Assistance through the World Food Programme (WFP) to Cambodia, Pakistan , Indonesia, and Colombia

January 4, 2008

On December 25 (Tue), the Government of Japan, in response to a request from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), decided to contribute US 500,000 dollars (about 58,000,000 yen) to the school feeding programme in Cambodia, US 300,000 dollars (about 34,800,000 yen) to the mother-and-child health and nutrition programme in Pakistan, US 253,000 dollars (about 29,350,000 yen) to the rural development programme in Indonesia, and US 100,000 dollars (about 11,600,000 yen) to the school feeding programme in Colombia.
In Cambodia, WFP will utilize this contribution for the school feeding programme. It provides access to education to children who are expected to play an important role in forming the country’s future, and thus contributes to the economic and social development of Cambodia which is tackling nation building. A Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV), who is stationed at WFP’s country office upon the request of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Cambodia, has been working on the collaboration between the school feeding programme and the home care programme as a comprehensive support for AIDS orphans and malnourished children. We believe that our contribution should make positive changes in the fields of both education and health. WFP provides school feeding to more than 20.2 million children in 71 countries worldwide. It contributes to bringing up the future generation to achieve a whole country’s development through raising enrolment ratio, addressing gender disparity, and enhancing children’s learning ability as well as improving children’s nutritional conditions.
In Pakistan, WFP will utilize this contribution for distributing take-home food at mother-and-child health (MCH) clinics in Baluchistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where people suffer from extreme poverty. Japan recognizes that poverty reduction in the areas is vital for removing a hotbed for terrorists. Women’s health, in particular mothers’, is in dire condition. Because of cultural values, they have limited access to the important knowledge of reproductive health and to basic social services. In order to address this situation, WFP, with Japan’s contribution, will provide food at MCH clinics, and gives incentives women to come to clinics and families to allow it. Japan believes that it should improve the mother-and-child nutrition and health condition.
In Indonesia, WFP will utilize this contribution for building and managing infrastructure?dams, tree planting, irrigations, etc.?in rural areas in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), where people suffer from severe food shortage. We believe that it should enable communities to solve the food shortages in a sustainable way and to better prepare for a natural disaster. Fully aware of the increasing natural disasters due to the climate change and its repercussions on food production, WFP has been tackling the climate change in the pursuit of sustainable solutions to the problem of food shortage. For example, it has planted around 5 billion trees around the world in the last decades.
In Colombia, WFP will utilize this contribution for providing school feeding to internally displaced children in borderlands. The country has been suffering from prolonged internal conflicts between the government and illegally armed groups, which has caused approximately three million internally displaced people, the world’s largest scale, as of the end of 2006. However, the current administration has been achieving some results in restoring security and advancing a peace process in the country. Japan intends to assist the peace process through stabilizing borderlands where WFP’s school feeding programme will provide internally displaced children with access to education as well as improving their nutritional condition.

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