The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$15 million emergency contribution from the Government of Japan to support WFP’s response to the refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
“We welcome this generous contribution”, said Christa Räder, WFP Representative and Country Director in Bangladesh. “This will make a huge difference in delivering life-saving food assistance and our ability to respond effectively to this refugee crisis.”
Japan’s contribution will support WFP’s general food distributions, electronic vouchers for food assistance, a cash for work programme, and WFP’s logistics sector and emergency telecommunications sector work.
It will also fund almost a fifth of WFP’s total funding requirement for the first phase of this emergency and will support WFP’s work as leader of the logistics and emergency telecommunications sectors. In addition to improving roads and building a bridge to improve access to supplies, WFP has constructed a shared logistics hub on behalf of the humanitarian community.
WFP still needs US$55 million to feed more than a million people in Cox’s Bazar during the first response phase until February 2018: almost 700,000 who have fled since the August outbreak of violence in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, 300,000 who fled to Bangladesh previously, and 200,000 vulnerable members of their Bangladeshi host communities.
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
Original source: WFP
Published on 19 November 2017
