HindustanTimes.com Thursday, July 29, 2004
UN food programme facing severe shortfall of funding Press Trust of India United Nations, July 29 Severe shortfall in funding has forced the United Nations to cut its deliveries of vital rations to millions of hungry people in North Korea. The North Korean humanitarian programme is one of the most under-funded with the world body having received only 23 per cent of 221 million dollars it requested. The world body said that its World Food Programme (WFP) has received only 28.5 million dollars out of 171 million it requires for its emergency feeding programme this year. It needs about 40,000 tons of food, valued at around 14.2 million dollars, per month till December. But over the past two months, more than two million people in the west benefiting from WFP aid, including young children and pregnant and nursing women, did not receive any cereal rations, while the average caloric intake among pregnant and nursing women was only 70 per cent of the recommended amount. A spokesman for WFP said the agency had hoped to feed 6.5 million people this year but because of the funding shortfall has had to cut back on its operations dramatically, reaching only 1.8 million of the most vulnerable women, children and the elderly. "A huge segment of the most vulnerable has had to make do with the meagre distributions from the public distribution system, which accounts for only 50 per cent or less of their daily caloric intake," he said. © HT Media Ltd. 2004. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
