By Our Reporter
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of China have signed agreements to provide food assistance to vulnerable people in Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Uganda. These contributions aim to alleviate food insecurity, which has been worsened by the socio-economic effects of COVID-19.
The agreement, signed in February, enables WFP to provide food assistance through school feeding and nutrition interventions to more than 680,000 people in need in the four countries, including school children, refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and vulnerable host communities. With China’s contribution, WFP is planning to procure more than 12,000 metric tons of food to provide rations of rice, maize, sorghum, beans, salt, and vegetable oil for those vulnerable populations as part of its overall food assistance programmes.
“WFP is grateful for the generous support from the Government of China, which came at a critical time to address the growing food needs across the four countries. WFP will continue covering both the immediate and longer-term needs of the most vulnerable people.” said Sixi Qu, WFP China Representative. ” We have a shared vision to achieve zero hunger where no single child, woman, or man goes to bed hungry. This contribution is a step towards that goal by providing life-saving assistance to the poorest families to sustain their livelihoods through the difficult times.”
The contribution was made under the framework of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to support the four countries, where the number of food-insecure people is on the rise. With the pandemic, school closure, and climate shocks such as locust infestation, WFP stepped up support for vulnerable families who are no longer able to put food on the table and are relying more on humanitarian assistance.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
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