The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed cash vouchers to 10,000 vulnerable households in Kabul.
Between September 2009 and February 2010, each selected family will receive a cash voucher of US$30 a month to buy food or other items of their choice from 20 identified retailers. The retailers can cash the vouchers at local banks.
Most of the families are either headed by widows or people with physical disabilities.
“It’s something we haven’t done in Afghanistan before. It has a six-month evaluation period to see whether it’s an appropriate intervention and whether it has the desired impact on the communities we hope to assist,” Challiss McDonough, a WFP spokeswoman in Afghanistan, told IRIN.
If the results are positive, the project could be expanded to other parts of the country, she said.
At least 31 percent of Afghanistan’s estimated 27-28 million people are suffering from acute food insecurity and 37 percent are considered to be on the borderline between food security and insecurity, according to a government and donor 2007-2008 National Risk & Vulnerability Assessment.
Dramatic food prices rises and a severe drought in 2008 hit poor families hard, aid agencies said.
In 2009, WFP plans to feed 8.8 million Afghans through a number of projects such as food for work, education incentive aid, food for tuberculosis patients and free distribution.
Aid prepositioning
In order to maintain its projects during the winter months, when roads in remote areas can get blocked, WFP has been prepositioning food aid - for example in Badakhshan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces.
“We plan to preposition 32,000 MT [metric tonnes] of food aid in the whole country,” said McDonough, adding that the aid included wheat, pulses, cooking oil and fortified biscuits for some 800,000 beneficiaries.
Prepositioning started in August and by early October most of the food aid had reached the targeted areas.
WFP’s four-year Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in Afghanistan will end in December 2009 but the organization will continue delivering food aid in the country under a new programme.
Unlike some other humanitarian hotspots where WFP faces funding shortfalls to feed vulnerable people, the Afghanistan operation has been well-funded by donors. About 85 percent of the $846.7 million WFP needed for its four-year operation has been provided by donors such as the USA, Canada, Japan, India and the European Union.
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Between September 2009 and February 2010, each selected family will receive a cash voucher of US$30 a month to buy food or other items of their choice from 20 identified retailers. The retailers can cash the vouchers at local banks.
Most of the families are either headed by widows or people with physical disabilities.
“It’s something we haven’t done in Afghanistan before. It has a six-month evaluation period to see whether it’s an appropriate intervention and whether it has the desired impact on the communities we hope to assist,” Challiss McDonough, a WFP spokeswoman in Afghanistan, told IRIN.
If the results are positive, the project could be expanded to other parts of the country, she said.
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Dramatic food prices rises and a severe drought in 2008 hit poor families hard, aid agencies said.
In 2009, WFP plans to feed 8.8 million Afghans through a number of projects such as food for work, education incentive aid, food for tuberculosis patients and free distribution.
Aid prepositioning
In order to maintain its projects during the winter months, when roads in remote areas can get blocked, WFP has been prepositioning food aid - for example in Badakhshan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces.
“We plan to preposition 32,000 MT [metric tonnes] of food aid in the whole country,” said McDonough, adding that the aid included wheat, pulses, cooking oil and fortified biscuits for some 800,000 beneficiaries.
Prepositioning started in August and by early October most of the food aid had reached the targeted areas.
WFP’s four-year Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in Afghanistan will end in December 2009 but the organization will continue delivering food aid in the country under a new programme.
Unlike some other humanitarian hotspots where WFP faces funding shortfalls to feed vulnerable people, the Afghanistan operation has been well-funded by donors. About 85 percent of the $846.7 million WFP needed for its four-year operation has been provided by donors such as the USA, Canada, Japan, India and the European Union.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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