World Food Programme (WFP) urgently needs USD 570 million to feed twelve million of the most vulnerable and food insecure Yemenis for the next six months. Some twenty million Yemenis – or70 percent of the population – would be severely food insecure without humanitarian food aid.
Mouaid Alquattni is 18 months old. Weighing only 3 kilos, he is severely malnourished. Several weeks ago his mother, Safia, brought his four-year-old sister, Worood (“Flowers”) to the same hospital where she recovered enough to be discharged. But a few days after coming home, Worood relapsed and died. Safia is now terrified that Mouaid will die.
Severely malnourished Jaber Ahmed is 3months old and weighs only 2.5 kilograms instead of 6.5 which would be normal for his age. His mother brought him to the hospital by bus from a small village 60 kms away, where doctors are treating the malnourished children with the WFP-supplied special fortified food.
In 2019, WFP is aiming to feed 12 million of the most vulnerable and food insecure people a month – a 50 percent increase over 2018 targets. This level of response is essential to prevent the food security situation deteriorating.
WFP is rolling out its most ambitious biometric registration scheme to date in Yemen. This process has already begun in southern Yemen and the agency is hoping to begin registration in the north in the coming months. This will give a huge boost to the transparency and accountability of our operations and help ensure that the right food reaches the right people at the right time on a consistent basis.
WFP also operates call centers in Sana’a and Amman that allows people to make complaints, report errors of difficulties receiving assistance.
WFP’s average monthly requirements in 2019 have increased to around US$176 million a month as we scale up our operations in Yemen. Apart from urgently needing USD 570 million to ensure uninterrupted assistance for the next six months, the agency is facing an unmet need of US$1.5 billion for all of 2019~WFP
