Previous | Next

The Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, completed a visit to cyclone-hit Myanmar this weekend with a call for robust support to WFP’s growing relief operation.

“What we need is a seamless global lifeline of relief supplies,” said Josette Sheeran, WFP’s Executive Director, the first UN agency head to visit Myanmar following the cyclone. “Progress has been made, but urgent work remains on the critical last leg.”

On Saturday, Sheeran met with the leader of the new Tripartite Core Group (TCG), Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu, ahead of the group’s first meeting this weekend. The TCG has been established to coordinate the Cyclone Nargis relief and recovery effort.

During her meeting with the head of the TCG, Sheeran expressed her gratitude for the swift granting of visas to international staff, and urged that the bureaucracy which is delaying deployments into the delta be lifted.

Sheeran said WFP needed the support of the Myanmar authorities in continuing to open up the delta to humanitarian workers and logistical assets. She said that while access for international staff had improved, government procedures for clearing the deployment of aid workers remained a constraining factor, reducing effectiveness.

WFP staff in the delta area consistently report that cyclone victims ask for food as their first priority. WFP has managed to dispatch enough food to provide 575,000 people with a first ration of rice, but many people have not been reached, and others are now due a second round of distributions. WFP is currently targeting 663,000 people with food assistance in the worst affected parts of the delta.

Sheeran also stressed to authorities the importance of allowing recently deployed helicopters to operate with greater freedom into and within the affected areas. She said her meetings with the TCG were positive in advancing the helicopter operation protocol.

During her two-day visit to the country, Sheeran saw the extensive suffering caused by the cylone’s damage in and around Yangon, and heard “stories of great hope and inspiration”. She was encouraged by the start of a new WFP project in Yangon which provides cash to 200,000 people severely affected by the cyclone. With markets functioning well in the country’s main city, WFP is working with four international NGO partners to provide about 50 US cents per person/per day for a four-week period. The cash handout project, which started last Friday, is based on the cost of a typical WFP food basket in the local market.

“WFP is committed to being resourceful and finding better ways to reach a large number of people who are struggling to put their lives back together. This project allows us to focus our food delivery efforts on the delta, where most food stocks have been destroyed and markets are not functioning properly,” she said.

Sheeran urged for continued support to assist hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims. WFP’s US$70-million operation to deliver food assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis faces a 64 percent shortfall, while the crucial logistics operation, which supports the efforts of the entire humanitarian community, is falling short by US$32 million.

WFP has six boats and barges running supplies into and around the delta, as well as a fleet of smaller boats shuttling supplies to more remote communities. A fleet of trucks is running into the affected area from Yangon, and supplies are moving into the country by air.

“There is so much work to be done which requires sustained support by the international community. With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July,” Sheeran said.

Donors to WFP’s food assistance operation in Myanmar include the European Commission (US$7.8 million), UN CERF (US$5 million), United States (US$3.4 million), Germany (US$1.56 million), Switzerland (US$963,000), Australia (US$877,000), Italy (US$779,000), Spain (US$779,000), Private donors (US$606,000), Greece (US$200,000) and Luxembourg (US$195,000). The logistics operation has received support from United Kingdom (US$9.9 million), UN CERF (US$4.2 million), Canada (US$2 million), Denmark (US$1.35 million) and Norway (US$972,000).

Paul Risley Spokesperson/Asia
Tel: +66-2-655 4115
Mobile: +66-81-701 9208 (Thailand)
paul.risley@wfp.org

Elizabeth Porter
Press Assistant/Interview Coordinator
Tel: +66 2 659 8617

Click below for other contacts