The 2009 UNDP Human Development Index ranked Djibouti among the ‘low human development’ countries of the world. The majority of the population lives in urban areas (70 percent) and particularly in the city of Djibouti (58 percent, of whom 60 percent are unemployed).
Djibouti has an unfavorable climate unsuited to crop production. Its population of about 819,000 depends entirely on imported food. WFP food assistance is designed to reach about 140,000 of the most vulnerable people at times of greatest need. This includes those affected by drought, the urban poor struggling with high food prices, refugees from Somalia, migrants from Ethiopia, and rural schoolchildren.
Since 2003, successive droughts have reduced pasture and provoked increased migration in search of water and pasture. Pastoralists have been forced to cut the amount of food they eat, as well as the quality of the food they consume.
High food prices have had a particularly dramatic effect in urban areas. A nutrition survey in mid-2009 carried out in the Balbala area of Djibouti town showed alarming acute malnutrition rates of nearly 21 percent. The situation is also particularly serious in the north-west, where acute malnutrition rates are close to 25 percent.
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