For the past twenty years, Ghana has enjoyed stability in the midst of war torn West Africa and has served as a safe haven for refugees from the West Africa region and beyond. Since the early nineties, WFP Ghana has provided emergency food assistance to these refugees for all but three years (2000-2002), when there was a temporary lull in Liberia and peace returned to Sierra Leone.
Crises erupted again in Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire in 2002-2003, and in Togo in 2005 and the Government of Ghana had to request WFP to resume its emergency food assistance to meet the needs of various groups, including Ghanaian nationals who returned to the country due to the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, Ivorian and Togolese refugees, a new wave of Liberian refugees fleeing both Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, as well as 150,000 third country nationals transiting via Ghana en route to Burkina Faso and Mali.
The Regional PRRO 10372.0 “Response to the Côte d’Ivoire Crisis and its Regional Impact in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire , Ghana and Mali”, ending in June 2007, phased down general distributions in order to target the most vulnerable refugees in three distinct localities: Buduburam Settlement, Krisan Camp and the 400 km Volta Region border area. This PRRO addresses the problem of the residual refugee caseloads in a region that is returning to peace and stability and aims at implementing durable solutions based on the enhanced self-reliance of the refugees or repatriation.
Building on the results of the comprehensive UNHCR/WFP Joint Self Reliance and Food Security Assessment mission of January 2007 in the three targeted areas, WFP will focus its assistance more sharply through improved targeting based on household food security data.
This operation will support the Government’s implementation of programmes by strengthening the delivery of services in the areas of protection, education, health, nutrition, water, sanitation, communication and economic development; and by improving self-reliance of the refugees. It will also help the Government of Ghana to strengthen its emergency preparedness and response capacity.
This PRRO supports WFP Strategic Objective SO1 aiming to promote the food security of the most vulnerable refugees by providing life-saving assistance to the critically food insecure, and Strategic Objective SO3 to support the improved nutrition and health status of children, pregnant and nursing women, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and other vulnerable groups.
These activities also contribute to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 – to reduce hunger and poverty, MDG 4 – to reduce child mortality, MDG 5 – to improve maternal health and MDG 6 – combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and diseases.
In this final phase, WFP in coordination with the UN Country Team, will support the Government of Ghana in its strategy of self-reliance or repatriation of the refugees. If no further crisis erupts in the countries of origin of these refugees, this PRRO would not be followed by another phase.
This operatoin has been extended for 2 months as per Budget revision 02.
