The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is actively engaged in tackling the worst food crisis in Pakistan following massive floods in country's history, with a short and a long term programmes.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Islamabad, WFP Pakistan Country Director Wolfgang Herbinger said the aid agency, teamed up with the government of Pakistan, is leading a pilot UN development programme to help the country for better disaster management and to improve the handling of food insecurity. "WFP has a leading role working closely with the government at national, provincial, and district level to improve their own capacity to handle the disasters," Herbinger said.
Pakistan has been on a good track of development but since 2003 the food insecurity has deteriorated due to natural calamities, global food price hiking and militancy conflicts, he said, so WFP set a programme for next two years, until the end of 2012, which would improve household food security particularly in the border area and the hardest-hit areas by the flood.
The WFP representative said the flooding is the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan.
A WFP report said Saturday the agency began distributing life-saving food rations shortly after the floods hit Pakistan in late July, providing aid to an average of 6 million people each month through to the end of January 2011 while transitioning towards early recovery activities.
In August, WFP reached 3 million people with survival supplies, and doubled the number in September. With severe flooding continuing in the south and needs on the upswing, WFP said it would ramp up its operations to reach 7.1 million people in October.
Herbinger said they provided each effected family with a monthly 100 kilograms of basic commodities including wheat, oil, salt, sugar and tea, special food for infants and high energy biscuits for school children.
Coupled with emergency operations, WFP is implementing some recovery projects as Food for Work and School Meals, helping the villagers to rebuild their lands and houses and encouraging the children to return to schools, partially contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goals.
At a total value of 600 million US dollars to sustain its emergency food aid operation in support of flood-hit communities until July 2011, WFP said it still faces a shortfall of 400 million. Herbinger appealed the bilateral donors and private companies for further commitments.
To make sure the food quality, WFP is looking for good technical partners, co-operating with UN agencies as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), and singling out over 40 non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
When it comes to the effect of WFP's work in Pakistan, Herbinger said some projects have "visible results" while some others "not easily visible." He said a tree-planting project in the north has changed the landscape, in one picture the hillsides are barren but in another they are green after 25 years.
In a separate project in 2009, over one million children, mostly girls, have been enabled and convinced to return to schools by the incentive that the family will get a can of oil at the end of each month if the girl go to school regularly.
However, the security challenges facing WFP grew tragically clear shortly after October 5, 2009, when a Taliban suicide bomber walked into the agency's office in Islamabad and blew himself up, killing five of the WFP staff members.
It was the first assault on WFP since the agency arrived in Pakistan in 1968. But WFP's programmes in the country continued with only minimal interruption. The agency provided vital food assistance to close to 10 million people in Pakistan in 2009, including 350,000 tons of emergency relief to nearly 3 million civilians displaced by conflict that erupted in the Swat Valley earlier in the year.
Upon the first anniversary of the attack, five trees have been planted on one side of the new WFP quarters for a memory of the killed. It was a life-and-death experience, said Herbinger, but the positive side is they are able to help so many people suffering and needing.
Comments
Comments are closed.