Cambodia is a least developed, low-income food deficit country emerging from decades of civil conflict and economic stagnation. It is ranked 131 out of 177 countries in the 2007 UNDP Human Development Index.
Notwithstanding recent socio-economic progress, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in Asia with 35 percent of the population living below the poverty line, and between 15 and 20 percent in extreme poverty.
National food supplies are barely adequate for reasons ranging from natural disasters to inadequate agricultural policies. As a result, there are huge problems in distribution and access for a significant and growing portion of the population.
Malnutrition, especially in rural Cambodia, is widespread, particularly among children under five years and among expectant and nursing women. The country’s malnutrition rates are among the highest in Southeast Asia.
WFP is assisting over one million people in Cambodia. Through a Protracted Relief and Rehabilitation Operation (PRRO) attends to 1 million food-insecure people in a post-conflict environment, most of them in rural Cambodia.
The majority of the activities are food-for-work schemes such as the construction or rehabilitation of roads, ponds and irrigation canals.
The overall goal of WFP's assistance is to improve the immediate and sustainable food security for the hungry poor in crisis. Both short and medium-term needs will be addressed by the program “Assisting People in Crisis”.
In addition, a limited amount of resources are allocated to relief food distributions, food-for-education (FFE), food-for-training (FFT), food-for-work (FFW) and support to people living with HIV (PLHIV) and tuberculosis (TB) and have been implemented to increase the resilience of the vulnerable poor.
These activities will continue to be carried out in conjunction with a small-scale development project, Support to Maternal and Child Health which addresses the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women, as well as young children between 6-24 months.
These two projects contribute to the pursuit of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) through the following activities:
