On 1 January 1996, following the adoption of parallel resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly and the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the CFA, WFP's governing body, was reconstituted into its current form - the WFP Executive Board (United Nations General Assembly resolution 50/8; FAO Conference resolution 9/95). Comprising 36 States Members of the United Nations and FAO, the Board oversees WFP's humanitarian and development food aid activities.

It meets three times a year at WFP Headquarters in Rome. The Executive Director, appointed jointly by the United Nations Secretary-General and the Director-General of the FAO for five-year terms, sits at the head of the Secretariat of WFP.

A complete list of States Members can be found in Appendix A of the General Regulations. Appendix B of the General Regulations provides an explanation of the distribution of seats of the Executive Board.

Article VI of the General Regulations of WFP define the functions of the Executive Board as:

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 Evolving and coordinating short-term and longer-term food aid policies;

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 Providing intergovermental supervision and direction of WFP management;

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 Reviewing, modifiying as necessary and approving programmes, projects and activities submitted to it by the Executive Director (delegating to the Executive Director such authority in those approvals as it may specify);

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 Reviewing the administration and execution of approved programmes, projects and activities of WFP;

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 Reporting annually on WFP's programmes, project and activites, including to the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and of the FAO Council on major board decisions;
 
As outlined in Article V of the General Regulations, the Board comprises 36 States Members of the United Nations and/or FAO. Of these, 18 are elected by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and 18 by the Council of FAO.

Each State Member serves three-year terms and is eligible for re-election.

Normally ECOSOC holds elections for the Executive Board in May. Elections by the FAO Council are held in June, except in years when the FAO Conference meets, in which case the elections are held in November.