Archives

WFP draws Sri Lanka's food insecurity map

On Tuesday June, 25 some 35 experts from Government departments, donors, UN organizations, think-tank institutions and NGOs, attended a half-day consultation on food security analysis that World Food Program (WFP) has been carrying out since last year.

The study focuses on identifying food insecure geographical areas, and more importantly, understanding the causalities of food insecurity faced by the more vulnerable communities living in Sri Lanka. The study has been a three-step process:1) a broad review of the situation analysis focusing on policy matters related to a national food security framework; 2) the second step involved the analysis of secondary data which covers the entire island; and 3) the final step was the collection of primary data which the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) carried out in 29 different sites all over the island,. states a United Nations Information centre Press release.

One of the outputs of the study has been the map of food security for Sri Lanka - which shows relative vulnerability with regard to food security at the divisional level. This is a potential tool to help decision-makers set priorities for the allocation of resources. At the same time, researchers will also be able to exploit this information system.

The objective of the food security analysis is to improve targeting of limited WFP resources to those segments of the population who most need food assistance. The findings and results will also be shared with other institutions wishing to utilize the databases for their own programming purposes. In fact, several Government Departments have shown great interest in the availability of data which covers the entire island.

It is hoped that a similar food security analyses and poverty-focused monitoring systems will be set up which will assist the Government in its efforts towards poverty reduction in Sri Lanka.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager