Summary of WFP Assistance: WFP’s Country Programme seeks to 1) improve safety nets by providing in-kind food and technical assistance to enhance government programmes and advocacy to help scale up nutritional support for all Zambians, with particular attention to nutritionally vulnerable groups; 2) improve the government’s preparedness to respond to and mitigate disasters as a way of reducing vulnerability and preserving livelihoods; and 3) expand market opportunities for smallholder farmers by leveraging local food procurement for social protection programmes. WFP’s Country Programme is aligned with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, as well as the Government’s Sixth National Development Plan through a common focus on improving nutrition, education, sustainable agriculture, and social protection.
With WFP support, Zambia is transitioning its school feeding programme to a national Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) model, which is seen by government and other actors as a catalyst for development in rural areas. The programme has a goal of reaching 1 million school children by the end of 2015. The government provides all cereals and covers secondary transport costs, while WFP supplements this with fortified vegetable oil and pulses procured locally from smallholder farmers through its Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative. WFP is also ensuring government ownership of the programme by providing technical assistance and management support. WFP in Zambia has been working with the WFP Centre of Excellence Against Hunger in Brazil to support the Zambian government’s efforts to transition into a multi-sectoral HGSF programme that is fully integrated into the Education Sector Policy. WFP has also joined efforts with other UN agencies to develop a Joint Social Protection Project, in which the HGSF programme will be a component.
WFP has also set goals to enhance Zambia’s agricultural sector. For example, WFP has provided technical support to the Zambia Food Reserve Agency in strategic grain supply chain management, assurance of quality control and information management systems. Through the Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative, WFP supports smallholder farmers/farmer organisations to increase production, access markets, and trade quality commodities.
WFP continues to support the government in developing national contingency plans within its National Disaster Risk Management Framework. WFP provides technical support to the government in implementing its national Social Cash Transfer programme by helping procure and integrate a payment provider, develop a registration system, and roll out a mobile based data collection system.
WFP takes into account the unique contexts of Zambia and ensures that the needs of both men and women are met. All monitoring tools track progress made by both genders, including access to resources and the decision making process for use of household resources. Under P4P, and in line with WFP’s gender mainstreaming goals, WFP provides women with access to labour-saving technology, imparts business skills, and implements financial literacy and capacity building activities.
As part of the UN "Delivering as One" approach, WFP is actively engaged in discussions with the government and other UN agencies to develop a UN Partnership Framework, which will primarily focus on capacity building to assist the government in achieving its national development goals.