- The UN food agency has introduced food voucher programme in Burkina Faso targeting 120,000 highly affected by the soaring food prices. The programme which is the first in Africa will target people in the urban areas of Ouagadougou.
According to World Food Program statement, the food is available, but is not accessible to majority of poor Burkinabes in the city where basic staple food has risen by more than 25 percent in the past year.
WFP Country Director in Burkina Faso Annalisa Conte said the vouchers are an innovative solution to hunger needs among people who live in a city where shops and market stalls may be full of produce, but prices are still too high for the poor and the vulnerable. "Sometimes it makes more sense to give people vouchers than bags of food," she said.
Under the new programme, family members will be given a voucher worth 1,500 francs CFA, or about $3, which they can use in shops that have signed a contract with WFP. In exchange for the voucher, people will receive maize, cooking oil, sugar, salt and soap. Each family will receive up to six vouchers per month for six months, the agency has said.
The WFP also said distributing vouchers instead of food is the more cost effective way of alleviating hunger as opposed to incurring costs of transportation where urban dwellers are surrounded by markets and stalls.
The agency's communiqué said WFP and its partners will also distribute food vouchers in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso for 60,000 people beginning next month.
During the launch of the voucher operation in Burkina Faso, WFP will also hand out rations of Plumpy Doz, a ready-to-eat and highly nutritious peanut-based paste enriched with nutrients, to families with young children.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso is also to receive a United States government grant of US$ 480.9 million under the Millennium Challenge Corporation to improve the impoverished country's roads, farm productivity and girls' education.
The grant is aimed at lessening impact of poverty as well as promoting economic growth through specific investments to improve agricultural productivity, land management, and roads infrastructure to get goods to markets.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
front page
| news
| countries
| archive
| currencies
| news alerts login
| about afrol News
| contact
| advertise
| español