World Food Program (WFP) officials have stated that UN cutbacks in food aid funding to Nepal have been caused by the drastic financial market downturns and global financial crisis. The UN estimates that it would need roughly $20 million to feed approximately 600,000 people for the next three months – a quarter of the number that was being supplied in the past.
While WFP currently supplies around 2.2 million people with food aid in Nepal, if critical funding is not given in the next few days, more than 250,000 more will be affected by the shortages.
Nepal is in a precarious state of affairs, having emerged from a decade-long civil war with Maoists that wreaked havoc on the population and state at large. With a weakened post-war economy; elevated food prices, natural disasters such as monsoon rains, and an enormous grain deficit have forced numerous Nepalis to resort to drastic measure to withstand the crisis, including selling their assets, taking their children out of school, and facing hunger. Child malnutrition is at an all-time high for the country, which already holds one of the highest rates in the world, with almost half of the child population underfed.
Posted by Patricia Lee
