By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is closing its Southern Africa bureau due to funding constraints, the agency announced on Monday.
The closure of the UN agency, which relies on the United States for nearly half its budget, comes at a time when the region is grappling with severe drought, significantly impacting agriculture.
US President Donald Trump had previously cut foreign aid contracts worldwide as part of his administration’s “America First” agenda, including funding for the UN programme, which is considered life-saving.
Although the WFP has not yet specified the extent of the impact that the US funding cuts will have on its operations, regional spokesperson Tomson Phiri stated that the donor funding outlook had become “constrained”.
Washington remains the single largest donor to the WFP, which provides food and cash assistance to nations suffering from hunger due to crop failures, extreme weather conditions, and conflict. Last year, the US contributed $4.5 billion of the programme’s $9.8 billion budget.
An El Nino-induced drought last year forced Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia to declare national disasters.
According to Phiri, the agency will merge its eastern and southern Africa operations and manage both from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
“The goal is to stretch every dollar and target maximum resources to our frontline teams,” he said, adding that the closure would not affect country operations in Southern Africa.
The WFP states that more than 60 percent of the food it procures is used in operations within the region where it was purchased.
Trump’s administration is reducing over 90 percent of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) foreign aid contracts and cutting more than $58 billion in overall US assistance worldwide.
