The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a grant of JPY 5 billion (about US$34 million) from the Government of Japan to support WFP’s emergency assistance to improve food security in 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the food insecurity situation is further deteriorating due to a wide range of factors, including conflict, terrorism, political instability, natural disasters, extreme weather, infectious diseases and inflation caused by the conflict in Ukraine. The most vulnerable populations including refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), women and children are the most affected.  

This contribution will enable WFP to distribute food assistance such as cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and food vouchers to vulnerable people suffering from severe hunger, food shortage and malnutrition. The project aims to contribute to overall food security by improving food shortage and stabilising food supplies.   

From the contribution, JPY 1.4 billion (about US$9.7 million) will be used to assist the most desperate people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through emergency food distribution, nutrition assistance and the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) operation which enables uninterrupted delivery. In the DRC, more than 23 million, or 20 percent of the population, are facing crisis or emergency levels of hunger, triggered by intensifying conflict, disease, displacement, and poor infrastructure. The number of displaced families in eastern DRC makes up the largest in the world. 

More than JPY 1.1 billion (about US$7.6 million) will be allocated to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance as well as school meals to crisis-affected beneficiaries in Chad. The country was already experiencing severe food insecurity and malnutrition due to the climate crisis, global economic headwinds and declining agricultural production, but the outbreak of the Sudan crisis last year has further pressured food-insecure communities with a massive inflow of refugees. 

A further grant of JPY 451 million (about US$3 million) will go to emergency food and nutrition assistance programmes for people in need, including IDPs and host communities in Mali. IDPs are placing a heavy burden on host communities who are already struggling to meet their basic needs. Over half of the IDPs rely entirely on humanitarian assistance to survive. WFP’s assistance is a lifeline to many.

“We appreciate this timely and generous contribution from the Government of Japan targeting as many as 15 ‘hotspot’ countries in Sub-Saharan Africa hit by “3 Cs”: conflicts, climate shocks and soaring costs of food and basic items, to meet the immediate humanitarian needs, strengthen resilience against future shocks and thus address the nexus and the human security in those fragile countries,” said Mr Yasuhiro Tsumura, Director, WFP Japan Relations Office. “This assistance package reflects Japanese constant commitments to Africa renewed in a number of the past Tokyo International Conferences for African Development (TICAD). We look forward to working with Japan and the recipient governments to optimize the impacts of this assistance. With TICAD9 scheduled for 2025, we look forward to Japan taking the lead in improving the food insecurity in Africa.” 

This project is a testimony to the commitment of the Government of Japan to “support the strengthening food security and sustainable agriculture” announced in TICAD8 in August 2022 and further restated in G7 Hiroshima in May 2023.  

Japan has consistently been one of WFP’s top donors. The countries benefitting from this year’s US$34million / JPY 5 billion funding are: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.