UN food relief agency boosts value of vouchers for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon

Extremely vulnerable Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon will now receive higher-value electronic vouchers from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), with an average value of $21 per person per month, or 80 per cent of the full intended value of the vouchers.

As a result of new donor support, WFP is also resuming assistance to 229,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in Jordan who stopped receiving food vouchers in September due to severe shortage of funds. Their electronic vouchers will be uploaded with a value of $14 per person per month, according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Based on the funding that WFP received, he said, the agency can continue to assist Syrian refugees at the current levels until January 2016, but it is still wrestling with trying to run this operation on an ad hoc basis.

“Without predictable sources of funding, WFP may not be able to provide regular food assistance to the most vulnerable Syrian refugees for more than two months,” said the Spokesperson, adding that inside Syria, the agency continues to provide food for more than four million people every month, but as a result of the funding crisis, it has reduced the size of food parcel.