BRUSSELS, January 12, 2016 (WAFA) – The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Thursday welcomed a €1 million contribution from Belgium to support 180,000 of the most vulnerable non-refugee Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Belgian donation will help WFP provide critical food and nutrition assistance through monthly food distributions, rations and cash-based transfers using electronic vouchers as well as nutrition awareness training for pregnant and nursing women.
Those people receiving WFP food assistance, provided jointly with the UN‘s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), include 30,000 people from the Bedouin and herding communities living in area C of the West Bank, under Israeli control. The food assistance for this group also helps build resilience and improves their livelihoods, access to services and protection – since they are at risk of imminent transfer.
"Tackling food insecurity is one of the priorities of Belgium‘s humanitarian assistance," said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation for Belgium Alexander De Croo. "Through our support for the WFP‘s cash-based transfers we address the nutritional needs of food insecure Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank."
"Belgium is a trusted, reliable and flexible WFP partner in Palestine," said WFP Representative and Country Director in Palestine Daniela Owen. "This strong partnership has made a substantial difference in people‘s lives, as well as increasing their resilience in the face of socio-economic hardship."
Food insecurity in Palestine is driven by ed ability to purchase food, due to restrictions of movement, trade and investment, as well as high unemployment rates.
Currently, more than 27 per cent of the Palestinian population - or 1.6 million people - are food insecure. The situation is most acute in Gaza, among non-refugees: nearly half are food insecure, and one in four are so severely affected that they require urgent food assistance. In the West Bank, 17 percent are food insecure, 6 percent of whom are severely food insecure.
M.N./M.K.
