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Stories of Change:The EU Food Facility

As the global economic downturn and spiraling foodprices sent even the richest nations reeling, theEuropean Union reached out a hand to help the poorest.

Between 2009 and 2011, nearly €83.9 million ($116.8 million) in EU Food Facility funding has helpedrealize World Food Programme (WFP) projects in tencountries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Guatemala,

Honduras, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines,

Senegal and Sierra Leone.

By improving nutrition and agriculture, buildinginfrastructure and creating jobs, the projects are notonly giving some of the planet's most vulnerable peoplethe tools to survive in hard times but also to build abetter future.

In Asia, EU assistance has helped Pakistani farmers learnbetter agricultural techniques and Bangladeshi growersbuild irrigation canals and dams to buffer them fromfloods and storms. Isolated communities in Nepal havebuilt roads that link them to markets, schools and health

clinics. Through these WFP cash- and food-for-workprojects, participants can pay for their children'seducation and buy basic goods — or invest in newbusinesses, like fish farming.

In the restive Philippines island of Mindanao, women aredriving efforts to revive fisheries by planting mangrovesor making ropes for sale from used WFP food bags.

In Africa, EU funding is helping communities in two otherwar-torn countries — Liberia and Sierra Leone — getback on their feet through WFP-supported initiatives likebuilding community agricultural centres andrehabilitating swamps for cultivation.

And in the southern Senegalese city of Ziguinchor,Juliette Sagna is bringing home full bags of rice for thefirst time in her life, thanks to a new WFP cash andvoucher programme. Targeting urban slums in the WestAfrican country, the initiative is also a boon forbusinesses struggling with the tough economic climate.

EU-supported projects in Latin America are also givingfarmers a boost — and targeting female growers like 35-year-old Gladys Montoya in Honduras, through WFP'sPurchase for Progress (P4P) initiative.

Female farmers are again in the forefront in the Bolivianhighlands, where they help run an EU-assisted dairyplant that churns out cheese and yoghurt for localschools.

And in Guatemala, an EU-funded project is teachingelderly couple Juan Us and Maria Tum about sustainableagricultural techniques like zero tillage andenvironmentally friendly composting. "We are beginningto implement some measures that can help us," says50-year-old Tum, "and we want to continue."

Stories of Change:The EU Food Facility

EU-funded projectscarried out by WFP inten nations are notonly giving poorpeople the tools tosurvive in hard timesbut also to build abetter future.

Freshly Baked Cookies in BoliviaA smiling worker displays freshly baked cookies that will be packaged and distributedto area schools in the southern Bolivian municipality of San Lucas. The cookies areproduced by the local association Musuj Tarpuy, in a factory supported by WFP andfunded by the EU. The local government buys them for distribution to schools as partof their school meals programme. WFP has long provided food for school mealsprojects around the world, convinced of their importance in fighting hunger. But in anideal world the food would come not from WFP but from local producers. In Bolivia,this is starting to happen — bolstering WFP's transition from a food aid to a foodassistance organization.

School meals initiatives are transforming from individual, isolated projects to morestrategic and comprehensive approaches. Likewise, WFP is gradually moving fromdirect implementation of school meals to working on enabling government ownership,developing capacity and accountability while ensuring hunger, food security andnutrition are high on national agendas. School meals are intended as a safety net tosupport government national development strategies and address hunger and shocksthat affect children and deplete human capital. Through this new approach to schoolmeals, WFP will offer a range of technical support services to countries to fostergovernment ownership of school meals.

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EU-fundeddevelopmentprojects aregiving theseNepalese girlssomething tosmile about.

For more information or to donateonline, please visit our websitewww.wfp.org

Or contact the UN World Food Programme Liaison Office in Brussels:

41, Avenue des Arts, 1040 BrusselsTel: +32 2 500 09 10 Fax : +32 2 502 77 90 E-mail:wfp.brussels@wfp.orgW

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Cover image: More than 121,000 poor people in Bangladesh have received much-needed cash and

food for participating in European Union-supported training and development projects.

Credit: WFP/GBM Akash

by FarinaNoireet

BOIRAGIKHALI,Bangladesh — Formany people,accessing cleanwater is a matter ofopening a faucet.For 30-year-oldTaposhi Kirtonia ittook a four-hourwalk from her homein rural southernBangladesh.

"We have even resorted to buying water from neighborswho own carts and can collect surplus water," says theyoung mother. "But at a time when we could hardly feedourselves, having to buy drinking water was almost toomuch to bear."Finding potable water is a challenge in the flood-pronecoastal district of Khulna, where Kirtonia's village ofBoiragikhali is located. Salty ocean water has flowedinland, destroyed crops and filled up ponds, lakes andcanals that local residents once relied on for drinkingwater.

Adding to their hardship, a pair of major cyclones — Sidrin 2007 and Aila in 2009 — battered the area, killingthousands and leaving survivors like Kirtonia and herfamily homeless and destitute.

"But I still thank God every day, because our lives werespared," she says.

An end to walking for water

Kirtonia is also thankful for an EU-sponsored

embankment project to protect farmland and fresh water bodies from the flooding - thereby boostingharvests and ending residents' marathon treks forpotable water.

WFP paid participants like Kirtonia in cash and food inreturn for constructing the embankment — which alsoserves as a road linking once-isolated villages to schools,markets and health centers.

"With the money I earned, I can afford to pay for myson's education and buy him textbooks," Kirtonia adds ofher 12-year-old son Prince, who spent two years athome for lack of funds.

The family has since moved closer to the embankment,which shelters their home and farmland from floods andstorms. When the rains come, fresh water now fills thelocal reservoir, allowing the family to farm shrimp whichboosts their modest income.

Bangladesh's stormy weather has finally given Kirtoniasomething to smile about.

High food prices and devastating cycloneshave proven catastrophic for Bangladesh,one of the world's poorest nations wherenearly half of the country's 159 millionpeople live on less than a euro a day.

While the government helps millions of themost destitute, others fall through the socialsafety net. Nearly €22 million ($30.2 million)

in European Union Food Facility assistancehas helped WFP to respond rapidly andmassively to the toxic mix of rising foodprices, weather-related disasters and theglobal economic crisis.

More than 121,000 landless labourers andmarginal farmers have participated in EU-funded WFP training and developmentprojects in 11 of the country's mostvulnerable districts. Those enrolled receivecash and food in return for helping to buildroads, irrigation dams and canals. Othershave learnt how to raise poultry and dairycows and new income-generating activitieslike weaving mats.

For participant Hasina Sheik, the projectshave helped women like herself "earn somemuch-needed additional income and gain new skills."

by Khawaza Main Uddin

FORATPUR, Bangladesh — Muntaj Ali scanned his smallplot of land, normally parched and barren during the hotmonths in this slice of northern Bangladesh.

"We cannot grow crops that need water during the dryseason — and we cannot farm land during the rainyseason because it is waterlogged," he said.

Like millions of poor Bangladeshis, Ali's fortunes are tiedto his tiny plot of land — and the region's dramaticweather patterns. Floods and cyclones in recent yearshave driven up food prices, deepening the misery of therural poor — many of them landless or marginal farmerstilling hankerchief-sized fields of less than 0.2 hectares.

But a WFP cash-for-work project has helped torehabilitate a silt-filled canal near Ali's home in Foratpurvillage, giving local farmers greater control over theirlives.

A larger effort

The Foratpur project is part of a larger, EU-funded effortthat rehabilitated canals and ponds spanning 11 ofBangladesh's most vulnerable districts — helping morethan 121,000 of the region's poorest farmers and theirfamilies in the process. Not only can they now irrigatetheir fields during the hot, dry months of October andNovember and drain them in the monsoon season, butthey can diversify their rice production to include wheatand vegetables like onions and garlic.

