Palestine

Already vulnerable to external shocks, Palestinians’ purchasing power has significantly decreased in the face of the global food crisis following the conflict in Ukraine. After exhausting coping mechanisms and economic means to slightly bridge this gap, nearly one-third of the population – 33.6 percent, or 1.84 million people – are food insecure. Food insecurity is high among women – 36 percent of families headed by women are food insecure –particularly in the Gaza Strip, where 63.3 percent of women-headed households suffer food insecurity.  

The humanitarian conditions in Gaza, and the collapse of all productive sectors, basic social services and infrastructures is alarming. Poverty and food insecurity in the Strip affect 59.4 percent and 63 percent of the population respectively. 

Poorly diversified diets are causing overlapping nutritional problems. According to national surveys, nearly 50 percent of those assessed had very low levels of essential minerals and vitamins.

The World Food Programme (WFP), through its dual mandate in humanitarian and development, provides life-saving food assistance to the most vulnerable and food insecure non-refugee Palestinians and works to safeguard livelihoods, build resilience, and reconstitute food systems in vulnerable areas. WFP also lends its technical expertise to support national institutions by strengthening their capacities in responding to shocks and building an inclusive social safety net.

To further strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, WFP is providing climate-smart agricultural assets such as hydroponics and wicking beds to households to increase their calorie intake and enable them to generate income. WFP also scaled up its resilience-building activities to include greenhouses, vegetable farms, sheep, poultry, and technical and vocational trainings for youth and people with disabilities. These projects reduce people’s vulnerability to external shocks, serve as a safety net, and support livelihoods. 

In parallel, WFP is running a social behaviour change campaign targeting school children and pregnant, lactating, and women with children under age five with awareness and cooking sessions, greenhouses, and community activities to improve nutritional health and combat food insecurity. 

WFP provides its robust systems to humanitarian and development partners, allowing them to reach more people faster, and at a lower cost to donors and the environment. By offering its cash-based transfer platform to the wider humanitarian and development community, coordinating logistics, and developing an inter-agency common feedback mechanism, WFP contributes to the wider efforts for humanitarian-development-peace nexus.