Africa-Press – Liberia. In a bid to promote efficiency and productivity towards the distribution of food to vulnerable Liberian students and their parents in three counties across Liberia, the World Food Programme (WFP) in Liberia has donated 10 laptop computers to the National Food Assistance Agency (NFAA).
The Dell Lenovo i5 Dual Core laptops, with a processing speed of 1.19 GHz valued at US$9,390, were presented to the Director General of NFAA, Mr. C. Neileh Daitouah by WFP’s Head of Programme in Liberia, Amos Ballayan on Friday, March 25, 2022, at the conference hall of the Ministry of Public Works in Monrovia.
Making the presentation, on behalf of WFP Country Director Dr. Aliou Diongue, Mr. Ballayan disclosed that the gesture came as a result of a request made by President George Manneh Weah.
He recalled that sometimes ago, the Liberian Chief Executive requested the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and WFP to support NFAA in the areas of technical, logistical, and capacity strengthening to lead Liberia’s food assistance sector as the nation joins in the fight against the scourge of food insecurity around the sub-region.
Mr. Ballayan disclosed that WFP remains aware that most, if not all, of its food assistance activities in Liberia, would not be actualized locally if the technical capacity of national institutions such as the NFAA’s is not supported and strengthened.
“So, whatever we do here, we want to make sure that there is a partner or counterpart from the government side that will eventually take over these interventions,” he maintained.
He emphasized that it is predicated upon the President’s request and in the spirit of institutional collaboration that WFP decided to donate the laptop computers to NFAA as part of the organization’s contribution towards capacity strengthening efforts of national institutions.
He added that the move is also intended to ensure that as his group’s current Country Strategic Plan comes to an end in 2023, WFP would have strong national counterparts to work with, including the National Food Assistance Agency (NFAA).
Mr. Ballayan said the donation of the laptop computers was also in respond to several requests the agency has made to WFP since the issuance of the latest Executive Order. It can be recalled that last year on April 27, 2020, President Weah issued an Executive Order for the repositioning of NFAA.
NFAA’s requests to WFP, according to Mr Ballayan, include the training of its workforce in the areas of food security, data analyses, warehouse management, food safety and quality, amongst others. He, however, assured the agency of WFP’s commitment to conducting the training in the mentioned areas as soon as funding is secured.
Mr. Ballayan expressed his particular delight in the donation of the computers, terming it as timely in the wake of the recent agreement entered into by the two institutions to implement food distribution to 55,250 school-children and their vulnerable parents in targeted public elementary schools across the three counties of Montserrado, Nimba and Maryland.
He said with the timely provision of the laptops, accurate reports from the distribution exercise in the counties will be enhanced and done seamlessly. For his part, the Director General of National Food Assistance Agency (NFAA), Mr. C. Neileh Daitouah, thanked the WFP for the gesture.
He used the occasion to also laud the efforts of other international development partners for their immense contributions and efforts towards the rebranding of the agency. He observed that prior to the issuance of the Executive Order by President Weah, the agency has been dormant for several years.
Mr. Daitouah recalled that the WFP has provided office equipment, furniture and stationeries to the agency few months the Executive Order was issued in a bid to address the dormancy.
While acknowledging WFP’s new Country Director’s (Dr. Aliou Diongue’s) willingness to work with NFAA as evidenced by the recent partnership agreement signed between the two institutions to implement the distribution of food to schoolchildren and their vulnerable parents as well as the donation of laptop computers to the agency, Mr. Daitouah also hailed the significant efforts of Ms. Karla Hershy, WFP’s former Country Director, under whose leadership the agency first saw the light in its repositioning efforts.
The NFAA Director General, however, stressed the need for the provision of an adequate office space for the entity to ensure that all of their staffs are housed under one roof to carry out their assigned tasks and responsibilities in an effective and efficient manner.
According to him, the agency currently operates from two localities, with the Program Management Unit (PMU) seated at Gardnersville, while the rest of the staffs are occupying a two-room office at the Ministry of public Works in Monrovia.
Mr. Daitouah further used the occasion to disclose that the cost of NFAA’s five-year strategic plan which is being developed by LIPA with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stands at US$6,500.00.
In a brief interview with Reporters shortly after the presentation, NFAA Acting Director of Public Relations and Communications, R. Webster Nyian expressed the hope that with the combined efforts and support of the WFP and FAO, the agency will actualize its statutory mandate which was stipulated in the Executive Order issued by the President.
He added that the agency will also help provide concrete meaning to government’s flagship Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) in keeping with global efforts to address the troubling issues of food insecurity across the world, and particularly in Liberia.
The National Food Assistance Agency is a non-ministerial agency of government that was established by Executive Orders in the 1970s. Notably, those Orders were repeatedly issued annually from that period up to a few years after the civil crises. However, the agency’s activities came to a halt after the first post-war elections that witnessed the presidency of Mr. Charles Ghankay Taylor.
But the worst period in the operations of the agency was noticed during the 12-year regime of Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf when the agency had neither head to steer its activities nor logistical and enough budgetary support to fully function as a state institution.
Notwithstanding, the many years of sheer neglect, NFAA, for the past year, actively joined its international food assistance partners following the issuance of the recent Executive Order with a mandate for the agency to maximize efforts to get on par with countries around the world in ensuring ‘zero hunger’ including ‘zero poverty’ espoused by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The neglect by previous governments of this once vital agency of government, which played a pivotal role in the past by providing food to vulnerable citizens and supporting school feeding Programs across the country, still serves as the root cause for the annual budgetary constraints NFAA faces in its drive to function to the fullest potentials. Currently, NFAA operates on an annual budget of US$124,745 representing only compensation for its 29 employees.
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