The canals also reduce farmers' dependency on thecountry's dwindling groundwater reserves for irrigation.

Those changes, says the government's local extensionservices chief Mohammad Yasin Ali, "will benefit localfarmers immensely."

Irrigation Canals BringWater and Hope toForatpur FarmersBANGLADESH

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B O I R A G I K H A L I ,Bangladesh —Kalpana Rai throwsfish food into herpond, watching asminnows swiftlyconsume it.

"I am nowconsidered a leadingentrepreneur locallyand my husband isvery proud of myaccomplishments,"she says.

Life has not alwaysbeen so good. In

this land of stunning beauty and grinding poverty,Rai's story is one of particular hardship.

In 2007, cyclone Sidr swept through her coastal villagein southwestern Bangladesh, killing her parents anddestroying most of the family's meagre belongings. Raiand her younger brother were shuffled from one familymember to another. They worked for neighbours andbegged for scraps to survive. She lost an eye in anaccident during a stint as a farm hand.

Always hungry

While marriage and a baby girl later brought joy toRai's life, the young family barely scraped by — livingin a one-room shack and always hungry.

"I could not even bring my brother to live with usbecause we could hardly support ourselves," sherecalls.

Frequent coastal flooding has made it increasinglydifficult to farm the land. "Even when the watersreceded, the land could hardly be cultivated becauseof the harsh salinity of the soil," Rai says. The youngwoman's fortunes changed dramatically two years ago,when Rai joined a WFP food- and cash-for-workproject to build an embankment that would protect thearea from floods.

Financed by the European Union, the project is part ofa larger effort to develop critically-needed agriculturalinfrastructure that also includes building irrigationcanals and roads.

Upbeat about the future

WFP rice rations put food on the family table. Rai usedher earnings to lease a small fish pond near her homeand to buy fingerlings and equipment.

Now every morning she makes her way to the pond,carrying a net and fish food. She looks forward to theyears ahead.

"Our good fortune has even allowed my brother to livewith us," Rai says, "and he helps me with my work."

A Young Woman'sGuide to Survival

Pushing Back theTides in SouthernBangladesh

Bangladesh

"With the money I earned, I can afford to pay for myson's education and buy him textbooks." B

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Muntaj Ali's fortunes are tied to his tiny plot of land

Taposhi Kirtonia used to walkhours for water.

Kalpana Rai earns a livingfarming fish.

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Known for its soaring mountains and wildlife-rich grasslands, Bolivia is nonetheless one ofthe poorest nations in Latin America withtwo-thirds of the population falling below thepoverty line.

Poverty is even more entrenched in ruralregions of this Andean country, affectingeight out of ten people who are heavilydependent on subsistence agriculture. Theeffects can be devastating. Many childrensuffer from chronic malnutrition, producing

stunting among those under five years of age.In some of the most vulnerable communities,four out of ten children are stunted.

But European Union Food Facility funding ishelping to reverse these bleak statistics.Some €1.8 million ($2.5 million) in EU aid isgoing to improve food production chains thatinvolve some of the country's neediestfarmers. Their output — whether in crops orin processed food — is being sold tomunicipalities that are running school feedingand other food assistance programmes.

One example is in the Bolivian highlands,roughly 3,500 metres above sea level andcomprising almost half of the country'sterritory. In the community of Taraco near thecapital of La Paz, dairy farmers have unitedin a WFP project to produce yoghurt andcheese at a processing plant built with EUfunds. Their client: Taraco's municipalgovernment, which includes the dairyproducts in local school menus.

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TARACO, Bolivia — In the chilly Bolivian highlands offthe shores of Lake Titicaca, female dairy farmers havelaunched an innovative business that is deliveringhigher incomes and, they hope, a better life.

The catalyst: a new, EU-funded dairy processing plantthey are running jointly to produce yoghurt and cheeseto 16 schools in the municipality of Taraco, near thecapital of La Paz.

The plant began operations this year with EU fundingand vital support from WFP and two local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It aims to fightlocal hunger and malnutrition by supplying nourishingcheese and yoghurt to students attending local schools.In addition, it boosts the farmers' incomes — andtherefore their food security — in one of LatinAmerica's poorest nations.

"With my daily income from the milk produce and themonthly income from the dairy plant, I can buy food formy five children, especially vegetables that cannot be

produced locally,” says Esperanza Kantuta, whosefamily counts among 48 area households participatingin the project.

Hard to market

In the Andean culture, women are responsible fortaking care of the domestic animals. Dairy farmers herehave long produced cheese and milk, but marketingthese products locally has proved difficult andhazardous.

Kantuta had to walk several kilometres under a harshBolivian sun to sell her cheeses to vehicles passing onthe main road between La Paz and a tourist complex.

Now, as a member of the farmers' association, shedelivers her cows' milk to the dairy plant. The jointcommunity project means more profits — and lesswork.

“My income is more secure by bringing milk to theplant," Kantuta says.

A joint effort

Through the EU’s Food Facility project, WFP providedthe dairy plant infrastructure and all the necessaryequipment to the farmers' association. The NGO CUNAhelped the group develop a business plan and providedtechnical monitoring.

It also hooked the association up with its future client— Taraco's municipal government. Another NGO,Altagro, trained the farmers in production techniquesand food safety.

The mostly-female milk producers association now sellsmore than 850 servings of dairy products forgovernment-sponsored breakfasts at local schools.

One of its few male members — dairy plant operatorand partner Pedro Rodriguez Quispe — is doubly happy.Not only is he earning money from his dairy products,but his children are eating them at school.

But Quispe is thinking bigger. “In the future we wantthe plant to expand and become an industry that canprovide products to the local and national markets,” hesays.

Dairy Plant BringsSmiles to HighlandCommunity

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"With my daily income from the milkproduce and the monthly income fromthe dairy plant, I can buy food for myfive children, especially vegetablesthat cannot be produced locally.”

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A woman feeding and caring for WFP-providedchickens in Cruz Pampa, a village in the southerndepartment of Chuquisaca. By supplying areaschools daily with eggs from the chickens, WFPcan help ensure students receive nutritious mealsat school — which may help boost theirattendance and performance. This falls in linewith one of WFP's country programme objectivesfor Bolivia — to enable 17,000 school-agechildren between six and 14 years to attendschool in 52 of the country's most food-insecuremunicipalities.

The government's school feeding programme helps promote the use of traditional foods andthe establishment of local food markets. WFPencourages establishing gardens and smalllivestock development projects in schools. Mostof these complementary activities are carriedout by the sustainable school meals projectfunded by the European Union.

A woman tends a garden in the village of JatunMayu, located in southern Chuquisacadepartment.

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in LatinAmerica, with two-thirds of its 9.5 million peopleliving below the poverty line. Poverty is evenmore acute in rural areas, touching 80 percent ofthe population. Its effects can be devastating;stunting in children under five years hasremained at 27 percent nationally over the pastdecade, and exceeds 40 percent in some of thepoorest regions, according to WFP statistics.

Among other objectives, WFP aims to help reduce child malnutrition in Bolivia and improveschool enrolment and performance amongprimary school pupils and street children.

From her earnings selling her milk products to a new,EU-funded dairy plant, Esperanza Kantuta can affordto buy food for her five children — includingvegetables that cannot be produced in the Bolivianhighland community where she lives.

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The food price crisis coupled with floodingand drought in recent years have hard hitthis Central American country, which suffersfrom the world's fourth highest rate ofchronic malnutrition.

