WFP faces funding crunch

Critically under-funded, the World Food Programme (WFP) is struggling to provide assistance to ever-increasing numbers of needy Angolans affected by the country’s civil war. WFP’s operations are only 51 percent funded and, “at current levels WFP will run out of resources by November,” the agency warned in its latest situation update. Because of the funding shortfall, WFP was only able to meet an estimated 60 percent of the food requirements for hungry Angolans in May, June and July. WFP stressed that it would need an estimated US $100 million between now and the end of March next year to provide aid to currently registered vulnerable groups, at a time when increasing numbers of IDPs are being forced from their villages by the war. “WFP is now stretching its resources to feed nearly 1,100,000 internally displaced and vulnerable residents in accessible areas,” WFP said. Planning from week-to-week “We are able to stretch out stocks a little bit more, perhaps even until the end of November. But we are practically living and planning from week-to-week, depending on the donations trickling in,” Maria Flynn, WFP’s spokeswoman in Angola told IRIN on Tuesday. “Although our pipeline, in general, will not last beyond November at the current level of distribution, some commodities will run out sooner,” she said. “We are now in desperate need of pulses such as beans, peas, lentils etc, which are an extremely important component of the food ration. We also need cash to buy iodised salt right away. Another item that is in great right now, is seeds for this planting season.” Flynn said that WFP was doing “everything possible” to cut costs and to improve the efficiency of the operation. “But when all is said and done, there are still hundreds of thousands of people who are in grave need and lack the means to become self-sufficient.” She added that “right now, a high percentage of the beneficiaries could begin the process of self-sufficiency if they had access to safe and arable land, seeds and tools.” However, continued insecurity across Angola and the funding crunch has hindered the distribution of farm inputs. Transportation difficult The lack of safe road access means that WFP is forced to airlift more than 70 percent of its food aid - an extremely expensive operation. The agency said it was also concerned over the dilapidated state of the runways in many of the interior airports. “WFP pilots are risking their lives and the safety of their aircraft by landing on runways littered with potholes. There is an urgent need to fix these airstrips otherwise cargo aircraft will soon cease to land in places like Kuito (in the central Bie province) or Luena (the capital of the eastern Moxico province). Since road travel is extremely limited, lack of access through air will mean a complete isolation of the affected cities.” WFP stressed that it was difficult to build up a “reasonable supplies of contingency stocks” and that should there be a sudden cessation of access to any of the interior cities there would not be enough reserves to provide food aid for than a couple of weeks in many places. Nutrition and health Meanwhile, in its August update UNICEF said that the general malnutrition rate in the accessible parts of the country had improved since the same time last year. A nutritional survey in Malanje showed that global acute malnutrition rates among children under five decreased from just over 31 percent in June 1999 to 3.1 percent in August this year. “The improvement noticed in secure areas accessible to the humanitarian community probably did not occur in secure areas which remain difficult to access,” UNICEF said. UNICEF said that during the third and final round of the National Immunisation Days (NIDs) conducted on 19-20 August, an estimated three million children under five were immunised against polio. UNICEF predicted a severe lack of essential drugs towards the end of the year, coinciding with the hungry season and the peak season for malaria. It said that it was “concerned that the lack of drugs would increase mortality rates among the population - particularly children and women - in the months to come”. Resettlement of displaced Flynn said that although there had been a “marked improvement” in the allocation of land to displaced persons, there were still many with no land to farm, and a large percentage of those who did have access had no seeds. “If people are to plant in time to take full advantage of the next harvest they must receive good seeds immediately, certainly no later than the next three weeks,” Flynn commented. Meanwhile, the Angolan government said on Monday that it planned to spend an estimated US $17 million to boost farming in government controlled areas in six provinces along the coast and in the south.