Japan’s contribution enhances food security, nutrition and builds resilience in Pakistan through WFP support

Celina Ali

Islamabad: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) acknowledges the Government of Japan’s generous contributions under three projects that provided emergency assistance for the stabilization of food-insecure people in the flood-affected areas of Pakistan, implemented in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

WFP organised a Project Completion ceremony to recognize the vital contributions of USD 7.2 million (USD 3.7 million, USD 2.5 million and USD 1 million) from the Government of Japan to address the critical needs of 246,000 people affected by the unprecedented 2022 floods in Pakistan. The USD 2.5 million enabled WFP to provide emergency food assistance to flood-affected communities, ensuring their immediate food security and nutrition needs in 2022, while the USD 3.7 million and USD 1 million contributions helped WFP to deliver nutritionally balanced food every month to those actively involved in community rehabilitation, livelihood and resilience building initiatives and identified through district-level consultations in 2023. The USD 3.7 million grant also supported conditional cash assistance during the early recovery phase. Furthermore, tailored capacity-building activities were implemented to enhance local skills in disaster risk reduction, climate-smart agriculture, food production and storage, and other marketable skills.

The ceremony took place at the WFP Country office in Islamabad in the presence of Ms. Coco Ushiyama, WFP Country Director in Pakistan, H.E. Wada Mitsuhiro, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, along with senior Japan Embassy and National Disaster Management Authority officials.

Speaking at the occasion, H.E. Mr Wada, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, appreciated WFP’s Pakistan work and reaffirmed Japan’s commitment by noting “Food security and nutrition are among the priorities for Japanese Official Development Assistance, and we consider them to be the fundamental requirements for achieving sustainable development.”

“We greatly appreciate the unwavering support provided by the Government of Japan, which enabled us to address food insecurity and rebuild livelihoods in flood-affected areas at a critical time”, said Ms. Coco Ushiyama, Country Director of WFP Pakistan.

In 2023, Pakistan continued to grapple with the compounding impact of the devastating 2022 floods that affected more than one-third of the country. WFP played a pivotal role in supporting nearly 4.4 million people following the flood crisis through a variety of complementary interventions to address both critical and immediate humanitarian needs through unconditional cash support to approximately 1.7 million people in 2023 and longer-term needs to build resilience, enhance livelihoods opportunities, and address malnutrition.

Overall, with generous and timely support from donors and partners including this USD 7.2 million from Japan, WFP successfully mobilized over USD 150 million for its emergency flood response by December 2023.