Roughly half of all Guatemalan childrenunder five suffer from malnutrition — and analarming seven out of ten children aremalnourished in indigenous rural areas.

The plight of the country's poorest onlyworsened in 2011, with the governmentdeclaring a nutritional risk alert in April, anda new report by the Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank warning of further sharpincreases in food prices.

Some €6.3 million ($8.9 million) in EuropeanUnion Food Facility funding has gone to the World Food Programme’s work inimproving food security and fightingmalnutrition as part of a joint UN agencyprogramme implemented with the Guatemalan government.

The funding has improved the lives of morethan 24,000 families in five of the mostvulnerable departments of Guatemala.

The projects include WFP's Purchase forProgress (P4P) initiative – helping small,notably women, farmers boost their yieldsand better connect to markets.

CHILD HEALTH AND MALNUTRITION

Other programmes target child health andmalnutrition. Overall, WFP has provided food rations to some 34,000 nursing orpregnant women and 100,000 infants across the country.

And with EU help, Guatemalan farmers haveacquired new silos to store their staple maizecrops — to sell at good prices or eat whentimes get hard.

"These silos ensure our families can eat intimes between harvests," says 47-year-oldGiovanny Soto, a father of six and one ofmore than 3,700 Guatemalan farmersbenefitting from the new silos.

In Guatemala's mountainous northwest,people like Juan Us and Maria Tum havelearned sustainable agriculture and forestryskills, thanks to WFP's food-for-workprogramme and technical support from theFood and Agricultural Organization of theUnited Nations.

Today 75-year-old Juan Us says in his nativeQuiché language, life is "utz pues!" — or"very good indeed!"

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by Francisco Fion

EL QUICHÉ, Guatemala — For Guatemala's indigenousfarmers, the land has long been the main source of foodand life. But a mix of factors — lack of opportunities,adverse weather and population pressures on naturalresources, to name a few — has kept many communitieshere mired in poverty.

That is the case of elderly farming couple Juan Us andMaria Tum, whose families have grown maize and beansfor generations in the country's mountainous heartland,northwest of the capital Guatemala city.

Recent years have been especially hard. In 2009, thecouple watched their crops shrivel as drought devastatedthis stunning region that is part of Guatemala's so-calledCorredor Seco, or "dry corridor". The next year, despitethe region’s reputation for dryness, relentless rainsdestroyed their crops.

But this year is different. Us and Tum will harvest theirfirst peaches from trees fertilized with home-madecompost. Their maize crop is flourishing, thanks to anew understanding of sustainable agricultural practices— like tilling as little as possible which increases theamount of water and organic matter in the soil.

The couple has also diversified their production toinclude vegetables such as carrots, onions and medicinalherbs. And they now raise poultry — which drinkrecycled water.

More self-sufficient

"We would like to be ready to face the approaching rainyseason but it is a long process," says 50-year-old Tum."At least we are beginning to implement some measuresthat can help us and we want to continue."

The couple counts among more than 24,000 Guatemalan families who are learning more productive andenvironmentally friendly ways to farm. Developed byWFP and FAO with government support, the agriculturaltraining programmes are part of a larger, EU-fundedeffort to improve the health, nutrition and livelihoods oftens of thousands of Guatemalans.

There are plenty of other development gaps. Us andTum, for example, have no electricity. The nearestmarket town is a three-kilometre hike through themountains.

But by composting and growing new crops, they aremore self sufficient — and saving money once spentbuying food and chemical fertilizers.

SustainableFarming inGuatemala's HillyHeartland

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"We would like to be ready to face the approaching rainy season but it is a long process. At least we are beginning to implement some measures that can help us and we want to continue."

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Maria Tum prepares lunch for her family.

Four-year-old Lidia Us will grow up learningnew ways of taking care of the land and theenvironment.

A WFP field monitor shows farmers how a siloworks in the department of El Quiché. With EUhelp, more than 3,700 Guatemalan farmers haveacquired grain silos that allow them to storetheir staple maize crops — which they can sellwhen prices are high or eat when times get hard.

The silos are part of a larger effort to improvefarming, food security and nutrition inGuatemala, which suffers from the world's fourthhighest rate of chronic malnutrition.

WFP has also provided food rations to some34,000 nursing or pregnant women and 100,000infants across the country in order to improvechild health and combat malnutrition.

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The European Union has been a criticalpartner of the World Food Programme'sPurchase for Progress (P4P) initiative inHonduras, aimed to boost the production andmarketing capacity of small farmers living inone of Latin America's poorest countries.

With the help of some €4.5 million ($6.7 million) in EU Food Facility assistance

since 2010, some 11,400 Honduran growersenrolled in P4P have learned better methodsto plant, fertilize, store and market theircrops of maize and beans. These tools arefreeing them from a vicious cycle of povertyand dependence on middlemen buyers andcreditors.

Thanks to P4P training, "my production isbetter, the sales are better and they pay us abetter price at the market," says 35-year-oldGladys Montoya, one of 80 women farmers inthe project.

Here is her story and those of other P4Pparticipants in the Danlí region of southernHonduras who are farming their way to abetter life.

All stories by Hetze Tosta

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SANTA MARIA, Honduras — For generations, only mencultivated the sloped lands around this southernHonduran community. Now, women like GladysMontoya are challenging that tradition.

“I am dedicated to growing maize," says the smiling, 35-year-old single mother. "I currently have nearly twoacres (less than a hectare) of land. With what I produce,I am able to support my son and my elderly parents.”

Montoya counts among some 80 female small-scalefarmers in eastern Honduras benefitting from WFP'sPurchase for Progress (P4P) project. The EU-fundedinitiative aims to boost agricultural production andmarketing for hundreds of participating growers in acountry where seven out of ten people live in poverty.

“The harvest has improved with the agriculturalsupplies that they gave us," Montoya says of the P4Psupport. "After the training, my production is better,the sales are better, and they pay us a better price atthe market.”

Montoya now harvests the equivalent of 35 sacks ofmaize — 7,000 pounds (3,200 kilos) in total — nearlydouble her output before P4P began.

But Montoya has bigger dreams in mind.

“I hope that they keep helping and training us so thatwe can continue producing a good harvest and this wayI’ll produce 40 or 45 sacks,” she says. “With thissupport from P4P, I want to continue farming.”

Women FarmersThrive In SouthernHonduras

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EL MICO- SAN JUAN, Honduras — For farmers like DonLuis Quintanilla, scratching a living from the land has notbeen easy. From sunrise to sunset, the 61-year-oldfather of four toils on his six-acre (2.4-hectare) plot inthis southern region, growing beans and maize.

During the dry summer months, when the land is tooparched to grow crops, area farmers like Quintanillahave been forced to seek work elsewhere. But today, hislife has been transformed thanks to two keyimprovements — irrigation and a new P4P-suppliedfiltering system.

“Before, when we didn’t have this support, we didn’thave the supplies or the techniques," says Quintanilla, aboard member of the local small farmers' association,APAO. "Our agricultural production was very low. Andbecause of our precarious economic situation, we wereunable to pay for fertilizer."

Since APAO signed on to the EU-financed P4P initiativein 2009, its 100 participating farmers have receivedtraining and key supplies like fertilizer, irrigation systemsand improved storage centres.

"Now, we produce more, the grain weighs more and wehave increased our incomes," says Quintanilla, a burlyman sporting a wide-brimmed hat, wrinkles etcheddeeply into his face.

With better techniques and irrigation, Quintanilla farmsyear round. With more cash from his harvests, he canplan his future.

