ISLAMABAD: The Australian government has donated $4.5 million to the UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) food and nutrition security efforts among displaced communities in Pakistan.
Australia’s contribution, spread out over 3 years, will be used in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Frontier Region (FR). The funding will enable WFP to provide food-based assistance in schools and help families who are educating their children.
The Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Margaret Adamson, said, “Since 2010 Australia has provided more than AUD 95 million in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan, in partnership with the WFP, to support the victims of earthquakes, floods and displacement”. “Australia’s assistance has also helped provide nutrition to acute malnourished women and children, livelihood support and school feeding programmes,” she added.
“We are very grateful to the people and Government of Australia for this contribution. These funds will address critical education needs in FATA and FR for the returnee communities,” WFP acting Country Director Stephen Gluning said.
In 2016, Australia has contributed $9 million, placing it among the top five donors to WFP Pakistan.
“The Government of Pakistan extends its gratitude to the Australian Government for its unshrinking support,” States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Minister Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir said.
Under the programme, WFP will provide a school snack of high-energy biscuits and monthly take home rations of vegetable oil to more than 312,000 children. This will be administered in seven FATA agencies and four areas in the Frontier Region. Providing these supplies has proven to significantly increase children’s enrolment and retention rates in WFP-assisted primary schools of FATA.
These are strong incentives for parents to send their children, especially their daughters to school, which helps to improve their long-term prosperity. With an overall literacy rate of 33.3% and an adult literacy rate of 28.4%, education indicators in FATA are not only far below the national average but place FATA among the least literate areas of the world.
