14% of Kyrgyz lack food security, UN says

BISHKEK – The percentage of Kyrgyz families who have extremely poor food security grew from 4% in August 2010 to 14% one year later, Nadezhda Frank, director of programmes for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Kyrgyzstan, said September 21.

“That means almost 764,000 Kyrgyz constantly go hungry,” she said, attributing the growth in Kyrgyz hunger rates to a flawed social protection system, natural disasters, and the June 2010 ethnic riots.

The WFP plans next year to introduce the “Food for Work” programme, in which Kyrgyz will receive groceries in exchange for working on public infrastructure projects. Its plans also include delivery of almost 25,500 tonnes of food to more than 500,000 vulnerable Kyrgyz during the next two years, the WFP said in a September 21 statement.

Since 2009, the UN has supplied US $40m in aid to more than 1m Kyrgyz, according to the WFP.