"Before we would sell but didn't have anything left toinvest," he says. "Now, we sell at a good price, and wekeep the profit."

P4P has given San Juan's farmers a comfortable life,Quintanilla says. "Now," he adds, "I have hope."

New Hope in El Mico-San Juan

CUSTECA, Honduras — The cluster of farmers living inthis tiny village near the Nicaraguan border have thrownoff ancient traditions.

Instead of squeezing a living from the planting andharvesting techniques of their forefathers, they arewatching their crops of beans and maize thrive in thisfertile valley region with judicious use of inputs likefertilizer – and celebrating a hard-won independencefrom middlemen.

For slender, 50-year-old Don Juvenilo Navarro, creditgoes to a new arrival to this 17-family farmingcommunity: WFP's P4P project, launched here nearlythree years ago.

"It has taught us how to better utilize supplies likefertilizers and herbicides," he says of the EU-sponsoredproject. “Before, we just threw them down on our crops,but with P4P training, we learned how to make the mostof their use."

A member of the local small farmers’ association APAO,Navarro began tilling the land as a child, following thesame agricultural practices passed down throughgenerations. Now, Navarro's production on hisdiminutive plot of less than an acre is proportionallymore than three times the national average — a boosthe credits to the training and technical support P4Pprovides to APAO's members.

P4P has brought other benefits to this remote, ruralcommunity.

“Before, the coyotes would buy our sacks for a low pricewithout weighing them, even though they could weigh200 or 300 pounds (90 or 136 kilos),” Navarro says,referring to the middlemen who bought their crops at afraction of the market price. “They also extended uscredit, but the payments were so high that we couldn’trepay them and we ended up losing."

Under P4P, he says, WFP buys half the farmers’ harvestsat good prices. The farmers sell the rest directly totraders at the nearest trading town, ten kilometres away— who also charge fair rates.

"Thanks to P4P, we are selling our product at a betterprice,” Navarro says.

APAO's success has not gone unnoticed. More farmersare now joining the association. For Navarro and hisneighbours, P4P has improved not only their farmingtechniques, but also their quality of life.

Today, he says, they can afford to eat meat once a week— a rare luxury in this region — and buy school suppliesand new clothes for their families.

“Now we can eat things that before we were never ableto eat," Navarro says. "We are able to dress better andalso buy other necessities that before were neverpossible.”

Breaking Free From"The Coyotes"

Honduras

“With what I produce, I am able tosupport my son and my elderly parents.”

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Gladys Montoya counts among 80 female farmersenrolled in WFP's Purchase for Progress project.

Don Juvenilo Navarro iscelebrating a hard-wonindependence from middlemen

Irrigation and a new filteringsystem are giving farmerslike Don Luis Quintanilla areason to smile.

No African country has suffered more fromrising world food prices than Liberia. Rich inwater, forests and minerals, this West Africannation has all the raw ingredients to be anagricultural success story.

Instead, Liberia is healing the scars of anappalling and protracted conflict that endedin 2003. Its people count among the pooreston the planet; more than eight in tenLiberians lives on less than one euro a day.

Adding to their hardship, this largely ruraland agricultural country is heavily dependenton international assistance and food imports— notably of its staple rice — making itvulnerable to sharp price hikes oninternational markets.

Nearly €3.6 million ($5 million) in EuropeanUnion Food Facility funding has helped

Liberians begin to rebuild their agriculturalsystem and tackle malnutrition, the leadingcause of death among children.

The assistance has supported World FoodProgramme projects to turn weed-chokedswampland into productive fields in centraland northern Liberia — regions onceconsidered the country's breadbasket.Roughly 5,000 participants and their familieshave benefitted from these WFP cash- andfood-for-work programmes, which alsoinclude rehabilitating irrigation systemsdestroyed during the war.

EU assistance has also bankrolled dozens ofWFP-supported school vegetable gardens infive Liberian counties — which not only helpto improve students' nutrition, but also serve as community demonstration andlearning sites.

And in the northeastern town of Tappita, an EU-funded, female-run agriculturalcooperative has boosted production andincomes and built new bonds.

"As women began to work together, we got to know one another better and share ourproblems," says one member, 45-year-oldfarmer Victoria Lurlay.

by Lara Eldredge

SELEGA, Liberia — When the Selega Farmers Group firstgot involved with an EU-funded project to jump-startagriculture, Chairman Bubah Jallah worried about howlong it would last.

Other development projects had come and gone in hisvillage in Liberia's northernmost county of Lofa — dyingout when the funding and support dried up.

“Organizations come in here to give us seed rice andencourage us to work in the swamp, but it’s really hardwork and a lot of the farmers don’t see any reason tokeep doing it once the project finishes,” Jallah says.

His thinking changed last year when he sold his firstharvest of paddy rice — grown in war-abandonedswampland that Jallah's group restored under the EU-financed scheme.

“We had a good harvest and we are really happy to haveearned money for our rice, " Jallah says. "Now we haveto figure out how we can grow enough to keep selling.”

Launched in 2009 and jointly run by WFP and the Foodand Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, theSelega project has boosted incomes — and membershipin the farmers group, which has risen to 100 from a lowof 22. Besides helping the farmers rehabilitate some 11hectares of swampland to date, it has given them theseeds, tools and know-how to grow more and bettercrops.

Turning a page on the past

In doing so, the project is helping Liberians like 42-year-old Jallah turn the page on their war-shattered past. A

father of seven, Jallah fled to neighbouring Guinea in1993, during the height of his country's first civil war. Hereturned to Lofa county in 1997 and began farming fora living.

Not only is he now making a profit, but Jallah is alsoproud of his group's newly established pool fund. “Ourrevolving fund allows farmers access to enough moneyto make real improvements in their lives," he says."Already a few of our members have been able toborrow from our fund in order to put new zinc roofs ontheir houses.”

“Almost all of our farmers are planning to grow enoughrice to sell at least one or two bags this year," Jallahadds, "and our revolving fund will continue to grow.”

Farmers Rejoice ina Project that Lasts

Cote D'Ivoire

Guinea

LIBERIA

Sierra Leone Selega

Tappita

by Sheku Kamara and Lara Eldredge

TAPPITA, Liberia — Martha Dakay understands aboutpeople's power. Not so long ago, she struggled to feedher husband and two girls by growing cassava inLiberia's north-central Nimba county.

That changed when Dakay joined forces with otherfarmers in her town of Tappita, as a member of awomen-run agricultural cooperative. Besides cassava,the group now grows peanuts, corn and rice, producingmore than they could have individually — and earningmore as a result.

Not only are they feeding their families, but now thesefarmers are also mobilizing unemployed youth torehabilitate overgrown swampland as part of a larger,EU-financed development scheme for the area. Theirstrides are striking as this country emerges from aprotracted civil war and tries to lift its population out ofpoverty.

"This project has brought me recognition in thecommunity," says Dakay, 45. "It has strengthened ourgroup. We produce more and households have moremoney."

Launched in 2005 as the Tappita Rural Women Structure,the cooperative counts nearly 280 area farmers, the vastmajority of them women. WFP projects, supported withEU funding, have helped these growers invest in theirfuture.

Besides turning war-abandoned swampland intoproductive fields, the farmers have constructed aconcrete spillway that helps control flooding for irrigationpurposes. WFP paid them cash and food for their labour,which helped tide them over during the lean periodbetween harvests and pay for their children’s schooling.The project was jointly implemented with the Food andAgricultural Organization of the United Nations, whichprovided the growers with better seeds and fertilizer,along with training and equipment.

