors which contribute to food wastage” specifically in Qatar. The study, which is entering its third year, follows the habits of food waste from “farm to fork”, explains Aktas and Sahin. That means they have been studying habits from when the food is grown and processed, to when “ [we] package it and put it on the shelves for retailer[s], and even after post-purchase it is looking at the different stages to understand why food is wasted.” Adds Aktas. Sahin stresses that the purpose of the