Around 30,000 Palestinians are set to be benefited from a 12-month food voucher scheme launched in the Middle East by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the first of its kind in the region.
"The recent fall in global food prices has not yet translated into lower prices in local markets," said Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, WFP Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Palestinian families are now spending about 60 per cent of their income on food," she stated, adding that the new project would improve people's access to food, while also providing a financial stimulus to the local economy.
Under the programme, developed together with the Palestinian Authority, families will receive eight vouchers per month with a monthly value of $50, which they can use to buy items such as bread, eggs and milk.
The operation began in the West Bank on Wednesday, where the price of staples such as wheat flour, sugar, rice, oil, pulses and milk rose by almost 70 per cent in 2008. WFP plans to start a similar scheme in Gaza for about 15,000 people.
A WFP study done in July 2008 found that people in the occupied Palestinian territories are "highly vulnerable" to the impact of global food prices.
In February, the Rome-based agency launched its first food voucher programme in Africa, targeting 120,000 people in the capital of Burkina Faso who are suffering from the impact of high food prices in urban areas.
