Additional EC funds to secure WFP pipeline

The European Commission (EC) has announced that it will make available some US $8 million in additional funding for World Food Programme (WFP) aid efforts in Zimbabwe. The EC had already pledged about $28 million towards the Regional Emergency Operation (EMOP) appeal launched in July 2003. The money was made available "specifically to procure and distribute maize to the people of Zimbabwe". "The EC has now agreed to allocate a further €7 million (about $8 million). These commitments from the EC's food security budget line go a long way to secure the WFP food pipeline well into 2004," the EC said. According to assessments by aid agencies, about half Zimbabwe's population, some 5.5 million, is in need of food aid. In an interview with IRIN earlier this month WFP country director Kevin Farrell said the agency "faces severe pipeline problems in the early months of 2004". "At the moment, we have only sufficient maize until January, and there are also shortages of other key commodities, such as vegetable oil, pulses and corn-soya blend (CSB)," he said. Farrell warned then that "without new contributions, WFP will be forced to cut back on its distributions next year - leaving millions of people with reduced rations, or no rations at all". The EC said its latest contribution "brings the total European Union contribution to the 2003/04 EMOP (UK, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands have also made pledges) to over €51 million (about $58 million) representing about 48 percent of total donor pledges to date to the WFP pipeline," the EC said. There had been some concern earlier this year that the EC would withdraw some of its funding for the crisis in Zimbabwe. "In committing these funds the European Commission recognises that the food security situation in Zimbabwe remains critical and that without the direct intervention of the international community, a significant proportion of the Zimbabwean population are at serious risk," the EC said. The donor community also expected the government of Zimbabwe to "play its part in filling the estimated import gap of 1.28 million tonnes of cereal during the marketing year 2003/04". The EC Delegation in Harare noted that "the success of any aid intervention will require a spirit of cooperation, openness and understanding between the international community and the government of Zimbabwe. In this regard it is crucial that the WFP Memorandum of Understanding, which incorporates the EU principles in regard to the distribution of humanitarian aid, is strictly complied with".