The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$7.2 million from the United States (through USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance) to provide life-saving food assistance in the form of cash transfers and treatment for malnutrition including social and behavioral change initiatives for 113,500 refugees living in all five camps in Rwanda.
“This contribution from the United States comes at a time when we need it most. With the recent arrival of over 100 new refugees every day from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and rising costs of food, energy and transport, refugees are now, more than ever in need of assistance to enable them to progress towards self-reliance,” says Ahmareen Karim, WFP’s Acting Country Director in Rwanda.
WFP uses cash transfers to empower people with choice to address their essential needs in local markets, while also helping to boost local economies.
Despite this generous funding, WFP is still not able to provide full rations to meet the minimum food requirements for refugees in Rwanda. WFP, in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, introduced a needs-based targeting approach in May 2021 – a system under which refugees are given food rations according to their levels of vulnerability.
Due to funding shortfalls, the most vulnerable refugees currently receive 92 percent of a full ration and those deemed moderately vulnerable receive 46 percent of a full ration. This ensures that the most vulnerable refugees are prioritized for food assistance while the least vulnerable refugees are supported to become more self-reliant.
This contribution is in addition to US$9.5 million received from the United States in 2022 in support of WFP’s refugee operations in Rwanda.
