The United Kingdom has provided £4.5 million (K4.5 billion) to be given as cash assistance to about 540,000 people facing severe hunger in Malawi.
The money will be given to the hunger victims by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
According to a statement released by UKAid in Malawi and WFP, the contribution, made through the Promoting Sustainable Partnerships for Empowered Resilience (PROSPER) programme’s Crisis Modifier allocation for emergencies, will be used in the ongoing 2020/2021 Food Insecurity Lean Season Response by providing cash transfers to an estimated 540,000 vulnerable people.
The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC), a government-led grouping tasked with providing timely early warning information on hunger, forecasts that 2.6 million people, nearly 15 percent of the population, will face acute food insecurity during the upcoming lean season.
WFP Malawi Country Director Benoit Thiry said the contribution comes at a crucial time and will enable WFP to gear up our support to the Government’s response.
“WFP is grateful for the UK’s support, and this funding will help us reach some of the country’s most vulnerable people, who risk slipping further into hunger,” said
On his part, Development Director for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Malawi Martin Dawson noted that the increasing risk of climatic shocks to poor, rural households worsens a vicious cycle of food insecurity.
“The UK Government has partnered with WFP to help vulnerable households mitigate, manage and recover from the impacts of these shocks,” said Dawson.
The UK has also been supporting the Government of Malawi through WFP to carry out a range of activities, including emergency cash responses leveraging the social protection system, malnutrition prevention as well as building resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
