World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The World Food Programme (WFP) has earmarked $2m (about sh5b) to fight malnutrition among children in Karamoja. The project will provide nutritional food to over 10,000 pre-school children aged three to four years.

Aid agencies are calling it the worst drought in 60 years. (..) Normally taking the lead in coordinating relief efforts in such cases, OCHA has been joined in a chorus of warnings by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme.

Almost 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing a humanitarian emergency as the region grapples with its worst drought for 60 years, the UN warned this week. (..) "Pastoralists currently have to sell five goats to be able to buy a 90-kilogram bag of maize, compared to one to two goats in January," says Stephanie Savariaud of the UN World Food Programme.

(..) Josette Sheeran, the World Food Programme's (WFP) director said last week, “It is essential that we move quickly to break the destructive cycle of drought and hunger that forces farmers to sell their means of production as part of their survival strategy."

Tanzania is staring at a food crisis in the coming months as it emerges that tonnes of food are being smuggled out to drought-stricken countries in the region despite falling harvests. (..) Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, said the food crisis in East Africa has left an estimated 14 million people struggling to survive due to widespread poor and erratic rainfall, combined with rising food prices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.

Some 10 million people are at risk in the Horn of Africa as two years of drought have forced food prices beyond the reach of most families

An estimated 9 million people across the Horn of Africa are facing a severe food crisis following a prolonged drought in the region, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said on Wednesday. According to WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, drought conditions in Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and parts of Uganda has left children and women in need of humanitarian assistance.

FIVE farmers associations in Luuka district have received post-harvest handling equipment to help improve the maize value-chain and boost opportunities for better markets. (..) Joseph Kyegombe, the Relief and Development Support (ORDS) child rights and child protection programme manager, said the equipment was part of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) purchase for progress (P4P) initiative.

LAST week President Museveni named a new cabinet. (..) In the immediate term, Government could increase its collaboration with experienced organisations such as the World Food Programme to get food to rural centres where hunger is imminent and assist with the expansion or initiation of temporary school feeding programmes to get pupils through the hunger months.

THE Government has earmarked sh6b to enable parents in Karamoja send their children to school in the next five years. The programme, implemented by the World Food Programme, will run from 2011 to 2014 under the second phase of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund project. Karamoja-based WFP team leader Baimankay Sankoh made the disclosure on Monday in his office.