Swiss donate $2.4 million grant for WFP Sudan

Switzerland contributed a grant and in-kind donations worth $2.4 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday, to support the programme's early recovery and safety-net activities aimed at improving household food security across Sudan.

The contribution is split into a cash grant of $1.5 million and an in-kind donation of dried skimmed milk, valued at $933,489. WFP will use the funds to buy nearly 300 metric tons of special nutritional products in order to treat and prevent acute malnutrition. The programme expects this quantity to be enough to cover the needs of more than 33,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and children younger than five years, for three months.

The 250 metric tons of dried skimmed milk will complement the regular hot meals provided to children through WFP’s school feeding projects in North, South and West Kordofan states which benefit some 175,000 school children.

“The Government of Switzerland has been a longstanding partner of WFP,” said Ambassador of Switzerland to Sudan Martin Strub in a press statement today. “These cash and in-kind contributions are another step in this relationship and are meant to boost WFP’s ability to serve affected communities as well as contribute to the continuity of its programmes,’’

“This generous contribution from the people and Government of Switzerland promotes our efforts to help the people we serve recover from setbacks as well as build their strength to face possible future shocks such as natural disaster or conflict,” said WFP Representative and Country Director Adnan Khan.

WFP received an in-kind food contribution worth about $37 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the beginning of this month.

WFP operations in Sudan remain one of the agency’s largest and most complex, providing food assistance to people in Darfur and food-insecure groups in the east and border areas to the south.

In July 2015, WFP launched a two-year plan in Sudan to provide 5.2 million people by mid-2017 with life-saving food assistance and resilience-building activities to help communities become self-reliant.