"The project has created a market for us," says 46-year-old farmer Betty Digoliah, who hopes the cooperativewill soon buy a rice mill with its profits.

These development initiatives are part of a larger WFPeffort to help rural Liberians become more self-sufficient.By enhancing their agricultural production, they are lessdependent on food imports and therefore less vulnerableto high global food prices.

"We now have food for family members and also for thecommunity," says the cooperative's chairwoman, BettyBroh. "We also sell some of the food to support ourchildren."

Women's CooperativeBuilds Bonds andLocal Economy

Liberia

“We had a good harvest and we arereally happy to have earned moneyfor our rice," Jallah said. "Now wehave to figure out how we can growenough to keep selling.” Li

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7

"We now have food for family membersand also for the community," says thecooperative's chairwoman, BettyBroh. "We also sell some of the food tosupport our children."

Tappita farmers toiling in a rice paddy. Beyondeconomic empowerment, the Tappita project hasshored up community bonds that frayed andsometimes broke during the civil war.

WFP

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Growers in Selega are earning more moneyfrom their harvests thanks to an EU-financedswampland rehabilitation project.

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Life is hard in this spare, landlocked countryknown for its breathtaking mountains andvistas. One in three Nepalese lives below thenational poverty line and nearly one in four ismalnourished.

But a myriad of World Food Programmeprojects have given hope to tens of

thousands of Nepalese. Supported by €9 million ($12.7 million) in European Unionfunding, they offered food and cash tovillagers constructing roads, dams andirrigation ponds. The projects helped linkfarmers to markets, reduced the devastatingimpact of flooding and boosted crop yields.

"I am grateful to WFP and the EU for startingthe project in our village," says 30-year-oldfarmer Khina Biswokarma, a mother of threewho received rice and lentils from WFP inexchange for constructing an irrigation pondin her western village of Kalikasthan.

"I will use the water from the pond to growvegetables in my field," she adds. "I no longerhave to depend on the rain or walk longdistances to fetch water."

Ne

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By Seetashma Thapa

BHAJANI, Nepal — Dammar Khadka is no stranger toloss. The 44-year-old farmer has watched as housesand livelihoods in his southwestern village were sweptaway by floodwaters during the yearly monsoon season.

"During the monsoon, more than 60 homes were lostto the river," Khadka recalls of the devastation wroughtin 2010 alone. "The waters destroyed all our crops."

Flooding and landslides are all too common in Nepal'sfertile southern belt of Terai, where Bhajani village islocated. For farmers like Khadka, tilling a living fromthe country's breadbasket can be a hazardousprofession.

But today, tens of thousands of them are fighting backagainst Mother Nature.

Under the EU-sponsored cash-for-assets programme,rural communities in the region have built and repairedvital infrastructure such as dams, levees and roads.WFP gave them the equivalent of nearly €1.4 a day —more than enough to meet family needs — inexchange for their work.

In Bhajani, residents have built a dam that acts as abuffer against the floodwaters, protecting their crops.

"We can start growing food again," Khadka says. "Wealso repaired the road, so we can go to the market andsell our produce."

The WFP money also helped the family get back on itsfeet.

"I used the cash to purchase food from the market tomake up for the food I had lost during the floods,"says Khadka, a father of four. "I also used the moneyto enrol my children in school."

Rebuilding Lives inFlood-Prone Nepal

NEPAL

China

IndiaBangladesh

Bhutan

Baitadi

KailaliBy Deepesh Shrestha

GWALEK, Nepal — For Raj Bahadur Malla, one link ismissing between daily survival and hope: a roadconnecting his isolated village in far western Nepal tothe nearest market town.

Instead of selling his surplus produce, the 52-year-oldfarmer has watched it rot in one of the poorest and mostremote regions of this mountainous nation, where aquarter of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

But a WFP road-building project is now transforming thelives of some 6,000 families in Baitadi district, whereGwalek village is located. Begun with EU funding, theinitiative is expected to be completed in mid-2012, withsupport from other donors. Not only will the 32-kilometre-long artery link villagers here to the nearesttown of Dehimandu, but the project also offers them achance to feed their families during the lean pre-harvestmonths.

WFP gave villagers food and money in exchange for theirwork building the road. A father of six, Malla received 2kilos of WFP rice, 250 grammes of lentils and NPR 60 —or about €0.58 — for a day's labour.

"Usually at this time of the year, my family has struggledto put proper meals on the table," Malla says, referringto the pre-harvest months between March and May. "Butwith this project, I was able to work and get additionalfood and money for my family and good nutrition for mychildren."

Villagers also believe the road will bring other benefits tothis region, where farmers eke out a living from theirrice paddies and from growing maize, wheat andpotatoes. Access to education is minimal and the nearesthealth clinic is a five-hour walk away.

"I have seen how people's lives have changed afterroads came to their areas," says another farmer, KeshabBahadur Bohara, who plans to sell his surplus milk andcitrus fruit in town when the road is completed. "I amlooking forward to seeing what it will bring to myvillage."

Malla is also looking to the future. "I am getting old, soI will not be able to enjoy what the road will bring ourvillage for long," he said, before heading to work onanother stretch of the road. "But for my children andgrandchildren, it will be a different story."

A Road Brings Hope to Nepali Village

By Deepesh Shrestha and Seetashma Thapa

SHIKHAPUR, Nepal — Every year thousands of peoplefrom Nepal's impoverished, far western Baitadi districtcross the border into India, desperately searching forwork.

But that is changing here in Shikhapur, with theconstruction of a food storage warehouse, that is givingthe village's 800 residents a reason to stay home.

"We are going to use the new building to storeagricultural produce since we have no storage spacehere in the community," says Shova Kumari, head of thevillage committee working on the project — and one ofits many female participants. "This will stop our foodfrom getting damaged and rotten during the rainytimes."

WFP paid the participants in rice, lentils and modest cashdistributions in exchange for 20 days of work — tidingShikhapur's residents over during hard times as theywaited to harvest their rice and maize.

The warehouse project is one of dozens of EU-financeddevelopment schemes that WFP has realized in Nepal.Others include constructing and rehabilitating feederroads and irrigation canals and giving people access toclean water. Together, they are changing lives in waysbig and small.

In Shikhapur, villagers will use the new warehouse tostore fertilizer, seeds and crops — helping to boost theirfood security in a region where three-quarters of thepopulation is malnourished.

There are other spinoffs. Many of the female workers,for example, said they would use the cash from theirlabour not only to buy food, but also to pay for theirchildren's education and set up small businesses.

As opportunities to earn a living here grow, fewerresidents may choose to trek to India for work. Thechanges may also reduce some of the bleaker

consequences of the annual migration.

"Many women had to leave their children behind to workin India as household staff — if they were lucky," Kumarisays. "Sometimes they were victims of prostitution. Bythe time they returned to their village, they hadcontracted HIV/AIDS."

Now, these women are eyeing new opportunities athome. "Thanks to WFP," Kumari says, "we are able tostay in our village and improve our community."

A Warehouse OffersHope, And a Reasonto Stay Home

Nepal

"We can start growing food again. Wealso repaired the road, so we can go tothe market and sell our produce."

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Female farmers plant crops inthe far-western Nepalese villageof Basudevi, where an EU-fundedirrigation canal has beenconstructed.

Local women wait toreceive rice and lentilsprovided by WFP at afood distribution centre inBasudevi.

"Usually at this time of the year, myfamily struggles to put proper meals onthe table. But with this project, I amable to work and get additional food andmoney for my family and good nutritionfor my children."

