Funding deficit puts WFP food aid at risk

A serious funding shortfall means emergency food aid to almost 2 million hungry Angolans is in jeopardy, the acting head of the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. Oscar Sarroca told IRIN that WFP had received less than a quarter of the US $143 million in donor funds it had requested for 2004, and WFP would struggle to supply certain types of food for the next six months. "We would like to have enough food until September, then wait for other donations in the coming months, but at this moment we're not able to ensure that all commodities will be there. For example, in May we'll start to run out of cereals," said Sarroca. He had addressed a donor meeting last Friday to appeal for more funds. The picture was muddied further by a government announcement last week that it was considering banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Much of WFP's aid for Angola consists of in-kind contributions from the United States, where there is no ban on GMOs. "We don't have confirmation of when the ban would be implemented in terms of food aid. We hope we will have time to adjust to this new legislation. It will be a very difficult situation if the ban is approved and enforced immediately - that will create a big problem for us, especially in providing assistance to returnees," Sarroca commented. "We need other donors to come on board at this very critical moment. If there are no new contributions, particularly in cash, we will have to reduce rations to stretch our resources a little bit more." He said the funding deficit also risked undermining WFP's intention of shifting its focus away from purely food aid towards more development-style programmes. "We wanted to start school feeding and food-for-work programmes. But, given our shortage of resources, we won't be able to develop that as much, or shift from relief to recovery in our operations," Sarroca noted. Meanwhile, he told IRIN, a bureaucratic problem that had seen 1,600 mt of pulses and vegetable oil stuck in Luanda's port had now been resolved and the food had started moving to areas where it was needed.