The World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday that it has begun to cut the provision of school meals to some of the world’s poorest children as the global crisis over food prices worsens.
WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said that the price of basic foods was rising so rapidly that a shortfall in financing for its food relief programs had grown from US$500 million to US$755 million in less than two months.
About US$300 million has been pledged so far by donor countries to fill the WFP’s financing gap, including US$60 million offered by Britain on Tuesday, to coincide with an experts’ conference on the crisis in London, and 60 million euros (US$96 million) from the European Commission.
However, the new money is too late to maintain all of the WFP’s operations.
A program providing meals for 450,000 Cambodian children has already been suspended, and Sheeran said that a similar program in Kenya, serving 1.2 million children, is facing cuts of nearly 50 percent.
Sheeran said the cutbacks reflected “heartbreaking decisions” forced on the WFP.
“We need all the help we can get from the governments of the world who can afford to do so,” she said.
Sheeran said the world had consumed more food than it produced for the past three years, but added that agricultural output was beginning to creep upwards in response to high prices.
UK International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced a US$910 million aid package on Tuesday aimed at mitigating the immediate effects of the food price crisis, and addressing the long-term causes.
In that package, US$60 million will go to the WFP to help fund its financing gap, US$50 million is to go to Ethiopia to boost the incomes of its poorest families, while US$800 million would be spent on agricultural research over five years.
“There is no simple answer to this global situation. As part of the UK’s response, we will work with key international institutions, such as the World Bank, IMF and UN, to develop a comprehensive approach that will help put food on the table for nearly a billion people going hungry across the world,” Alexander said:
Oxfam’s director of policy, Phil Bloomer, who took part in Tuesday’s meeting in London, welcomed the UK government’s contribution, but said that not all the money was new. He also said that the total aid package amounted to less than the UK tax rebate on biofuels.
“The government should not only scrap its own mandatory targets but must show leadership in Europe and make sure no further targets are set there,” he said.
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