The United Nations has poured most of its efforts to stem hunger in rural areas in Africa. Most of its food programs and funds have largely been concentrated in solving hunger in the countrysides of poor nations, especially Africa. An imbalance has been more than imminent because poor countries are impoverished as a whole, whether in their rural or urban areas. Expected to formalize around mid-2009 are UN efforts to solve urban hunger in Africa. Escalating food prices as well the age-old problem of food shortage have also devastated African cities.
The United Nations World Food Program, the world’s biggest and most consistently active food-aid program, has been conceptualizing strategies to solve hunger and food shortage problems across African slums. While rural Africa’s hunger problem has been mainly due to long-lasting factors such as drought, famine, and war, hunger in African cities has been a fairly recent phenomenon. For the World Food Program, the challenges are different in this new scenario.
The World Food Program has started some efforts for African cities. In June 2008, it coordinated a cash and voucher system in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, using a $500 million grant from Saudi Arabia. In these impoverished cities, the senior woman of the household got a beneficiary card. When the program goes on full swing, she can show her card at a local office once a month to receive vouchers that can be exchanged for cash twice each month. The World Food Program will work with a local microfinance agency that will take the vouchers and handle the reimbursements. Overall, still a dole-out system.
Posted by GSerrano on January 4, 2009 in Critic, Society & Culture · 0 Comment
