WFP welcomes World Bank’s $100m for hunger fight in Sudan
July 27, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a $100 million contribution from the World Bank to implement its newly launched emergency safety nets – project in Sudan.
Last week, the World Bank agreed to provide $100 million in cash transfers and food to vulnerable families in Sudan through the WFP.
This project aims to provide cash transfers and food to more than two million people across Sudan, including internally displaced people and residents.
“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.
This is the first-ever direct contribution from the World Bank to WFP in Sudan.
This allocation, the World Bank said, has been provided through its 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.
“We also extend our sincere gratitude to all donors who have invested in the STARS fund. 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,” stressed Rowe.
According to the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment released in June, one-third of the population in Sudan are food insecure, while up to 18 million people could slip into hunger by September.
Cited as the key drivers of food insecurity in Sudan economic and political crisis, inflation, conflict and displacement, climate shocks, including droughts and floods, and a poor harvest in the past agricultural season.
Despite this contribution from the World Bank and STARS donors, WFP said it still requires at least an additional $266 million by the end of 2022 to reach over 10 million vulnerable people as planned at the outset of the year.
(ST)