Natural and man-made disasters along withskyrocketing food and fuel prices have pushed millions of Pakistanis into poverty in recent years.

Many of Pakistan's most destitute spend astunning 70 percent of their income on food— leaving families with little left to spend onhealth care and their children's education.

Despite a bumper wheat crop during the2010-2011 farming season, the southernAsian nation still faces a longer-termchallenge of giving its neediest the tools fora better life.

Innovative programmes supported by theEuropean Union Food Facility since 2009 arehelping Pakistan find a solution. The aid,totaling some €14 million ($19 million), hashelped fund a joint initiative run by the WorldFood Programme and the Food andAgricultural Organization of the UnitedNations targeting tens of thousands of smallfarmers and landless people living on the edge.

By offering farmers better seeds, fertilizersand irrigation systems and enrolingparticipants in a myriad of WFP-sponsoredfood- and cash-for-work projects, theprogramme has improved the lives of morethan half a million Pakistanis.

By Sandeep Talreja

SOOMAR KHAN, PAKISTAN — Weddings are usually ajoyous occasion. But for 65-year-old Haji Kahn (picturedabove), struggling to pay farming debts and feed hisfamily of 12, marrying off eight daughters is an extraburden.

"I could not afford to educate my children," says Khan,who tills a tiny plot of less than a hectare in Pakistan'ssouthern Sindh province. "But I felt if I was unable toarrange my daughters' marriages I must die — becausethat is my responsibility as a father."

Ever since he began farming in this flat and sometimesbrutally hot region, Khan has been dogged by debt.During the leanest times, he could only repay the highinterest rates charged by creditors lending him moneyfor fertilizer and wheat seed. Khan has even borrowed tobuy food and other basics for his extensive family.

"I was thinking of selling my land to pay for a daughter'swedding," Kahn says.

Instead, he got an unexpected windfall — joining a EU-funded initiative launched in his village of Soomar Khanto help Pakistan's most destitute rise from poverty.

With better farming techniques, seeds and fertilizerprovided by the Food and Agricultural Organization ofthe United Nations under the project, Khan doubled hisaverage earnings from the previous season's wheatharvest, planting vegetables, rice and sunflowers aswell. Key to the initiative has been WFP-supplied wheatto tide farming families over until the next harvest —without depending on more loans.

This season Khan is thinking bigger — diversifying hisproduction to include red carrots, onions, peas, sorghumand okra — known locally as ladyfinger.

Not only can he feed his family, but he also meets hisfatherly obligations.

"With my earnings, I arranged a marriage ceremony fora daughter and purchased a cow," he says. "This projecthas helped my family live in a better way."

Money to Marryin PakistanAfghanistan

China

India

Iran

Nepal

Oman

PAKISTAN

TajikistanTurkmenistan Uzbekistan

Kashmir

Sindh

By Amjad Jamal

SUKKUR DISTRICT, Pakistan — A village leader andwoman farmer, Bakhtawar Mai knows intimately thehardships facing growers in southeastern Sindhprovince.

Dry weather in recent years has driven up food pricesto levels millions of people can no longer afford. Butinstead of growing more, farmers are growing lessbecause the costs of seed, fertilizer and fuel have shotup as well.

“We are very poor and often have to borrow thesethings from local dealers, who don’t always deliver ontime because we can’t pay up front,” Mai says.

So as prices keep climbing, they are pushing more andmore people into the ranks of the hungry poor.

Breaking the cycle

Now tens of thousands of farmers like Mai are puttinga stop to the downward spiral. They are part of anambitious, EU-supported joint effort by UN agencieslike WFP and the government to address soaring foodprices.

Under the joint project, the farmers receive high-quality seeds and fertilizer from the Food andAgricultural Organization of the United Nations. WFPprovides some 400 kilos of wheat to last them throughthe lean, pre-harvest season — freeing up money theywould normally spend on food.

Farmers now invest the extra cash in irrigating theircrops for longer periods, and paying for health careand schooling for their children.

“My harvest was excellent. I produced almost twice asmuch wheat as I did the year before,” Mai says of aprogramme that helped some 82,000 small farmersacross 17 districts in Pakistan.

Mai is not alone. While sparser rainfall in 2010 took atoll on dryland growers, participating farmers inirrigated areas like Sindh province generally doubledtheir harvests compared to the previous year.

And while devastating floods last year also hit half adozen districts in Pakistan where the projects aretaking place, other farmers similarly saw bumper 2010harvests. As a result, they will no longer need food aidto get through this year's lean season — or loans frommiddlemen to buy seeds and fertilizer. The cycle hasbeen broken.

Landless poor

The project’s next target are Pakistan's landless poor,who have been hit hardest by the price hikes andaccount for many of the 4.5 million people thrust intohunger since 2008.

To help them, WFP and its partners have set upschemes that will provide wheat to tens of thousandsof people around the country in return for work oncommunity-based agriculture and infrastructurerehabilitation projects — like a network of irrigationcanals and rainwater-harvesting structures.

Overall, some 574,000 people will benefit from theprogramme, receiving either WFP food for the shortterm or assets to help them prosper in the future.

Prospering in Hard Times

Pakistan

"With my earnings, I arranged amarriage ceremony for a daughterand purchased a cow."

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“My harvest was excellent. I produced almost twice as much wheat as I did the year before.”

WFP

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WFP

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A farmer spreads FAO-provided fertilizer on hiswheat crop. WFP hasprovided wheat rationsfor his family as helearns new agriculturaltechniques.

A farmer takes hisshare of wheat from aWFP distribution point.

WFP

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Haji Kahn oncethought about sellinghis land to pay for adaughter's wedding.

A series of natural and man-made disasters inrecent years – including typhoons and highfood and fuel prices – have hit this southeastAsian island nation that is already the world'slargest rice importer.

For the Philippines' second-largest island ofMindanao, these disasters further complicateits recovery from four decades of armedconflict between government forces andseparatist groups.

Six of Mindanao's provinces rank among thepoorest in the country and most farmers inthe region are landless sharecroppers.

Education is also below the national average,with only a third of the island's childrencompleting primary school.

With €6.4 million ($9 million) in support fromthe European Union's Food Facility fund, theWorld Food Programme (WFP) is helpingthousands of formerly displaced communitiesget back on their feet. The funding also goesto WFP programmes aimed to improve theresilience of other food insecure householdsin Central Mindanao by expanding governmentsafety net initiatives and building communityassets.

Through WFP's food-for-assets programmes,targeted communities in five of Mindanao'smost vulnerable provinces are practicingbetter farming techniques, reconstructingfarm-to-market roads and irrigation canals,learning new income-generating skills and working on projects to mitigate climate change.

WFP is particularly focusing on empoweringwomen who – through activities such as ropemaking, mat weaving, mangrove planting andcommunal gardening – are driving CentralMindanao's road to recovery.

Ph

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by Jonathan Dumont

LANAO DEL NORTE, Philippines — After decades ofwarfare in this country's southernmost island ofMindanao, a 2009 truce between the Philippinegovernment and separatist groups has allowedhundreds of thousands of displaced people to finallyreturn home. Now, local communities face thedaunting task of rebuilding their shattered lives.

“Over 90 percent of the population here fled,” BaiconMacaraya, who runs WFP operations in the northernpart of Mindanao, recalls of the last major upsurge offighting. “When they returned, they had nothing tocome home to. Their homes had been burnt and thenthere was no harvest for the farmers.”

The women of Mindanao are playing a key role inreconstructing this largely agricultural area,participating in a myriad of EU-funded WFP projectsaimed at rebuilding livelihoods. In exchange for WFPfood, these women are literally sowing the seeds ofhope in some of the country's poorest provinces.

