Greater Horn of Africa Gets 4.5m Dollars in Emergency Drought Relief Assistance

By Our Staff Reporter
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) approved a 4.5 million dollars grant to the United Nations World Food Programme for drought-relief assistance in nine countries in the Greater Horn of Africa.

The funds will be used by WFP to purchase and transport emergency relief supplies to Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania, countries affected by drought . WFP is implementing a US$445 million operation for some 16 million people in the region.

The collaboration between the ADB and the WFP responds to the need for the bank to ensure the efficiency of its emergency programme operations by developing partnerships with specialized aid organizations such as the WFP that have the capacity to quickly respond to emergency situations, according to an ADB release.

The bank group has been involved for many years in emergency assistance operations aimed at alleviating the consequences of calamities resulting from drought, floods and other natural disasters and also at restoring the economic and production systems of the countries at risk

The WFP is the UN agency especially responsible for fighting worldwide hunger. In 1999, the WFP supplied food assistance to more than 89 million people in 82 countries all over the world, particularly to most of refugees and displaced persons in their own country.

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