WFP launches new development initiative

WFP on Tuesday said it had signed a US$ 30 million five-year development package with the Ugandan government to provide the country’s rural poor with productive assets and incomes and to strengthen their ability to cope with man-made and natural calamities. A WFP statement received by IRIN said the programme would run parallel with WFP’s relief and recovery operations in the northern and western parts of the country. It will support agricultural production and marketing, primary education and vocational training of orphans and street children. “Like all humanitarian agencies, WFP wants to work itself out of a job. The best way to achieve this is to help people harness the skills they have developed for their day-to-day survival,” WFP’s Deputy Country Director Michael Jones said in the statement. The programme will have the twin benefit of “promoting employment while psychologically encouraging reconciliation” in these volatile areas. Jones said that by investing a few shillings today in training, employment and infrastructure, WFP and other agencies could avoid the need for prolonged relief assistance and save ten times as much money and hardship tomorrow.