Food Aid through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

December 15, 2006

The Government of Japan has decided to extend food aid totaling 930 million yen through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to countries and regions in need of food in a fragile transitional stage. Notes to this effect were exchanged on December 15 (Fri) in Rome between Mr. Yuji Nakamura, Japanese Ambassador to Italy, and Ms. Sheila Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director of the WFP.

The breakdown of this assistance is as follows:
(1) For vulnerable people in the Republic of Malawi (200 million yen)
(2) For vulnerable people in the Republic of Sierra Leone (170 million yen)
(3) For vulnerable people in the Kingdom of Swaziland (100 million yen)
(4) For vulnerable people in the Republic of Zambia (150 million yen)
(5) For vulnerable people in the Republic of Zimbabwe (150 million yen)
(6) Residents in the Palestinian Administrated Areas (160 million yen)
Southern Africa including Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe is the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection area. This has had an influence on the area's labor productivity, resulting in a decline in the productivity of agriculture and a decrease in food production, and has been one of the causes of food shortage. Moreover, since vulnerable people such as those infected by the HIV/AIDS virus and tuberculosis patients suffer extreme poverty, even if the area produces good crops they are still chronically short of food because they cannot afford to buy it. As for the situation in each country, in Malawi about 800,000 people are short of food, and about half the children aged under five are suffering from chronic malnutrition. In Swaziland, the HIV/AIDS infection rate among adults is 33.4%, and 12% of the nation is suffering from chronic malnutrition. In Zambia, two thirds of the nation cannot meet the necessary standards for basic nutrition. As for Zimbabwe, WFP says that there will soon be a need of food assistance for 1.4 million people. WFP has conducted a food distribution programme which narrows the recipients down to vulnerable people such as those infected by the HIV/AIDS virus in Southern Africa including these countries since January 2005. WFP aims to benefit 4.3 million people during the period November 2006 to March 2007.
Sierra Leone has been heading toward full-scale recovery since the end of the civil war in 2002 which had started in 1991, yet many people are still facing chronic food shortage. WFP has conducted a food distribution programme for the internally displaced, returnees and other vulnerable people since January 2005, and it aims to benefit about 100,000 people in 2007.
In the Palestinian territories, Japan has decided to provide humanitarian assistance from the viewpoint of preventing further deterioration of Palestinians' living conditions and thus supporting peace-oriented public opinion. WFP has distributed food to non-refugee residents such as orphans, elderly people, undernourished children and the physically weak in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since September 2005.
Japan's support for the WFP's food distribution programme is intended to make a contribution to alleviating the food shortage and also to the economic and social stability in this area.

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