The announcement came during a visit of the USAID Assistant Administrator for the Middle East, Mara Rudman, to the agency’s warehouses near Qalandia.
“Our top priority is to meet the basic food needs of the most vulnerable Palestinians. Thanks to this timely contribution from USAID, we’re able to respond at this critical time, when resources are scarce and people need us most,” said Pablo Recalde, WFP’s Country Director.
“The United States is once again showing its commitment to lead in the fight against hunger and poverty at a difficult time facing this region,” he added.
The USAID contribution includes $15 million worth of food assistance and $7.6 million in cash which will allow WFP to provide food insecure Palestinian families with a food basket composed of chickpeas, fortified wheat flour, vitamin enriched vegetable oil, and iodized salt and sugar.
Despite the progress made to address food insecurity over the last few years through the efforts of the Palestinian people and international initiatives, food insecurity still affects close to 45% of the population in the Gaza Strip and around 17% of the West Bank population.
It is estimated that in 2012, more than 1 in 5 households remain food insecure even with the food assistance provided through WFP and other international organizations.
“While this assistance is absolutely critical, it is just one part of the overall United States assistance aimed at laying the foundations for a prosperous and stable future Palestinian State,” said Rudman.
“We are partnering with the Palestinianian Authority on efforts to improve the living conditions of the population through projects in the areas of health, education, economic development, water, infrastructure and good governance sectors,” she said.
WFP currently supports over 700,000 vulnerable people of the non-refugee population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a range of innovative food assistance mechanisms including emergency food distribution and electronic food vouchers that people redeem in shops to buy locally-available produce.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.
Since 1994, USAID has provided more than $3.5 billion economic assistance to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. making the United States the leading bilateral donor to Palestinians.
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