Summary of WFP assistance:
WFP has been providing assistance to children enrolled in primary school, to orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV and vulnerable populations affected by emergencies such as floods, droughts, and the high food price crisis.
Through a successful school feeding programme, WFP, with its government counterparts, has been establishing school canteens in specifically targeted districts where food insecurity persists and net enrolment is particularly low. Students in the targeted schools are provided with a daily hot meal. The programme aims to increase enrolment and attendance rates, the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in the schools, and reduce dropout rates. This contributes to the achievement of universal primary education and Millennium Development Goals 1, 2 and 3. WFP promotes community ownership of the canteens.
WFP has also been providing assistance and relief to vulnerable populations affected by flooding throughout the country. Heavy seasonal rains and the rising waters of the Niger River in August 2012 had a critical impact on the northern regions of the country, causing severe flooding and affecting over 50,000 people in the northern communes of Karimama and Malanville. WFP aimed to improve the nutritional status of the most affected people, through activities including blanket supplementary feeding for children under 5, and increasing local communities' resilience.
Each year, WFP Benin receives from the port of Cotonou about 40,000 mt of food assistance destined for Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. In 2012, WFP launched a Special Operation to increase logistics capacity for food transits in response to the Sahel crisis. Working alongside other regional states, WFP led in efforts to enhance the corridor's effectiveness in channelling food and other assistance directed to hinterland countries including countries affected by Ebola.