Seeds for the future

Reviving fisheries by planting mangroves — whichprevent soil erosion and create breeding areas formarine life — is one example. In December 2010,women from the Northern Mindanao province of Lanaodel Norte approached WFP for help in doing so,Macaraya says.

WFP is also helping other conflict-affected Filipinowomen plant community gardens. These and otherfemale-driven projects are turning old stereotypes ontheir head.

"In Mindanao, they’re used to referring to ‘farmers’ asmen," Macaraya says, "so any opportunities foragricultural support were prioritized to men. With thecommunal gardens project, WFP is empoweringwomen with the skills of working the land and

changing the perception of who a farmer is — it's howthey (women) become part of the farming community."

Putting women in the driver’s seat of development hasalso helped foster a community spirit that is key torecovery, Macaraya says. "The crucial point," she adds,"is building trust."

Seeds of Hope

Brunei

China

Indonesia

Malaysia

PHILIPPINESVietnam

Mindanao

By AveenAcuña-Gulo

M A D I A ,Philippines — Apile of used WFPfood sacks sitsin the corner ofan unfinishedhouse, not to betossed away butto be recycledfor anotherpurpose — asrope.

“We wash these sacks, unravel them and tie them insmall bundles before twisting them into twine,” says 29–year-old Rahima Iskak, a mother of two. “On a slow dayone person can finish 80 metres of rope.”

Rope making is an old tradition in the conflict-tornvillage of Madia, located in one of the poorest provincesof the Philippines. Now, a year-old WFP project is helpingto revive the craft and train village women in effectivemarketing techniques.

The project is part of a broader WFP initiative to helpsome 954,000 people in the southern Philippines islandof Mindanao who fled their homes during a 2008/2009upsurge of fighting between government forces andseparatist groups.

With financing from the European Union, the efforts aimto empower communities and promote self-sufficiency inCentral Mindanao, as displaced residents return homeand start the daunting process of rebuilding their lives.

Coming home

Madia-area residents, many of them tenant farmers, hadlittle to return to in 2010, when they made a 30-kilometre trek home from a camp for displaced people.

“We were extremely concerned about how we would re-establish our livelihoods, since we did not even haveseeds or agricultural tools to cultivate our rice fields,"said 42-year-old Teng Ismael who spent 20 months inthe camp.

A father of five, Ismael is participating in another WFP-supported project; to restore the productivity of war-abandoned rice fields. With help from the localagricultural office, some 100 farmers are learning how torehabilitate, fertilize and prepare their land for riceplanting, among other skills. WFP is providing foodassistance in exchange for their labour. “I received atotal of 39 bags of food assistance for the work I did on1.5 hectares of agricultural land," Ismael says.

On the road to recovery

The rope-making project in Madia village is another stepon the road to recovery. WFP provided the used bagsand a three-month ration of rice to each of the 70female participants.

Today, 40-year-old Kapisa Tuka is an expert in the craft.“We need at least two to three sacks depending on theirquality to make four metres of rope,” which fetches15.00 pesos (€0.25) per length, she says.

On a recent day, the village women took 400 metres ofrope to sell at the nearby market of Mamasapano. Onany given day, each participant can earn about 300pesos — roughly €5.00 — from their work. They usetheir profits to buy food and other necessities for theirfamilies.

By training a new generation of Madia women, theproject is sharing rope-making skills more widely — andensuring the tradition lives on.

"Making ropes helps the women earn some money," saysNanding Sayotin, a local agricultural official whospearheaded the project. "That’s why we need to teachmore women how to do this."

Rope of Life

Philippines

"In Mindanao, they’re used to referring to ‘farmers’ as men, so anyopportunities for agricultural supportwere prioritized to men. With thecommunal gardens project, WFP isempowering women with the skills ofworking the land and changing theperception of who a farmer is."

Members of the Muntay FisherfolkAssociation in Lanao del Norte placebamboo sticks beside planted mangroveseedlings to protect them from thestrong current.

WFP

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Madia’s community has developed asimple rope-making machine thatcan even be used by the blind.

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Record high food and oil prices in recentyears have sparked widespread protests andhardship in this West African country that isheavily dependent on world markets forimports — notably of its main staple, rice.The global financial crunch has also taken atoll, drying up key remittances sent bySenegalese workers abroad.

Roughly €10.9 million ($15.3 million) inEuropean Union Food Facility assistance has

bolstered the World Food Programme's effortsto help Senegal cope with the fallout of thesetwin crises, which have deepened povertyand malnutrition among the most vulnerable.

Since 2009, nearly 548,000 Senegalese havebenefitted from a variety of EU-fundedprojects, ranging from planting communitymarket gardens to building roads andirrigation systems. EU funds have also helpedpay for WFP health and nutrition programmesto help combat iron deficiency and otherdiet-related ailments plaguing pregnantwomen, young mothers and small children.

And in the southern city of Ziguinchor and theslum suburb of Pikine city, near the capitalDakar, an EU-funded WFP cash and voucherscheme is offering a lifeline to some 17,000needy families. With the vouchers, they canbuy staples like rice, millet and vegetable oilin selected stores — boosting the localeconomy as a result.

By Paulele Fall

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal — Mouhamadou Boye Sow'sdream of immigrating to Europe vanished on theMoroccan border in 2000, when police took him intocustody as an illegal immigrant and he eventuallyreturned to his store in this southern Senegalese city.Other hopes — to finish college and work as avolunteer teacher — remain on hold.

But the 33-year-old shopkeeper is embracing a newopportunity; his business is among 49 targeted inZiguinchor to participate in a new WFP food voucherprogramme. Piloted here and in the slum suburb ofPikine city, near the capital Dakar, the EU-fundedvouchers help the country's poorest citizens boost theirpurchasing power, without hurting the local economy.

The voucher scheme also helps merchants like Sow,because their customers are now buying more — andpaying on time.

"The food voucher programme is real relief for me,because I am a shopkeeper in a neighborhood wherethe vast majority of the population is indigent," Sowsays.

In the past, many of Sow's largely female clienteleonly bought tiny amounts of food at the store with

their meagre earnings from chopping and sellingfirewood. Most of the poorest ran up credit they wereunable to pay back at the end of each month.

"Today, with the WFP vouchers these clients buy a fullbag of rice," says Sow. Women also snap up sugar andoil, with staples of millet and maize in lesser demand.His clients settle their purchases with the vouchersthat are reimbursed by financial institutions under WFPcontract — and Sow is reaping the benefits.

Boosting sales

"Before my sales amounted to about a million CFA(about €1,500 or $2,200)," he says. "Since mycollaboration with WFP, I easily make five to six millionCFA on the months when there is the (voucher)distribution."

Many of Ziguinchor's shopkeepers enrolled in thevoucher scheme offer similar stories of change — evenas they consider ways to make it sustainable in thelong run. More than just a security net for the mostvulnerable, the vouchers are helping to build solidfoundations for local economic development.

Many of his customers chat with Sow as they shop; hehas become their confidante. One lives across thestreet and stops by after a day chopping firewood."Usually, when she comes back from the bush she isvery tired and constantly complains of a headache," hesays.

No longer. "She now seems in better shape," he says."Even her appearance has changed because now shehas enough to eat."

A Reason to Stay Home

Guinea

Gambia

Guinea-Bissau

Mali

Mauritania

SENEGAL

Ziguinchor

By Paulele Fall

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal — A crowd gathers in front of alocal chiefdom's headquarters in this southern city on arecent Tuesday morning, waiting for a special delivery —WFP food vouchers that can be redeemed at local stores.

