Summary of WFP assistance
WFP focuses on vulnerable populations in the Biombo, Quinara, Cacheu, Gabu, Bafatá and Oio regions, which were highlighted as highly food insecure by the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment conducted in 2010. The Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) report of 2013, showed that food insecurity was exacerbated in 2013 by a poor cashew harvest and social unrest. The same study revealed an increasing number of households that spend over 75 percent of their budget on food and that 7 percent of the population was food secure. Coping strategies include reduction in the number of meals and the sale of household assets.
WFP’s programme was designed to support households and communities to recover from multiple and complex shocks compounded by political instability, structural weaknesses, and other socio-economic vulnerabilities. It integrates four objectives: (i) to maintain enrolment rates and ensure gender parity in primary schools by providing daily school meals and take-home rations for girls; (ii) to treat acute malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months, pregnant and nursing mothers through targeted supplementary feeding, and to provide food by prescription to people living with HIV and to tuberculosis (TB) clients under treatment; (iii) to prevent stunting in children aged 6–23 months through blanket supplementary feeding; and (iv) to assist communities and households to rebuild and protect livelihoods through food assistance for assets.
The programme extension and budget revision until March 2016 will provide a three month extension-intime to enable a smooth transition of activities to the new Country Programme (CP). The CP concept note was approved in August. The CP will be aligned with the human development and agriculture pillars of the Guinea-Bissau Government's strategic and operational plan (2015-2020), and with human development and economic growth and poverty reduction pillars of the United Nations Strategic Cooperation Framework for Guinea-Bissau.