Photo by Aristide Gatera
The Government of Japan today announced new financing (through an International Organization Cooperation Grant) amounting to 1.31 million USD to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rwanda.
Support is directed not only for providing school meals and nutritional food supplements to vulnerable populations including refugee and host community children attending the same schools, but also for strengthening national systems on disaster risk management.
This complements a previous contribution of 1.2 million USD for food assistance to asylum seekers and Rwandan returnees announced in December 2023.
The ongoing arrival of asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at sites like the Nkamira transit centre and their transfers to refugee camps has substantially highlighted the demand for food and nutrition assistance.
In addition, the impact of increasingly more frequent and severe climatic shocks, such as the floods and landslides caused by heavy rain in May 2023, also raise concerns about the potential consequences of future extreme climate events.
Considering the urgency in the situation, the financial support from the people of Japan to WFP was approved by the Diet of Japan (Japanese Parliament) to respond to urgent needs of vulnerable populations, ensuring the access to nutritional food and enhancing emergency preparedness and response capacities for disaster risk reduction and management.
“We are highly grateful to the Government and people of Japan for this generous and timely contribution which will allow us to continue providing school meals to refugee and host community children and prevent acute malnutrition among vulnerable populations in Rwanda,” comments Mr Andrea Bagnoli, WFP Rwanda Representative and Country Director.
“In addition, this contribution supports key efforts to strengthen national systems and structures for disaster risk management, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction championed by Japan.”
The Embassy of Japan is grateful to contribute to the needs of vulnerable people such as refugees, asylum seekers, host communities and those living in disaster-prone areas through WFP.
Japan’s assistance is underpinned by the concept of “Human Security”, which emphasizes “Protection” and “Empowerment” of individuals with “Solidarity”.
Through this concept, Japan complements and provides necessary support to the Government of Rwanda, WFP, and vulnerable people.
Japan highly appreciates the tireless efforts and dedication of the Government of Rwanda and WFP in responding to urgent humanitarian needs, and Japan remains committed to supporting those in need. (End)