Embassy of Japan and the World Food Programme (WFP) Visit Newly-Built Safe Evacuation Center and a School Feeding Programme

These programmes, implemented in partnership respectively with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the National Committee for Disaster Management, illustrate the longstanding partnership between the Government of Japan and WFP in support of national priorities in the areas of food security and nutrition as well as emergency preparedness.

Japanese Ambassador Masahiro Mikami noted that WFP and Japan have been working together for many years to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty in Cambodia, and he is looking forward to the visit.

Since 1998, the Government of Japan has been a significant partner to WFP’s work in Cambodia, contributing USD 22 million in the last ten years through both in-kind (rice and canned fish) and cash contributions in support of food security and nutrition, including school feeding, as well as emergency preparedness and response.

School feeding provides a safe and nutritious meal to pre-primary and primary school children in targeted vulnerable communities. It encourages children to enrol in school and attend class regularly, and, by reducing short-term hunger, improves concentration during classes, thus contributing to educational and nutritional outcomes, while also acting as an important safety net for the most vulnerable families.

In 2019, Japan contributed USD 2.7 million to WFP to enhance the resilience of Cambodian communities to shocks and build institutional capacity on emergency preparedness. This support has enabled 1) the construction of six safe evacuation centers in 3 flood-prone provinces; 2) strengthened disaster risk management planning at national, sub-national and community levels, and 3) enhanced early action through early warning systems.

The WFP Representative Claire Conan noted that ‘the severe floods which affected over 800,000 people across 19 provinces last October, were a stark reminder of how important our joint efforts on preparing for and responding to disasters is. The support of the Government of Japan to build six safe evacuation centers and enhance emergency preparedness at the community level is central to saving lives and livelihoods in Cambodia’.

The mission will travel to the Chimeak Primary School in Kampong Thom Province to observe the school feeding programme and to the flood-prone commune of Khsach Chiruos to visit one of the six safe evacuation centers under construction.