ISLAMABAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) expresses its gratitude to the Government of Japan for its generous donation to three emergency relief projects in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to help stabilise food insecure people in flood-affected areas of Pakistan.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) held a project completion ceremony to honour the crucial donation of US$7.2 million (US$3.7 million, US$2.5 million and US$1 million) provided by the Government of Japan to address the dire needs of 246,000 people affected by the unprecedented floods that hit Pakistan in 2022. The US$2.5 million enabled WFP to provide emergency food assistance to flood-affected communities to meet their immediate food security and nutrition needs in 2022. Meanwhile, the contributions of US$3.7 million and US$1 million enabled WFP to deliver monthly nutritionally balanced food in 2023 to people identified through district-level consultations and actively engaged in community reconstruction, livelihood and resilience building efforts. The US$3.7 million grant also helped with conditional cash assistance in the early recovery phase. In addition, tailored capacity building activities were implemented to strengthen local skills in disaster risk reduction, climate-smart agriculture, food production and storage, and other marketable skills.
The ceremony took place at WFP’s Islamabad office and was attended by WFP Pakistan Representative Koko Ushiyama, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan H.E. Mr. Mitsuhiro Wada, and senior officials from the Japanese Embassy and the National Disaster Management Agency.
Speaking at the ceremony, Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Wada highly praised WFP’s work in Pakistan and reaffirmed Japan’s commitment, saying, “Food security and nutrition are one of the priorities of Japan’s official development assistance and we believe they are fundamental requirements for achieving sustainable development.”
“We are deeply grateful for the unwavering support from the Government of Japan, which has enabled us to address food insecurity and rebuild lives in flood-affected areas at a critical time,” said Koko Ushiyama, WFP Representative in Pakistan.
In 2023, Pakistan continued to grapple with the compounding impacts of the devastating floods of 2022 that affected more than a third of the country. WFP played a pivotal role in supporting around 4.4 million people through a range of complementary interventions following the flood crisis, addressing immediate and immediate humanitarian needs by providing unconditional cash assistance to around 1.7 million people in 2023, as well as longer-term needs such as building resilience, improving livelihood opportunities and addressing malnutrition.
Overall, thanks to generous and timely support from donors and partners, including $7.2 million from Japan, WFP has successfully mobilized more than $150 million for the emergency flood response. response[ET1] [HB2] By December 2023.
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