The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has contributed €2 million (US$2.2 million) to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in support of 30,000 of the most vulnerable Afghan and Iraqi refugees, most of them women and girls living in settlements in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This latest contribution from the German Federal Foreign Office will allow WFP to continue meeting the basic food and nutrition needs of refugees living in 20 settlements across 13 provinces of Iran this year.

“We’re grateful to the Government and people of Germany for their generous support to our operations in Iran,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Iran, Negar Gerami. “Stable funding is essential if we’re to continue assisting the most vulnerable refugees who rely almost entirely on WFP for their basic food needs.”

WFP will use the funds to provide both cash and wheat flour to refugee families. The combination of cash and food assistance ensures that refugees have a balanced, nutritious diet and can buy the food of their choice. Cash benefits the wider community by sustaining demand in local shops and bakeries which are sometimes run by refugees themselves.

“Germany has contributed nearly €8 million to WFP over the past six years to support vulnerable refugee families in Iran,” said German Ambassador to Tehran, Micheael Klor Berchtold. “We share with WFP the goal of wanting to improve refugees’ lives and at the same time help them build a better future. While WFP assistance to refugee families secures their food needs, it is coupled with incentives for education, thus following a holistic approach to overcome the protracted refugee crisis in this country. We see the big needs and we want to continue our close partnership with WFP.”

Over more than three decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been hosting around one million refugees — the fifth largest refugee population in the world.

WFP has been providing assistance to refugees in Iran since the arrival of the first asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq in the late 1980s.

The United Nations World Food Programme - saving lives in emergencies and changing lives for millions through sustainable development. WFP works in more than 80 countries around the world, feeding people caught in conflict and disasters, and laying the foundations for a better future.

(Source: WFP)