Over time, the multi-dimensional crisis in Venezuela, not least the political pressures being imposed on the administration of Nicolás Maduro by Washington, has widened into a humanitarian dilemma that includes widespread food shortages. So acute is the food scarcity crisis that the World Food Programme (WFP) has been engaging both Maduro and the country’s Opposition Leader, Juan Guaido, in an effort to halt any further slide.
The WFP has made no secret of the fact that its number one priority is to ensure that the hard fought-for agreement with the government in Caracas that now allows for the start of operations to provide the most vulnerable children in the country with nutritious school meals is not torpedoed by the political crisis. While the Agency is aiming to reach 185,000 schoolchildren by the end of this year, its success or otherwise in this pursuit will depend, to a large extent, on whether its work can escape the jaws of the political affray. It had previously had a presence in the country during the early 1970’s and now, the significantly worsened crisis has rendered it important that it return. It understands, however, that to do so successfully, it must successfully circumnavigate the country’s unceasing political crisis.
In its quest to prevail, the WFP, through its Executive Director David Beasley has had to ‘hedge its bets,’ meeting with both President Nicolás Maduro and Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó. Last week, in the wake of these engagements, the WFP sought to provide assurances through its Geneva office that its school meals programme, “not only in Venezuela but elsewhere that we have worked” has always been independent and “separate from any other interference.”
The WFP has reportedly been aggressively spreading the message that its school feeding operation will focus on pre-primary and special education schools and will also be “investing in the rehabilitation of school canteens and training school staff on food safety practices as a means of reaching the wider community.” This public disclosure, media reports say, has come, reportedly, against the backdrop of an increase in child malnutrition affecting large numbers of the eight million children under the age of fourteen in Venezuela.
A WFP spokesperson has gone on record as saying that “one out of three Venezuelans – which is about 32.3 per cent, is food insecure today… and they are in need of assistance.”
In October last year, a joint analysis by WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) included Venezuela among twenty countries that were “likely to face potential spikes in high acute food insecurity” over the following three to six months requiring “urgent attention.”
