February 24, 2017

Food Security Situation 

CIA World Factbook

• Approximately 1.6 million people in the West Bank and Gaza are considered food insecure, according to the latest food assessments by the UN World Food Program (WFP). 

• WFP also reports that 7.4% of children aged 6-59 months are chronically malnourished. Fifty percent of the population suffers from at least one micronutrient deficiency.

• In Gaza, Palestinians continue to feel the impact of the 2014 conflict, with 47 percent of the population food insecure and one in three people in need of assistance to meet their basic food needs. In the West Bank, vulnerable households are struggling to cope with slowing economic growth, high rates of unemployment, and recurrent shocks including demolitions, obstructions of livelihoods, outbreaks of violence and are increasingly turning to negative coping strategies that risk, placing their families on an even more fragile trajectory.

Food Assistance Programs

• In FY 2017, USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has provided $4 million to WFP Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation 200709, supporting 283,000 beneficiaries in the West Bank and Gaza. Activities supported by FFP include in-kind local and regional procurement and food vouchers.

• In FY 2016, FFP provided a $4 million contribution to WFP to support approximately 98,000 food insecure beneficiaries in the West Bank—including 30,000 Bedouin and herder beneficiaries in Area C.

• FFP funding supports general food assistance activities that target households below the extreme poverty line with poor-to-borderline food consumption scores and consumption gaps that are not receiving cash transfers from the national social safety net. Priority is given to vulnerable, food-insecure groups: the elderly and chronically ill, families with disabled members, and households headed by women.

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

Note: FY: Fiscal Year; MT: Metric Ton; Food Security Situation information provided by WFP. FY 2017 contribution based on funds obligated to date.