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WFP / FOOD AID SHORTFALL
STORY: WFP / FOOD AID SHORTFALL
TRT: 1.11
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: FILE
FILE - 10 DECEMBER 2011, KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP, KENYA
1. Various shots, camp
2. Various shots, woman making family breakfast
3. Various shots, family having tea
FILE - 6 MARCH 2012, DADAAB REFUGEE COMPLEX NORTHERN KENYA
4. Wide shot, Dadaab Camp children playing
5. Wide shot, Women walking
6. Wide shot, Children in the camp
7. Wide shot, Tent in the camp
8. Close up, child’s's face
9. Wide shot, doctor feeding child with Nutributter
10. Close up Nutributter
11. Wide shot, camp
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have announced that beginning on 1 November, WFP will be forced to reduce food rations for more than half a million refugees in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps due to lack of resources.
Ration sizes will be reduced by 20 percent in November and December in order to stretch existing food stocks to last through the end of the year, according to the WFP.
The agency has been working to improve the efficiency of its assistance programme and ensure that only eligible refugees receive food rations. While this has resulted in some reduction in the monthly food requirements, WFP needs about US$10 million every month to distribute more than 10,000 metric tons of food to refugees in the two camps in northern Kenya.
While reduced rations will allow food distributions to continue for the 535,000 camp-based refugees through the end of the year, further cuts may be necessary if no additional resources become available, as food stocks will be nearly exhausted by January.
WFP’s refugee operation in Kenya has faced severe funding challenges over the last year.
A recently confirmed contribution of US$20 million from the United States is expected to be available for distribution of food from the beginning of March 2014, but WFP will require an additional US$20 million for January and February to cover a gap in critical food and nutrition assistance to refugees, the majority of whom have no other source of food.
The 20 percent reduction in ration sizes means that refugees will not receive the World Health Organization’s minimum recommended energy requirements of 2,100 kilocalories per day and will instead get 1,680 kilocalories. WFP urges donors to respond to its urgent appeal as quickly as possible in order to meet the nutritional requirements of this vulnerable group.
WFP has been providing food assistance, consisting of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and salt, to thousands of refugees from across the region since the camps in Dadaab and Kakuma were established more than 20 years ago.
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