by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the
Commission
(20 December
2002)
|
Subject: Problem of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank |
P-3906/02EN
Answer
given by Mr Patten
on behalf
of the Commission
(29
January 2003)
The
Commission recently decided to allocate € 10 million in support to the World
Food Programme (WFP) Emergency Operation Plan (EMOP) n. 10190 through its Food
Security Budget Line in order to address the needs of the victims of conflict
in the Palestinian Territories (PT). Target beneficiaries are some 360,000
vulnerable and destitute people from among the non-refugee Palestinian
population. These include children under five, pregnant women and lactating
mothers, the elderly, handicapped and chronically ill. These people were
eligible for welfare assistance (cash and in kind) provided by the Palestinian
Ministry of Social Affairs, a programme that had to be discontinued due to the
present crisis situation.
The
products that will be made available through the Commission funds are wheat
flour, rice, lentils, sugar, vegetable oil and olive oil. In order to ensure
flexibility and a swift mobilisation according to the WFP plans, these
commodities will be procured and mobilised partly by the Commission from Member
States and partly directly by WFP from the Palestinian Territories and
neighbouring countries.
In the
framework of the WFP EMOP n. 10072 that terminated in August 2002, the
Commission had also made available € 5 million for the purchase of some 7,400
metric tonnes of wheat flour and 3,200 metric tonnes of rice for the benefit of
a similar caseload.
By so
doing, the Commission has been by far the biggest contributor to these two
programmes (a table with contributions to the Palestinian territory is sent
direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat).
Since the
mid nineties, the Commission has been financing every year a food aid and cash
assistance programme in favour of the vulnerable Palestine refugee population.
This envelope stood at € 15 million in 2002. The programme is run by UNRWA
(United Nations Relief and Works Agencies) and covers five operation areas,
namely Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The programme provides assistance to some
224,000 Special Hardship Cases, including 105,000 pregnant and lactating women
and their children, 500 Tuberculosis outpatients, families headed by widows,
orphans, elderly, medically unfit to work, etc. The beneficiaries assisted by
this programme in the Palestinian territories are 73,000 people in Gaza Strip
and 31,000 in the West Bank. A recent evaluation study carried out on
the programme emphasised the relevance of the nutrition and supplementary
feeding programme components. These allow providing dry rations to women
beginning in the fifth month of pregnancy until one year after delivery, and
iron supplementation to pre-school children and women of reproductive age at
Maternal & Child Health clinics.
In order
to update the available data on food security, the Commission, in close
collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), WFP and UNRWA,
as well as United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its
partners is in the process of finalising terms of reference for a comprehensive
food security assessment that will cover urban and rural areas, as well as
refugee and non-refugee populations living in the Palestinian Territories. The
mission will study and analyse the issues related to food availability and food
access in the Palestinian Territories and provide recommendations to the
Palestinian Authority for better co-ordinating the efforts put in place by the
international community to tackle the food insecurity situation. The mission is
expected to be launched at the beginning of 2003. It will be composed by a
Senior Team of FAO and National Experts.