World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Present in the country since 1968, WFP has adapted its work to complement existing government programmes, adhere to the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals and fall within the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for Pakistan. WFP's goal is to provide the kind of support which allows communities to build self-reliance, while maintaining the organisation’s emergency response capacity. Through a portfolio of seven operations, WFP targeted 11 million of 2010 floods’ and 2.3 million of the recent floods’ most vulnerable people in 2011 through the following projects.

 

August 2010 – December 2011 

 

In order to immediately respond to the 2011 torrential rain floods in Sindh and Balochistan, the Emergency Operation, which was initiated in the wake of the 2010 floods, was expanded till December 2011. Having made the required preparations, WFP initiated response as soon as the Government made the official request. Starting distribution in priority districts of Sindh, WFP provided 7,886 MT of food assistance to 546,668 beneficiaries. The target up to December 2011 is to provide 2.3 million beneficiaries in Sindh and Balochistan with life-saving monthly food rations.  

Within 24 hours of the onset of the devastating floods that had hit Pakistan in late-2010, WFP launched an emergency response, providing life-saving food rations to affected families in the country’s north. In accordance with the rapidly-expanding scale of the disaster, this support was quickly extended across areas of KPK, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, covering a total of 62 of the country’s worst-affected districts. In 2011, WFP continued to respond to the crisis, distributing emergency food rations to groups who remain displaced or otherwise unable to access sufficient food themselves. In order to promote early recovery opportunities, WFP is additionally helping affected communities restore their livelihoods and assets through food- and cash-for-work activities, while supporting nutritionally vulnerable groups through supplementary feeding for young children and pregnant and lactating women. Owing to the widespread disruption to educational systems, WFP is also seeking to promote a return to school through emergency school feeding.

 

 

In its capacity as cluster lead for Logistics and Emergency Telecommunications, and on behalf of the entire humanitarian community, this operation provides for the equipment, staff, systems and facilities necessary to ensure a coordinated and effective logistics and telecommunications response to the 2011 floods and previously for the 2010 floods. In coordination with the Government of Pakistan, WFP also facilitated the transportation by boats of relief workers, mobile medical and assessment teams, as well as urgent relief supplies to affected populations in remote and isolated areas. Similarly, helicopters were provided in 2010.

 

 

Worsening food security has been most pronounced in marginalised areas along Pakistan’s western border which have been subject to conflict and mass displacement in recent years. Targeting up to 9.5 million beneficiaries during 2011 and 2012, this operation draws upon the full range of tools in WFP’s arsenal, in order to best respond to immediate food needs, support recovery from multiple shocks and contribute to social cohesion. These include the provision of emergency relief rations to conflict-affected groups who remain displaced or have recently returned home in KPK and FATA; school feeding to promote access to education; nutritional support measures for children and women; livelihood recovery activities through community-based employment using food and/or cash; and measures aimed at developing institutional and local capacities in disaster risk management. 

 

 

Since its initiation in 2005, this operation has sought to improve the status of disadvantaged women and girls by facilitating their access to food in ways that promote engagement in developmental opportunities. The programme has been addressing gender disparities in education, health and access to productive assets for 5.9 million beneficiaries over six years. WFP assistance has promoted the retention of girl students in school, and facilitated an increase in their pass-rate from a baseline of 39 percent to 65 percent at the end of 2010. The operation has additionally been shown to encourage women to make good use of healthcare services, and generated notable improvements in household access to safe drinking water.

 

 

WFP maintains an extensive logistics presence across Pakistan which is designed to meet the needs of communities assisted throughout the country and in neighbouring Afghanistan, including a broad network of ‘humanitarian hubs’ which serve both as storage and distribution points. Even prior to the 2010 floods, WFP was expecting to handle some 600,000 metric tons of food for distribution in the two countries - double the volume moved in 2008, and triple that of 2007.