WFP Palestine Country Brief, April 2019
In Numbers
259,531 people assisted in April 2019
US$ 2.5 m cash-based transfers made
36 mt of food distributed
US$ 16.3 m six months (May-October 2019) net funding requirements
Operational Updates
• In April, WFP assisted 208,957 and 50,574 poor foodinsecure people in Gaza and the West Bank respectively, with a combination of food and cash-based transfers (CBT). WFP’s food assistance is a fundamental safety net that enables poor households to meet a share of their daily food needs and prevents them from falling into deeper poverty. This support is all the more critical as the poorest segments of the population have not been receiving their national social welfare entitlements since November 2018.
• Thanks to new contributions, WFP reinstated the full voucher entitlements for all 166,000 people who had been receiving reduced transfers since January – USD 8 per person per month instead of USD 10 – due to severe funding shortages. Albeit seemingly marginal, such an increase makes a tangible difference in improving the purchasing power, living and socio-economic conditions of poor families who usually devote more than half of their resources to food. This has been corroborated by a WFP impact assessment conducted in March that revealed an increase in the prevalence of food deprivation and reliance on credit and family support among those affected by the reduction.
• WFP completed its first quarterly distributions of in-kind food parcels to 35,000 people in Gaza. Each beneficiary household received a package of wheat flour, vegetable oil and pulses that are meant to cover 60 percent of their daily caloric needs for three months. The next distributions are scheduled to take place in June.
• The livelihoods of Gaza fishermen remain obstructed with many falling into a state of food-insecurity and becoming WFP beneficiaries, due to the enforcement of a fluctuating fishing zone currently limited to nine nautical miles (NM) (well below the 20 NM agreed under the 1993 Oslo Accords), decreasing fish stocks as sewage is pumped into the sea, import and export restrictions, rampant poverty and reduced market opportunities. Listen to their testimonies and challenges faced here.