WFP plea for $500m to avoid food aid cut

from the Financial Times

By Javier Blas, Commodities Correspondent

The World Food Programme has launched an “extraordinary emergency appeal” to governments to donate at least $500m in the next four weeks to avoid rationing food aid in response to the spiralling cost of food.

The WFP, the United Nations agency responsible for relieving hunger, said in a letter to donor countries that if fresh money did not arrive by May 1, it might cut “the rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them during times of abject need”.

The letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, was sent to donor countries over the Easter holiday and shows that the threat of a cut in aid is real and imminent after several warnings from the WFP.

“We urge your government to be as generous as possible in helping us to close this gap – which stood at $500m on February 25 and has been growing daily,” wrote Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director.

The WFP’s funding gap is now about $600m-$700m, officials said, after a 20 per cent jump in food costs in the past three weeks, the rise in the oil price to about $100 a barrel, and a surge in shipping costs. The US is the largest WFP contributor, having donated about $1.1bn last year, mostly in food shipments. The European Union, with $250m, and Canada, with $160m, are the second- and third-largest donors.

If the minimum $500m extra funds arrive, the WFP budget is set to rise this year to $3.4bn, about double the $1.7bn the agency spent in 2000.

Food prices are rising on a mix of strong demand from developing countries; a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts caused by climate change; and the biofuel industry’s appetite for grains, analysts say. The WFP provides food to about 73m people in nearly 80 countries.