Hunger Relief
The UN World Food Program extends food aid to cover drought-hit districts
By A CORRESPONDENT
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will extend its food aid operations in Nepal to communities in three drought-affected districts of the Eastern Terai – an area seized with political violence over the last month – as well as continuing assistance until the end of June to drought victims in the Mid- and Far-Western Regions, according to statement issued by the WFP/Nepal.
The extended operations will bring the numbers of WFP drought-affected beneficiaries to 400,000, double the number reached in the first phase of the operation. “The move follows a request for additional support from the Government on the basis of findings from a recently completed Government crop and food supply assessment mission, supported by WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The report warns of food grain shortages totalling nearly 190,000 metric tons,” the statement added.
The aim of the joint assessment was to estimate overall crop production in the country and to better understand impacts on household security in areas most affected by adverse weather conditions. The results are based upon the data gathered in 15 districts in the Eastern and Western Terai and the Mid- and Far-West Regions of Nepal in November of 2006. “The mission’s estimates of the number of people facing immediate food shortages prompted us to request WFP to extend its emergency food aid operations,” said Nepalese Agriculture Secretary Ganesh Kumar KC. “Given the uncertainty of the winter crop harvest, we wanted to take immediate action to reduce the impact of food grain shortages on poor people in Nepal .”
Since June of 2006, WFP has provided emergency aid to nearly 200,000 drought-affected people in eight districts in Mid- and Far-Western Nepal . This was the first emergency operation of its kind in WFP’s 40-year history of working in Nepal .
Because many of the recipients live in Nepal ’s most remote areas, 30 percent of the food had to be delivered via helicopter, requiring over 200 flights to complete the operation.
“During the first phase of the operation, the pilots and our NGO partners did a heroic job overcoming major obstacles such as bad weather, transportation strikes and extremely remote and mountainous terrain to get the food out,” said Richard Ragan, WFP Representative in Nepal.
“We learned a great deal about how to operate in such a difficult environment and are now much better prepared to start the second-phase of food aid relief for drought-affected families in the Mid- and Far-West at the end of the month,” Ragan added.
Through the extension, nearly 400,000 drought-affected people living in the Mid- and Far-Western Regions of Nepal , as well as communities in Saptari, Siraha, and Udayapur districts within the Terai will receive WFP food aid.
The WFP is appealing for US$16 million for its drought relief operation in Nepal . Donors so far include the European Commission (US$3.2 million), the United States (US$2.2 million), the Netherlands (US$1.2 million), Canada (US$900,000), Germany (US$650,000), Switzerland (US$400,000), Australia (US$400,000) and Norway (US$20,000). A further US$1.1 million has been received in multilateral contributions.
The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year it gives food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries.
FORMULATE LAWS FAST: EC
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr. Bhoj Raj Pokharel has asked the political parties to expedite the necessary electoral laws if the elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA) have to be held by mid-June. “We cannot go ahead and stage a drama of election just on the basis of government order. You have to formulate necessary laws and create necessary environment,” Dr. Pokharel said at an interaction held by the EC by inviting top leaders of eight parties on Sunday (Feb 11).
Except PM Koirala and Maoist chairman Prachanda, all the top leaders like Madhav Kumar Nepal and Sher Bahadur Deuba were present at the interaction. Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Dinanath Sharma also attended the program where the EC urged the eight-party leadership to take urgent political decisions to speed up preparation for the forthcoming constituent assembly election.
The EC has asked the parties to immediately formulate CA Elections Act and Political Parties Registration Act, among others.
The EC has also asked the Maoists to stop creating problems by looting voters’ lists. “There are reports that in some places the Maoists have asked (our employees) not to continue the process while in other places they have seized the document of voter’s registration saying they would return it only after clearing some issues,” Dr. Pokharel said at an earlier press meet.
The Maoists have been pressing the Election Commission to register temporary voters such as temporary residents, people who are living in rents in cities, laborers who are away from their homes and so on. The CEC has informed that EC can do nothing to these concerns since the Voters’ Registration Act does not allow it to register temporary voters
