- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan has received a $100 million contribution from the World Bank to assist with critical emergency cash and food sustenance in Sudan
- The Sudan Emergency Safety Nets Project aims to provide cash transfers and food for over two million people across the impoverished and crisis-wracked nation
- The country’s economic and political crisis has grown more intense due to rising inflation, conflict and displacement
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan has received a $100 million contribution from the World Bank to assist with critical emergency cash and food sustenance in Sudan.
In the first-ever direct contribution between the two UN agencies in the country, the Sudan Emergency Safety Nets Project aims to provide cash transfers and food for more than two million people across the impoverished and crisis-wracked nation, including those internally displaced.
“WFP is extremely grateful to the World Bank for this generous contribution at a crucial time in Sudan when more and more people do not know where their next meal will come from,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Sudan.
The country’s economic and political crisis has grown more intense due to rising inflation, conflict and displacement. That’s been exacerbated by climate shocks – including droughts and floods and a poor harvest – all of which has increased food insecurity throughout Sudan.
As hunger continues to rise at “an alarming rate,” one-third of the population faces food insecurity, said WFP.
By September, up to 18 million people, or 40 per cent of the population, could slip into hunger, according to the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment released in June.
In Sudan, WFP is working to sustain people facing acute hunger while addressing the root causes of food insecurity.
The newly launched project will enable the UN food relief agency to save lives while laying the foundation for a more targeted social safety net system in Sudan by supporting the most vulnerable to withstand shocks and build more resilient livelihoods for the long term.
“This funding will help to mitigate a looming hunger crisis in Sudan and inform future social safety net systems for the country’s most vulnerable that not only saves but changes lives,” said Mr. Rowe.
The allocation has been provided by the World Bank-managed Sudan Transition and Recovery Support Trust Fund (STARS), supported by the European Union, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Italy, Finland, Spain, Ireland, and the World Bank-administered State and Peacebuilding Fund.
Yet, despite the substantial contribution, WFP still requires at least $266 million more through the end of the year to reach over 10 million vulnerable people year.
Since the beginning of 2022, WFP has reached 4.8 million people across Sudan with life-saving food or cash and nutrition support, school meals, and livelihood opportunities.
AfDB gives Kenya funding
Kenya will receive a €63 million/$63 million loan (KSh 7.5 billion) from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to boost its cereals and oilseeds production by over 1.5 million metric tonnes over the next two years.
AfDB said its board had approved the funding, adding that the production increase will help bolster Kenya’s food security and economic resilience.
The loan is part of the African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility, an Africa-wide initiative to avert a looming food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
The loan will support the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives (MoALFC). It will enable the government to provide affordable fertiliser and seeds to farmers ahead of the October-December 2022 short rains and into the 2022/2023 long rains crop production season.
Dr Beth Dunford, the Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, said successful implementation of the Facility would see some 650,000 farmers as direct beneficiaries, resulting in the production of 1.5 million tonnes of cereals and oilseeds.
“The Facility will positively impact some 2.8 million people,” she said.
The project entails the delivery of certified seeds, fertilisers and agricultural extension to 650,000 farmers to boost productivity. An e-voucher system will ensure that subsidies for inputs are “smart”.
Developin story
