Balochistan, WFP to fight food insecurity
A villager prepares roti (bread) in her mud house in the village Bhattian Jivery at Tharparkar June 25, 2008. Soaring food prices and shortages of staples mean about 77 million people of Pakistan's 160 million population are food insecure, a 28 percent increase over the past year, according to U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) estimates. The term food insecure means people are unable to get sufficient nutritious food to meet dietary needs. Picture taken June 25, 2008. To match feature PAKISTAN-HUNGER/ REUTERS/Athar Hussain (PAKISTAN) - RTX7TSP
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Balochistan government signed a partnership agreement for the implementation of Gwadar-Lasbela Livelihoods Support Project II (GLLSP-II).
The project was aimed at improving nutrition behaviours and practices for food-insecure communities in the Gwadar and Lasbela coastal districts, said a press statement issued here on Wednesday.
These areas were highly exposed to climate shocks, resulting in lower productivity in agriculture, livestock and fisheries. Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the agreement was signed in Islamabad between WFP Acting Country Director in Pakistan Rathi Palakrishnan, and the Project Director, P&D Department of the Balochistan Government Rehmat Dashti.
“I am confident that the partnership between the Balochistan and WFP will help us achieve our joint nutrition targets. I appreciate WFP’s efforts to ensure long-term solutions to the malnutrition challenge in Pakistan,” said Rehmat Dashti. The project will contribute to the prevention of malnutrition through behavioural change interventions on nutrition, building on a nationwide existing programme WFP supports – the Benazir Nashonuma Programme.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2023.