Summary of WFP assistance:
WFP addresses food insecurity and malnutrition through a development oriented Country Programme, as well as a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in response to natural disasters. In 2014, UN agencies developed and adopted a new UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 2015 - 2019). WFP has subsequently adopted a new country strategy, which aligns with the UNDAF, and is based on national development priorities and lessons learned from past interventions. It also takes into account the unique needs of food insecure people in Madagascar.
WFP Madagascar’s Country Programme has three components. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, WFP implements a School Feeding Programme. Under this component, WFP also supports the Government in designing a national school feeding policy and a “Home Grown School Feeding” model that links school feeding with local small-scale farmer production. The second component aims to improve the nutrition of vulnerable groups through strengthening national capacity for acute malnutrition prevention, treatment, and chronic malnutrition prevention activities. This includes providing direct nutritional/supplementary feeding support to malnourished people with tuberculosis. Through the third component, WFP helps enhance access to markets for smallholder farmers through local food purchases and training, and builds the capacity of farmers’ associations so they can improve the quality of their crops.
The Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation provides immediate relief assistance when needed, and builds the resilience and capacity of the government and local communities to prepare for future shocks. Since Madagascar can be heavily affected by each cyclone/flooding season, WFP prepositions food in urban and remote areas to provide early recovery assistance to vulnerable households affected by natural disasters. WFP also provides nutritional assistance to treat moderate acute malnutrition in emergency situations. WFP implements a resilience component through a ‘three-pronged approach,’ which first assesses the country’s vulnerability to multiple shocks, secondly facilitates implementation of seasonal livelihood activities in the most vulnerable districts, and lastly conducts a planning exercise with communities to identify priority activities in each local context. WFP is also starting to support the government in re-establishing a food security early warning system and putting in place emergency preparedness measures. WFP will use its technical expertise to support the establishment of a Vulnerability Assessment Committee and will develop national capacity to carry out emergency food security and nutrition assessments.