WFP deputy director in Brussels to drum up urgent funding for Afghanistan

The UN World Food Program (WFP) deputy executive director, Carl Skau, will call for urgent funding at a meeting on Afghanistan in Brussels on Thursday, in a bid to avoid a catastrophe this winter.

Ahead of the meeting, which is being hosted by the EU Commission, Skau said: “I am here in Brussels to participate in a senior officials meeting on Afghanistan with partners and with donors, hosted by one of our most generous donors, the European Commission.

The purpose of the meeting is to come up with a plan and an approach on how to assist the Afghan people through the winter, he said.

WFP runs a critical aid program in Afghanistan but has been forced to cut assistance over the past few months due to funding shortfalls.

“The operating environment is of course extremely difficult, but we are able to deliver in a principled and effective way.

“So my message to donors today is that we need more assistance, we need more money in order to assist Afghanistan through the winter.

“But we also need to work in a new way. We need to work with Nexus. We need to have sustainable solutions and to bring in the development actors working with communities,” he said.