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WFP approves Rs. 2,970 million Food aid for next five years

The United Nations World Food Program has recently approved further food assistance worth Rs. 2,970 million (US $ 33 million) in support of on-going Government initiatives. Two large programs a five-year Country Program targeting eight food insecure districts and a new three-year phase of the ongoing Relief and Recovery program of food assistance to the conflict affected people in the North and East of the country, were approved by WFP's Executive Board at their meeting in Rome at the end of October.

WFP Representative, Jeff Taft-Dick, handed over a communique conveying this decision from the WFP Executive Director, Ms. Catherine Bertini, to the Government of Sri Lanka, when he met with Faiz Mohideen, Director-General, on 20.11.2001 at the Department of External Resources, Colombo.

The Sri Lanka Country Program for the period 2002 to 2006 targets eight food insecure districts through three distinct but complementary activities. Food assistance will be provided to subsistence farmers in rural communities engaged in rehabilitation of minor irrigation schemes and to landless families to be settled in the Uda-Walawe major irrigation settlement project. WFP food aid will also be provided to nursing mothers and children between 6 and 36 months of age. Under this 5 year program Rs. 1368 million (US $ 15.2 million) worth of assistance will be provided to 460,000 poor men, women and children and disadvantaged groups mainly in the rural areas that exhibit a high level of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Under the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, WFP continues to support humanitarian relief and recovery assistance to about 217,000 internally displaced persons with food aid through safety net programs and community based food-for-work activities. This assistance is valued at Rs. 3,236 million (US $ 35.9 million), of which Rs. 1,602 million (US$ 17.8 million) will be contributed by the WFP.

Commenting on the WFP program in Sri Lanka, Mr. Taft-Dick said: "We regard the Country Program and the Protracted Relife and Recovery Operation as a joint undertaking with the Government of Sri Lanka, which has primary responsibility for its formulation and execution. We count on government support through the implementing agencies, such as Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Mahaweli Development, Social Services, North Development and Tamil Affairs and Rehabilitation & Reconstruction of the East, to ensure timely and effective execution of the Country Program and the Relief and Recovery Operations."

WFP has been working in Sri Lanka since 1968. Since then it has provided food assistance to support 31 development projects and 20 emergency and protracted relief and recovery operations at a total cost of US $ 180 million. These projects targeted at the poorest and the most disadvantaged sections of the society have focused on poverty alleviation and improvement in households, food security, benefiting around 3 million poor people.

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