By Our Reporter
The donation will help the WFP procure 12,000 tons food produced and processed in Pakistan. The Japanese contribution is believed to benefit 1.6 million people.
Insufficient funding threatens to compromise WFP's ability to implement its assistance plans. The UN agency still needs $78 million to continue its programme until the end of 2010, and faces commodity shortfall from next month, said a WFP announcement on Tuesday.
WFP's assistance will help address the recovery challenges in volatile areas that share border with Afghanistan. Over the past 10 months WFP has been providing life-saving food rations for up to 2.7 million displaced people.
Coming at a time when additional funding is urgently needed, the Japanese donation will allow WFP to start providing early recovery support, as people return to their homes amid widespread damage and few options for meeting their food needs.
"Supporting crisis-affected people and communities in northwest Pakistan is one of the priority areas in our assistance policy. We are happy to be able to contribute, by helping WFP, to support those vulnerable people," Japanese Ambassador Chihiro Atsumi said.
Welcoming the Japanese donation, the WFP representative in Pakistan, Wolfgang Herbinger, said they were grateful for the generous and very timely donation.
"Those who have already suffered the worst effects of war are now desperately in need of sustainable interventions that will help them to restart their lives and livelihoods," he said. © The DAWN Group of Newspapers
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