Food-for-work programmes gear-up

As the Mozambican government and aid agencies gear up for a shift away from
emergency relief to food-for-work programmes, an assessment is underway to identify the pockets of people that will still be reliant on emergency
feeding in the aftermath of the country's devastating floods.

The assessment exercise began last week to highlight communities that either through logistical problems or because "they have nothing" will still be dependant on food aid, a WFP official told IRIN. But in the reconstruction phase for the rest of the flood-affected areas of the country, the government and WFP are promoting food-for-work schemes.

The WFP official said that some NGOs whose food supply contract expire in
July have already begun to identify programmes, but no general date has been set for food-for-work. "It varies from region to region depending on the
situation on the ground," he added.

WFP is currently distributing food to some 500,000 beneficiaries, but it is
hoped that this figure will fall to around 150,000 people after the
country's second harvest in September. But "definitely food aid will be
required until next year," the official said.