Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received US$7 million in new funding from Switzerland to assist vulnerable families in urban areas.
The grant was channelled to WFP through the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC).
The fund is targeting vulnerable families in Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru and the beneficiairies are expected to use the money to boost urban agriculture, build linkages between rural-urban food supply chains and learn climate-smart agricultural techniques among other key activities.
In a statement, the SDC Director of Co-operation in Zimbabwe, Mr Manuel Thurnhofer said the grant was a boost to the WFP’s ongoing programmes in the country.
“This timely contribution to WFP will help alleviate the suffering of a large number of people in Zimbabwe’s urban areas who are struggling to cope with the twin shocks of Covid-19 and inflationary pressures that are causing a rise in prices of basic commodities.
In most urban households, women and children are generally the first to suffer economic and social hardships and we are pleased that in the project areas, they will directly benefit from this support,” he said.
Mr Thurnhofer said Zimbabwe’s urban communities had great potential to be food secure but their efforts are being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change effects.
WFP Country Representative, Ms Francesca Erdelmann said the new funding is vital in enhancing the resilience-building component of the organisation’s work in supporting vulnerable Zimbabweans.
“The WFP already delivers monthly cash transfers to 326 000 Zimbabweans and plans to scale up its urban assistance programme to reach at least 550 000 people living in the 28 worst affected and food insecure urban areas in the country,” she said.
The SDC’s support is reported to be complementing the cash transfers that WFP is already implementing in selected urban areas.
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