KAMPALA, 7 October, 2020 – Ugandans in nine urban areas were at Crisis levels of food insecurity or worse for months leading to August because of negative impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown. The worst affected of were Gulu, Jinja and Kasese where nearly one in three people struggled to find nutritious food on a regular basis.
KANO – The Nigerian Government and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today launched a cash and food assistance programme in the three urban COVID-19 hotspots of Abuja, Kano and Lagos. The Government has released 2,000 metric tons of food from its Strategic Grain Reserve (valued at US$1 million), while WFP is releasing US$3 million to provide cash assistance.
KAMPALA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Government of Uganda will begin making emergency cash transfers in the coming days to more than 56,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under the age of two, including refugees, in West Nile region.
Khartoum - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Sudan has welcomed a contribution of US$1.7 million from the Government of Japan to support vulnerable people whose livelihoods and food security are most at risk because of desert locust swarms that migrated to Sudan from Kenya and South Sudan earlier this year.
WINDHOEK – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of €2million (N$40 million) from the European Union (EU), which will help WFP deliver critical food assistance to 30,000 vulnerable people in Namibia affected by COVID-19 and drought.
HARARE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today commenced cash disbursements in the scale up of the Urban Social Assistance programme thanks to funding from the United States through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
BEIJING - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of China have signed agreements to provide food assistance to vulnerable people in Ethiopia and Guinea whose food security is being further undermined by the socio-economic effects of COVID-19. The resulting loss of jobs in the casual labour market and the loss of remittances sent from abroad have had a huge impact on poor familes in many parts of the world.
BRUSSELS – Through the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the Madad Fund, the European Union is working in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) to support vulnerable households in Lebanon, affected by the multiple crises confronting the country. With a total budget of €151.2 million in grants, which includes a new EU-WFP agreement worth €103.2 million signed this September, their assistance provides a critical lifeline to vulnerable Lebanese and refugees from Syria struggling to meet their basic needs.
GUATEMALA CITY – Undernutrition, overweight and obesity cost Guatemala US$12 billion in 2018 amounting to a significant 16.3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a report released today by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Resources lost to malnutrition take away from hard won development gains.
BAGHDAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched new projects in Iraq to help provide thousands of people with short-term employment opportunities, so they can start working again during the COVID-19 pandemic and meet their family’s food needs.
Maputo – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of JPY 200 million (USD 1.87 million) from the Government of Japan to provide food assistance and livelihoods support to refugees and asylum-seekers living in Maratane Refugee Camp (Nampula Province) and internally displaced people (IDPs) in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique.
SANA’A – Yemen is at a tipping point as conflict and economic woes drag the country to the brink of famine and risk cancelling out the gains made through humanitarian action in the past few years, the United Nations World Food Programme warns today.
MAPUTO – WFP is extremely concerned about the escalating conflict and deteriorating food security situation in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where over 300,000 people have fled their homes and villages, abandoning their crops and leaving them completely reliant on humanitarian assistance.
BEIRUT – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is radically expanding its support to a key Lebanese social assistance programme, with the goal of helping 270,000 people get through the triple shock caused by economic crisis, the COVID-19 lockdown and the blasts at Beirut port.
CAIRO – Egypt’s minister of International Cooperation visited projects in Upper Egypt’s governorate of Luxor where the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is supporting more than 120,000 people through climate change interventions, awareness and nutrition projects, as well as school feeding and other initiatives so that communities may become more self-reliant.
ALGIERS/MADRID – The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and 11 Spanish regions have increased their contributions this year to EUR 1.9 million to provide critical humanitarian assistance to Sahrawi refugees in Algeria during the Covid-19 pandemic.
KAMPALA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed 5,000 metric tons of rice and US$300,000 in cash from the Republic of Korea to provide much-needed relief assistance to 781,000 people including refugees and Ugandans threatened by locusts.
TRIPOLI/TUNIS – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are expanding their support for food insecure refugees and asylum seekers in Libya with emergency food assistance in response to the severe socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country as well as the effects of the ongoing conflict.
FREETOWN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a contribution of JPN 250 million (US$ 2.3 million) from the Government of Japan to support primary school children in Kambia and Pujehun districts of Sierra Leone.
MBABANE-The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed the Japanese Government contribution of JPY 200 Million (US$ 1,9 million) that will enable WFP to reach some 30,000 Food insecure households throughout the country, for the next 6 months.
MASERU- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes the Japanese Government contribution of JPY 250 Million (equivalent to about US$ 2.3 Million) that will enable WFP to strengthen food assistance to some 94,000 primary school and 60,000 pre-primary school learners, through the Government of Lesotho’s national school feeding programme.
At today’s meeting, the UN World Food Programme’s Executive Director David Beasley and Germany’s Minister of State Nils Annen underlined their joint commitment to tackling the humanitarian consequences of COVID-19 pandemic and to further strengthening GFFO WFP cooperation. After the meeting, they released the following statement:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up emergency food assistance to reach nearly 160,000 people across Sudan following floods that ravaged 17 of the country’s 18 states.
Transcript as delivered of remarks by UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley to today’s virtual session of the UN Security Council on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (Segment on food security risks in DRC, Yemen, Northeast Nigeria and South Sudan).
NEW YORK – Five months ago, I warned the Council the world stood on the brink of a hunger pandemic. A toxic combination of conflict, climate change and COVID-19, threatened to push 270 million people to the brink of starvation. Famine was real. It’s a terrifying possibility in up to three dozen countries if we don’t continue to act like we’ve been acting.
LONDON – To urge action on addressing the urgent risk of famine, the UK’s first Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs Nick Dyer met the United Nations World Food Programme’s Executive Director David Beasley to jointly call for other countries to step up.
