UNITED NATIONS, May 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Severe funding shortages are
threatening two of the largest operations of the United Nations
World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan and the Democratic People'
s Republic of Korea, WFP Executive Director James Morris said
Monday.
   A press release issued at the U.N. headquarters in New York
quoted Morris as saying at a meeting of WFP's executive board in
Rome that the agency's Afghan reconstruction program had a 46
percent shortfall, while lack of donations for the DPRK this month
stopped feeding one million people.
   "We are extremely concerned that such high priority emergencies
have fallen this far short on funding," the WFP head said. Morris
used his maiden speech to WFP's governing body since his
appointment to target the global challenges facing the largest
humanitarian agency in the world.
   WFP's operation in Afghanistan was launched last month to help
some 9 million Afghans rebuild their life after three years of
drought and war. A disappointing donor response forced the agency
to rely on preexisting food stocks in April and pipeline breaks
are now imminent, according to Morris.
   Morris called for immediate pledges, saying that this was
because once a contribution was made it took two to four months to
get that food into the stomach of a hungry person.
   The WFP is also concerned about the response of the
international community to a massive regional operation to relieve
Southern Africa's worst food shortages in a decade.
   The agency is already feeding about 2.6 million people in
Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but a regional
combination of drought, floods, depleted food stocks and economic
instability suggest this figure could rise to more than 8 million
over the coming months.
   Morris told WFP's executive board that he would use his five
year tenure to widen the fund-raising efforts of the agency into
the private sector to tap corporations, foundations and
individuals.
   WFP is the United Nations front-line agency in the fight
against global hunger. In 2001, WFP fed more than 77 million
people in 82 countries including most of the world's refugees and
internally displaced people.  Enditem