2008-02-06
OTTAWA, February 6, 2008 — Today, the Government of Canada announced new funding to support a joint appeal from the Government of Afghanistan and the United Nations (UN) to help Afghans address rising food costs.
“Canada is providing $10 million to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to help more than 2.5 million people in the country now facing food shortages as a result of rising food prices,” said the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation. “Canada’s support will go a long way towards helping address this immediate need and to alleviating some of the hardships being caused by the harsh winter conditions this season.”
In January, the UN, together with the Government of Afghanistan, launched a worldwide appeal for additional funds to address food shortages expected as a result of price increases. The cost of wheat flour has risen by an average of nearly 60 percent. This is making it difficult for Afghans to meet their most basic needs, particularly during the harsh winter months.
“Canada consistently responds to the needs of Afghan people, and its enormous support to WFP means we can feed hundreds of thousands of people, especially women and children,” said Rick Corsino, the WFP’s Country Director in Afghanistan. “With global food prices, particularly wheat, rising to all-time highs in the last 12 months, this contribution is greatly needed.”
Today’s announcement is in addition to the $25 million announced by Minister Oda last October in Kandahar, and demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to providing basic needs to Afghans and their families. This new funding will also contribute to results being achieved in the country. In 2007 alone, more than 200,000 metric tonnes of food were distributed to an estimated reach of more than 6 million people across the country. In addition to addressing emergency humanitarian needs, Canada’s support to the WFP also includes assistance for community-improvement projects and literacy programs. For example, in Kandahar province, through the Food-for-Work Programme, more than 125 kilometres of roads have been rehabilitated, more than 30 wells and more than four million cubic metres of irrigation canals rehabilitated. Through the Food-for-Education Programme, up to 200 teachers have received training, more than 200 literacy courses are underway, and more than 5000 students have received books and materials.
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For more information, please visit the Afghanistan section of the website.
Information:
Jean-Luc Benoît
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of International Cooperation
Telephone: (819) 953-6238
Media Relations Office
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Telephone: (819) 953-6534
E-mail: info@acdi-cida.gc.ca
Backgrounder
United Nations World Food Programme
The Government of Canada, through a strengthened partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), will enhance its support for economic and social development to meet the emergency food needs of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable people.
The WFP is the food aid arm of the United Nations system. Its main goals in Afghanistan are to save lives in crisis situations, to improve the capacity of vulnerable groups, to manage shocks and meet basic food needs, and to increase the enrolment of primary school children (especially girls) in food-insecure and low enrolment areas. WFP works closely with the Afghan ministries of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Health and Education. WFP also supports inter-agency coordination (e.g. with UNICEF and the World Health Organization).
Since 2002, WFP’s operations in Afghanistan have shifted from a primary emphasis on emergency assistance to sustainable rehabilitation and recovery. It has done so through a number of innovative programs, including its highly successful Food-for-Work programs and its Food-for-Literacy programs.
How is food aid monitored, reported on and accounted for?
WFP monitors food distribution in all projects worldwide and reports regularly to donors. In Afghanistan, WFP works through local communities, government officials and implementing partners to monitor food distribution. These partners receive training in project planning, monitoring, and reporting.
Monitors submit standardized progress, distribution and completion reports to WFP, who compile and submit regular progress reports to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on food distribution and community improvement projects.
CIDA field staff monitor this process closely, keep regular contact with WFP field staff, and also conduct regular monitoring visits themselves.
How is the food distributed?
Emergency Food Assistance: For acute food shortages experienced by displaced persons or drought-affected communities, monthly food packages target the most vulnerable people—female-headed households, children and the elderly.
Food for Work: Monthly food packages are provided to communities, including internally displaced families to work on community improvement projects, which are selected according to needs (as expressed by the communities) and assets available.
Food for Education: Roughly 16 percent of adults (5 percent of women) in Kandahar can read and/or write. In partnership with UNICEF and WFP, Food for Education provides opportunities for adults, mostly women, to address their families’ monthly food needs while gaining literacy skills.
Food for Health: This program focuses on the links between food and health. Through deworming campaigns that involve training 150 ministry staff, UNICEF will supply deworming tablets for 5 million children each year. To offset opportunity costs of patients and caregivers, prevent attrition and retain patients in curative treatment, WFP will provide family food rations for 40,000 TB patients per year in the directly observed treatment short (DOTS) course, in support of the Ministry of Public Health and in partnership with WHO and NGOs.
