By Nadia Khan
25 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Since early this year, prices of food staples in Nepal have been on a steady rise, leaving millions of people at risk of food insecurity. The highest price increases have been in cooking oil, which rose 26 per cent in the last six months, and a 19 per cent increase in coarse rice.
Currently, 2.5 million people in rural areas of Nepal are in immediate need of food and medical assistance, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The rising food prices, caused by declining supplies of basic commodities such as rice and kerosene, are leaving another 3.9 million Nepalese at risk of becoming food insecure.
“WFP currently provides food assistance to nearly 1.7 million people across the country,” WFP Country Director for Nepal, Richard Ragan, told MediaGloabl. “This includes food assistance, restoration of livelihoods and return and reintegration support for more than 1.2 million people.”
The WFP has been working in Nepal, providing aid for over 40 years and has experience in successfully bringing aid to some of the most remote parts of Nepal, where a majority of the rural poor live.
“Two years ago, WFP began using both helicopters and fixed-wing aircrafts to quickly reach people living in the most remote parts of the country, many of whom live at elevations over 3,000 meters and who are up to six-days walk from the nearest market or road,“ Ragan explained.
WFP is also maintaining a focus on the more than 250,000 Nepalese children at risk of serious health complications due to malnutrition by providing school feeding and maternal and child healthcare programmes.
“With nearly every second child in Nepal stunted, providing and expanding these programmes will be critical to ensure that malnutrition rates do not rise due to high food prices,” said Ragan.
Additionally, fuel costs in the last year have risen 27 per cent having a weighty effect on transportation costs. This increase in transportation costs impact both the Nepalese people by stunting economic growth, rising unemployment rates and food prices, as well as impeding the ability of relief organizations to bring aid to those in need.
“For nearly one month, WFP has nearly been completely cut off from providing food assistance to people in nine districts because of ongoing strikes and petrol shortages,” Ragan explained.
Monsoon weather conditions and Nepal’s rugged and demanding terrain also add to the difficulty of transporting aid for the WFP, Ragan added, pointing out that eight of the world’s fourteen highest mountains are located in Nepal.
Aside from providing just food aid alone, the WFP is also setting up programmes that will help promote food stability in the future.
“In Nepal, WFP operations, even emergency ones, have a food for work component which enables communities to build assets like water taps, and small scale irrigation facilities that help improve their living environment, and increase crop production,” Ragan said. “This type of intervention helps protect them from future shocks, be they high food prices or natural disasters.”
Rural areas are not the only ones in need of aid; in the urban areas of Nepal there are an additional 500,000 people at risk.
According to Ragan, the WFP has plans to help these at-risk groups as well. “In areas where food is available, but incomes are low, we are implementing cash for work projects that will not only build up local assets but help stimulate and grow markets in remote areas.”
In the future the WFP also plans to incorporate the distribution of Ready to Eat Food (RUF) and other fortified food products into their programmes to combat malnutrition in Nepalese children.