"I have waited for this moment for a month," says 54-year-old widow Juliette Sagna, who awoke at dawn tobecome among the first to arrive at the voucherdistribution point, located in Ziguinchor's Diabirneighbourhood.

Sagna counts among some 7,500 vulnerable families inthe Ziguinchor area benefitting from a European Union-financed pilot phase of WFP's food voucher scheme.

Many of the recipients were forced to flee their homesduring a fitful three-decade-old conflict in Senegal'ssouthern Casamance area. Now, with peace graduallysettling in, they are returning home.

As they resettle, the vouchers are helping Sagna andothers combat another crisis — soaring prices for staplegoods and the widespread fallout of the global economicdownturn.

A difficult life

Sagna and her family fled their village of Djabir in 1989.Her husband died from illness along the way. When sheand her seven children returned home a decade later,they were penniless and faced a bleak future. Until thevouchers arrived, she had depended on the kindness ofvillagers to survive.

"Since my husband died ten years ago, my children andI live on the generosity of family and friends," Sagnasays.

Even when her husband was alive, the family couldnever afford to buy more than a couple of kilos of rice.Today, Sagna rejoices in the 50-kilo bag of rice — alongwith sugar and vegetable oil — that she will buy with theWFP vouchers.

The vouchers will also pay for other staples — includingthe ingredients for a caldou — a local dish of rice,vegetables and fish sauce. "Now, with this food, mychildren will be able to eat a good caldou at midday,"she says.

A Full Bag of Rice

Senegal

"Today, with the WFP vouchers these clients buy a full bag of rice."

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"Now, with this food, my children will be able to eat a good caldou at midday."

WFP

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WFP

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WFP

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A woman receives a WFP food voucher in Ziguinchor's Diabir neighbourhood.

MouhamadouBoye Sow has doubled his salesthanks toWFP foodvouchers.

With the vouchers, these women can buylarge bags of rice, along with sugar andvegetable oil at selected stores.

Sierra Leone's recovery from a horrific civilwar (1991-2002) has been hampered by therecent sharp hikes in food prices. While theimpact is global, the fallout is particularlykeenly felt in this West African country whichimports roughly a third of its rice, thecountry’s main staple and most economicallyimportant crop.

The challenges facing Sierra Leone can becaptured in a handful of bleak statistics. Theaverage lifespan is 41 years — roughly halfthat of western nations. Malnutrition ranksamong the world's highest, with acute

malnutrition at or above emergency levels of 15 percent among children under five years old.

But this country also offers stories of hope.With support from the World Food Programmeand other development partners, SierraLeone's government has drafted a nationalprogramme aimed to commercialize small-scale production and strengthen social safety nets.

About €5.4 million ($7.3 million) in EuropeanUnion Food Facility funds are helping toimplement WFP food-for-work activities thatmeet these goals. The projects range fromrehabilitating abandoned farmland andderelict roads, to offering technical andbusiness training for people working in theagricultural sector.

WFP food assistance has "freed us from theburden of finding food for our children whilewe concentrate on the work," says FatmataSwarray, a farmer and mother of four, wholives in Sierra Leone's eastern Kono district.

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by Francis Boima

NORWAY, Sierra Leone — Fatmata Swarray survivedSierra Leone's decade-long civil war that ended in2002. Now she is winning another battle - againsthunger in this West African country where seven out often people live below the poverty line.

"At first it was sodifficult doing all thework by ourselves,"Swarray (picturedleft), a widow andmother of four,recalls of herstruggle to farm apatch of rodent-infested swamplandin the country'seastern Konodistrict. "We used to

experience flooding which destroyed our crops,because the swamp was not irrigated."

Slowly, the farmers here in the villages of Norway andnearby Samgbagbao are healing the scars of war andpoverty. With WFP food assistance, they have turnedweed-choked, war-abandoned swampland intoproductive fields and learned better ways to irrigate,fertilize, plant and harvest their crops.

The project counts among other EU-funded trainingand work programmes carried out by WFP incooperation with other aid agencies and thegovernment of Sierra Leone.

"We have not only received food, but also trainingwhich will enable us to farm better," says 68-year-oldBockarie Ngaujah, who heads the 228-member Norwayand Samgbagbao farmers' association. "Farmers arenow more motivated to work and the pace of the workhas increased."

The farmers hope to expand their cropland andincrease their rice harvests from twice to three times ayear. They plan to sell the surplus to WFP under itsPurchase for Progress (P4P) initiative, aimed toimprove agricultural production and link growers tomarkets.

"I will be able to feed my family and to pay mychildren's school fees from the money I get," saysNgaujah, a father of six.

Swarray's life has also changed radically in recentmonths. She still remembers the darker war days,when she caught fish and braided neighbours' hair justto get by.

WFP food assistance "gives us energy to work andfrees us from the burden of finding food for ourchildren," says Swarray.

Without the help, she adds, "we would not haveaccomplished much."

Farmers BeginHealing the Scarsof War and Hunger

Guinea

Liberia

SIERRALEONE

Kono

By Francis Boima

BAMBAYA, Sierra Leone — Diamonds are not forever.Just ask 40-year-old Mohamed Dogbo, who oncelaboured in the mines in this eastern, gem-rich slice ofSierra Leone.

"With diamondsgetting hard to findthese days,agriculture is moreprofitable," he says.

Dogbo should know.He heads the FiamaAgricultural BusinessCentre, a new EU-funded venturenamed after theFiama chiefdom, inKono district.

Construction beganin March for the vastagricultural centre,which aims to bringseeds, fertilizers,drying floors, milling

and other agricultural services closer to 200 subsistencegrowers here who are organized into four farmers'organizations.

The farmers are building the structure, receiving WFPfood assistance for their labour. The initiative is a jointeffort, involving Sierra Leone's agricultural ministry, US-based aid group World Vision and the Food andAgricultural Organization of the United Nations, whichprovides construction material along with agriculturaltraining and inputs.

The aim: to help the region's subsistence growersdevelop more profitable operations by improving the waythey produce, store and market their crops.

Life after mining

"We, the women, will especially benefit from thetraining," says 64-year-old Sia Dugba. "Having access toseed loans will allow us to farm every year — and helpme feed my family and send my children to school."

Like elsewhere in this West African country, the farmershere still bear the scars of the brutal 1991-2002 civil warwhich sunk them deeper into poverty. The diamond-richKono district was looted and fought over, forcing manyresidents to flee.

That included Dogbo, who abandoned diamond miningand sought refuge in neighbouring Guinea after rebelsattacked his village in 1992. When he and his familyreturned in 2002, he took up agriculture, planting riceand cassava.

Despite the peace, life remains hard.

"Harvests have not even been sufficient to feed farmersduring the year. Often we almost eat the seeds meantfor planting," Dogbo says.

But he is upbeat about the Fiama centre — which willeventually offer farmers loans to buy seeds andmachines to plant, harvest and mill their crops. "Thiscentre," he says, "will change the way we farm."

Former Diamond DistrictYields New Gems

Sierra Leone

"We have not only received food, but also training which will enable us to farm better," says 68-year-oldBockarie Ngaujah.

"We, the women, will especially benefitfrom the training," says 64-year-old SiaDugba. "Having access to seed loanswill allow us to farm every year — andhelp me feed my family and send mychildren to school."

Members of the Norway and Samgbagbaofarmers' associations say they are moremotivated to work, after receiving foodand training.

Mohamed Dogbo heads the new Fiama AgriculturalBusiness Centre.

Widow Fatmata Swarray is winning the battle against hunger

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