WFP’s belt tightening

Pressing humanitarian emergencies across the globe have seen the budget for the World Food Programme’s multimillion-dollar school feeding operation in Cambodia slashed for the second year in a row, leaving about 275,000 students without daily hot breakfasts and other food rations this academic year.

WFP, which has the largest food-assistance program in Cambodia, has reduced its budget to about $14 million for the 2014-2015 school terms starting in November – down from more than $25 million just two years ago – Cambodia country director Gianpietro Bordignon told the Post.

“The resources are just not sufficient,” Bordignon said. “Our program for this year is now close to half of what was the original plan … because of emergencies like Ebola and hunger in Syria, which draw away attention and resources.”

Through different components of the program, preschool and primary-school children are provided hot breakfasts, while grade four to six students from low-income households and their families receive take-home rations in the form of food or money.

The cuts, which were also attributed to the global recession as well as the redirecting of funds to humanitarian emergencies across the globe, mean the number of beneficiaries will go from 710,000 to about 435,000, Bordignon said.

Read more at: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wfp%E2%80%99s-belt-tightening