ISLAMABAD: The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations has expressed deep concern that the recurring political demonstrations in Islamabad and security incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces have led to movement and access constraints, which could potentially cause operational delays.

The WFP, the food arm of the United Nations, in its report stated Pakistan continued to face a complex landscape of risks, hindering progress towards Sustainable Develop­ment Goals (SDGs) and ‘Vision 2025’.

Economic fragility, political polarisation, recurrent natural disasters, and high inflation rates deepen vulnerabilities and increase poverty levels, undermining resilience, it warned.

The WFP also claimed allocation of $152.1 million as its operational cost in Pakistan during 2025.

Says UN’s food arm can provide food to 123m in 2025 with what world spends on coffee in two weeks

People at higher risk of vulnerability, especially women and children, have greater access to affordable, nutritious diets and basic social services including education, health, and nutrition by 2027. Communities at higher risk of vulnerability to climate change and other shocks are more resilient and have enhanced capacity to improve their livelihoods by 2027, the WFP explained.

The WFP signed the 2024-25 annual work plan with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) that outlines key collaborations for the year, including partnering with NDMA to strengthen emergency preparedness, response capabilities, risk assessments, early warning systems, and anticipatory actions at various levels.

Under livelihoods and climate resilience work, the WFP has progressed multi-year activities in three flood-affected districts in Sindh, with a focus on building skills among women and men, as well as construction of community assets, mostly around water management.

Living Indus

The UN’s food arm is also progressing with work under the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s ‘Living Indus’ initiative, with a focus on community construction of concrete water reservoirs and other activities to improve water resource management, with a focus on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and southern Punjab.

The WFP and the Balochistan food department have completed a situational analysis and gap report on the provincial public wheat procurement system.

The findings will aid ongoing advocacy efforts for policy reform and improved information management to strengthen the wheat value chain in the province.

Need, resources gap

The WFP in its 2025 ‘Global Outlook’ also called to address global food needs and the alarming gap between needs and resources. The $16.9bn WFP needs to assist 123 million of the hungriest people in 2025 is roughly what the world spends on coffee in just “two weeks”.

In 2025, the UN’s food arm will continue prioritising, adapting its responses to each country’s specific needs and aligning its capabilities and resources to deliver high-quality programmes.

In Asia and the Pacific, where 88m people struggle under the devastating effects of acute hunger, the WFP will require $2.5bn to respond to crises and enhance further shock-responsive social protection and anticipatory action initiatives.

Saving lives in emergencies will remain WFP’s highest priority. WFP will continue to prioritise crisis response — which represents three quarters of its total operational requirements — targeting those assessed to be most vulnerable, according to the outlook report.

The report stated the number of people WFP planned to assist was a function of the expected capacity to deliver and the ability to reach people in need due to physical access constraints.

“This is unfortunately lower than the number of people assisted in 2023 but could very well be higher than what we will reach in 2024.”

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2024