World Food Programme (WFP)

What we do

As the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against hunger, WFP is continually responding to emergencies. We save lives by getting food to the hungry fast. But WFP also works to help prevent hunger in the future. We do this through programmes that use food as a means to build assets, spread knowledge and nurture stronger, more dynamic communities. This helps communities become more food secure. WFP has developed expertise in a range of areas including Food Security Analysis, Nutrition, Food Procurement and Logistics to ensure the best solutions for the world's hungry. In 2010, WFP aims to bring food assistance to more than 90 million people in 73 countries.

Objectives

WFP's strategic plan lays out five objectives and all our work is geared towards achieving them. They are:

1. Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies
2. Prepare for emergencies
3. Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies
4. Reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition everywhere
5. Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger
   

Food Assistance Needs in Syria:

Since the onset of the Iraqi crisis, Syria continues to host the largest population of refugees from Iraq, and it is the only neighbouring country of Iraq that continues to provide relatively easy access to Iraqi refugees. Refugees and asylum seekers in Syria do not have formal permission to work and limited access to social services. Consequently, many of them depend on humanitarian assistance. A joint assessment mission on refugees was conducted in June 2009. The assessment revealed the deteriorating economic situation of Iraqi refugee families due to the continuous depletion of resources, savings and to reduced remittances. In addition to Iraqis, the assessment also found that smaller groups of Somali, Sudanese and Afghanis who sought asylum in Syria are among the most vulnerable refugees living in the country. WFP has included these non-Iraqi refugees as beneficiaries of its new emergency operation.

After three years of heavy shocks, including the worst drought in the past four decades and a dramatic increase in food and fuel prices, the affected rural population of northeast Syria has almost exhausted all coping strategies and has become extremely vulnerable. The number of severely drought-affected persons has risen, with the drought having a severe impact on their nutritional status, as well as on the livelihoods of herders and farmers and, indirectly, interdependent urban populations of these areas.

Female illiteracy and low school attendance rates are additional development challenges facing the country. In the northeastern governorates of Syria, drop-out rates reached 45 percent as children leave school to work or to participate in traditional seasonal migration. Moreover, the illiteracy rate for women is as high as 26.4 percent, leaving women marginalized from economic activities.

WFP�s Activities in Syria:

Since 1964, WFP has provided about US$400 million worth of food assistance to Syria through development and emergency operations. Current WFP activities include:

• Assistance to Iraqi refugees in Syria: Since 2007, WFP has been supplying basic commodities to Iraqis living in Syria through an emergency operation in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Organization (SARC). The current project aims to save lives and protect the livelihoods of up to 150,000 Iraqi and non-Iraqi. WFP provides food assistance to refugees living in Syria through bi-monthly food distributions as well as an innovative mobile-based electronic food voucher system. Vouchers ensure access to more diversified basic food commodities, allowing a more diversified diet based on beneficiaries' choices.
• Support for Food-Based Education Programming in Syria (Food-for-Education): This development project aims to encourage schoolchildren and illiterate women living in rural, marginalized and food-insecure areas of the northeastern governorates to attend schools or literacy classes in return for food assistance. In 2009/2010, the second school year of this three-year project, WFP and the Syrian Government aim to reach 22,800 students and 5,400 illiterate women.
• Emergency Response to the Drought in the Northeast of Syria: The emergency operation aims to address emergency humanitarian needs and reduce the impact of the drought on the most vulnerable 300,000 people who have been severely affected and whose traditional coping mechanisms proved to be unsustainable in the context of high food prices and drought. The project is designed to tackle nutritional deficiency among the most vulnerable of the drought-affected population with particular attention to women and children under five. WFP intervention also focuses on preventing further reduction in the quantity and quality of food consumption in the targeted areas, as well as decreasing and preventing morbidity and mortality associated with acute malnutrition.

World Food Programme
Public Information Unit East Mezzeh, Marrakesh Street No. 5, Bldg. No. 9., Damascus – Syria Tel: +963-11-6120597/6120598 Fax:   +00963-11-6117352 E-mail: WFP.Damascus@wfp.org