Warning over funding shortfall - WFP

The UN World Food Programme on Tuesday announced a US $3.2 million funding shortfall for an emergency operation aimed at reaching 170,000 people still facing severe food shortages in Mozambique after two consecutive years of floods. WFP in January extended its emergency operation to the end of March, at an additional cost of US $4.1 million. However, "funding to this latest phase of the operation has been sluggish, whereas WFP's appeal last year for US $9.2 million to feed flood victims was fully funded," an agency statement said. WFP has so far received approximately US $900,000 towards the new programme. Crop assessment missions were carried out in May and September 2001 in all provinces except Cabo Delgado by the ministries of agriculture and rural development, health, the National Institute for Disaster Management, FEWS-net USAID, MSF/CIS and WFP, the statement said. The missions concluded that more than one-third of the country's total number of districts produced much less food last year than normal. "The fact that most of these districts were also in need of emergency assistance last year due to flooding and localised dry spells, as well as a general rise in the price of the main staple foods, has aggravated the current food security status of the poorest and most food insecure families. The normal coping mechanisms of many families have disappeared, and they have resorted to selling off their few assets in order to buy food, which is more expensive than usual," the statement said. "The cumulative effects of the floods on food production mean that many already food-insecure families do not have enough food to see them through to the next harvest. We hope donors will continue to be generous with this vital assistance to Mozambique," said Angela Van Rynbach, the WFP Representative in Mozambique. After three consecutive years of flooding, WFP and other UN agencies have collaborated in an extensive contingency planning process with the government, and NGOs. These plans are now being put into operation in readiness for possible additional needs in the current rainy season, and WFP has already pre-positioned some 2,400 mt of food throughout the country, the agency noted. Weather forecasts predict normal to above normal rainfall over areas which have still not recovered completely from previous floods.