US embassy cable - 04AMMAN1632

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 001632 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM AND NEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, KPAL, KWBG, IS, JO 
SUBJECT: UNRWA ASKS FOR MORE FOOD ASSISTANCE 
 
 
1.  THIS CABLE HAS BEEN CLEARED BY CONGEN JERUSALEM AND 
EMBASSY TEL AVIV. 
 
2.  Summary:  At a February 10 meeting, UNRWA identified 
food assistance as its top emergency program priority for 
the West Bank and Gaza.  In 2003, 61.8 percent of refugee 
families in the West Bank and 64 percent in Gaza received 
emergency food aid from UNRWA.  However, declining donor 
response to the emergency appeals has forced UNRWA to cut 
the nutritional value of its food basket from 1600 to 1200 
calories and reduce the number of food recipients by 1.7 
percent in the West Bank and 2.3 percent in Gaza in 2003. 
UNRWA also complained that it is unable to meet growing food 
aid needs among its Special Hardship cases (SHC).  None of 
the participating donors announced new food aid 
contributions at this meeting.  End summary. 
 
3.  In an effort to generate more donor support for its food 
aid programs, UNRWA held a half-day technical meeting on 
February 10 to brief donors on its emergency and regular 
food aid programs.  As part of its overall outreach to new 
and minor donors, UNRWA also invited Poland, Malaysia, 
Turkey and Brazil to attend the meeting. 
 
4.  UNRWA focused on its emergency food aid needs in the 
West Bank and Gaza.  Due to closure and curfew-induced 
restrictions on refugee access to jobs and food, UNRWA 
identified food assistance, rather than temporary job 
creation, as its top emergency program priority.  In 2002, 
63.5 percent of refugee families in the West Bank and 66.3 
percent in Gaza received emergency food aid provided under 
UNRWA's emergency appeal.  However, due to poor donor 
response to the emergency appeals (funds earmarked for food 
aid decreased from USD 12.9 million in the first appeal to 
USD 1.4 million in the sixth appeal), UNRWA reduced the 
nutritional value of its emergency food basket from 1600 
calories to 1200 and reduced the number of food recipients 
by 1.7 percent in the West Bank and 2.3 percent in Gaza. 
 
5.  While UNRWA refugees have been surveyed as part of 
nutrition studies conducted by CARE, MARAM and Johns Hopkins 
University, UNRWA has not yet conducted its own 
comprehensive survey of nutritional needs in the West Bank 
and Gaza or the impact of decreasing donor response to 
emergency food programs.  UNRWA's most recent study, a rapid 
assessment conducted in October 2002, shows a worrying 
increase in anemia among pregnant women and infants.  Anemia 
rates among pregnant women grew from 44.3 to 48.5 percent in 
Gaza and from 32.6 to 33.5 percent in the West Bank between 
2000 and 2002, while anemia among infants increased from 
58.8 to 72.8 percent in Gaza and from 33.7 to 41.4 percent 
in the West Bank during the same period. 
 
6.  Due to continuing access problems in the West Bank and 
Gaza, UNRWA has cooperated with WFP, ICRC and local 
Palestinian NGOs to ensure emergency food aid is available 
to the most needy families. Under these cooperative 
arrangements, 5 percent of UNRWA's emergency food aid 
beneficiaries are non-refugees who reside in areas where no 
other relief agencies can provide assistance.  UNRWA reports 
that the cooperative arrangements work only one way; UNRWA 
is the sole food aid provider to the refugees due largely to 
its comprehensive coverage of the community. 
 
7.  UNRWA's Special Hardship Case (SHC) food assistance 
program (part of the General Fund operations) also has 
suffered from decreased funding levels.  UNRWA reported that 
earmarked food assistance contributions decreased from USD 
23 million in 1998 to USD 19.3 million in 2003, forcing the 
agency to dip into unearmarked funds to avoid cutting the 
nutritional value of SHC food aid.  UNRWA also reported that 
it needs greater support from donors to maintain an annual 
increase of 2.5 percent in the number of beneficiaries 
eligible for special hardship assistance.  In order to make 
scarce food aid contributions go further, UNRWA removed 
animal protein from the SHC food basket two years ago. 
UNRWA's regular food aid budget is facing a 17 percent 
shortage for 2004. 
 
6.  UNRWA told donors that delays in payment of pledges and 
in-kind contributions cause ruptures in the food pipeline 
and increase refugee anxieties and complaints about the 
reliability of food assistance.  UNRWA urged donors to pay 
pledges promptly and, to the greatest extent possible, 
contribute unearmarked funds to UNRWA as they give the 
agency the most flexibility to respond to refugees' needs. 
None of the participating donors announced any new food 
contributions to UNRWA, although the EU, Japan and Belgium 
expressed interest in continuing their General Fund food 
assistance, and ECHO expressed interest in continuing its 
emergency food assistance. 
 
GNEHM