Operational Priorities: OPT – WFP report (excerpts)

OPERATIONAL PRIORITIES

JANUARY 2008

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Occupied Palestinian Territory

PRRO 10387.1 – Protracted Relief Operation for Non-Refugee Palestinians

01 September 2007 – 31 August 2009

Under the PRRO, WFP supports over 650,000 of the most vulnerable and food-insecure non-refugee population in the West Bank and Gaza who have been affected by a steady decline of living standards.

• Blended food pipelines will face shortfalls as early as February 08. Urgent contributions are needed now to avoid further pipeline breaks as of May onwards. Donors are urged to continue their support of this critical operation.

• WFP strongly urges donors to provide funding so it can continue giving food assistance to the growing number of Palestinians impoverished by a nearly seven-month economic blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza. Some of WFP’s activities have no funding beyond February 2008.

• Fuel shortages are causing full black-outs in the city of Gaza. Lack of electricity, coupled with lack of cooking gas, makes it impossible to cook and process food. The population of Gaza has been cutting trees to produce fuel. Although WFP has nearly two months’ food supply for its beneficiaries in Gaza, without power or cooking gas, most of this food cannot be used.

• Steep increases in commodity costs are leading WFP to increase overall value of the PRRO by some US$19 million (only commodity). A budget revision is under preparation.

• The PRRO has three fundamental components: (i) protracted and emergency relief; (ii) recovery through support for productive activities and skills development; and (iii) enhanced knowledge, partnerships and advocacy. Of the 665,000 targeted beneficiaries, including 90,000 schoolchildren, 43 percent will be assisted through relief interventions and 57 percent through recovery activities.

• Full rations are provided for people entirely dependent on assistance; reduced rations go to beneficiaries with limited resources. The PRRO emphasizes self-reliance through productive activities: food-for-work and food-for-training concentrate on creating conditions for increased productivity and generating employment; food-for-education contribute to skill-development.

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