Pakistan

Additional funding, govt coordination key to feeding the malnourished

UN World Food Programme requires $40m to sustain ongoing nutrition projects through 2013.

Maha Mussadaq June 25, 2013

$9million is needed to cover the transportation and distribution costs of government-donated wheat till October, says Cousin. PHOTO: Reuters

ISLAMABAD:

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) requires additional funding to be able to carry out existing projects for Pakistan’s malnourished citizens while strong coordination between federal and provincial governments will be needed to address food insecurity issues, according to agency representatives speaking at a press conference on Monday.

WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said the agency requires a further $40 million to sustain ongoing projects till the year’s end, including a provision of emergency food rations to one million temporarily displaced citizens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Of this amount, $9million is needed to cover the transportation and distribution costs of government-donated wheat till October, while an additional $122 million will be needed for the first six months of 2014, she added.

Cousin said that the government is WFP’s second largest donor having provided 75,000 metric tons of wheat earlier this year.

On her visit, Cousin met with Food Security and Foreign Affairs ministry officials, the Economic Affairs Division, and the National Disaster Management Authority to discuss strategies to counter food insecurity.

WFP Pakistan Country Director Jean Luc-Siblot said 58 per cent of Pakistanis do not meet daily nutritional needs.

Siblot said that post-devolution of the Agriculture and Food Security ministries, issues of food insecurity had become provincial matters, making policy formulation more decentralised and therefore more difficult. “The federal and provincial governments must observe the same policies in order for us to work efficiently and deliver results,” he said.

He added that WFP was ready to support the government in forming a national policy which would require all wheat flour sold commercially to include key micronutrients.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2013.