Aid
US$ 4.5 Million grant for emergency programme on the Horn

afrol.com, 18 August  - While the drought goes on and in the aftermath of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict and refugee crisis, focus is now on reconstruction and emergency relief. Yesterday, the African Development Bank and the World Food Programme announced they would be cooperating on the Horn of Africa.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) yesterday approved a US$ 4.5 million grant to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for drought-relief assistance in nine countries in the Greater Horn of Africa.

The funds will be used by WFP to purchase and transport emergency relief supplies to Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania, countries affected by drought. WFP is implementing a US$ 445-million operation for some 16 million people in the region.

The ADB has decided to provide funds for emergency relief operations through WFP because WFP is the front-line United Nations agency in the fight against global hunger. WFP has adequate capacity both in terms of human expertise and logistics to undertake the identification of relief needs, arrange for implementation and monitoring of fields operations. Furthermore, WFP is well established in the Horn of Africa with a broad-based network of partner institutions including other United Nations agencies, non- governmental organisations and local associations.

The collaboration between the ADB and the WFP responds to the need for the Bank to ensure the efficiency of its emergency programme operations by developing partnerships with specialised aid organisations such as the WFP that have the capacity to quickly respond to emergency situations.

The Bank Group has been involved for many years in emergency assistance operations aimed at alleviating the consequences of calamities resulting from drought, floods and other natural disasters and also at restoring the economic and production systems of the countries at risk. All these operations are in line with the Bank’s commitment to member countries in poverty alleviation and social as well as economic development.

The WFP is the UN Agency especially responsible for fighting hunger world-wide. In 1999, the WFP have supplied food assistance to more than 89 million people in 82 countries all over the world, particularly to most of refugees and displaced persons in their own country.

Source: African Development Bank

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