Highlights
Due to funding constraints WFP was forced to cut down the school meals programme in June and only 4,071 students were assisted with 0.265 mt of food including fortified wheat flour, vegetable oil, pluses and iodized salt.
WFP’s nutrition programme remained suspended during June due to a shortage in Super Cereal Plus. The specialized commodity is expected to arrive in midAugust according to the lastest shipping information.
WFP’s activity supporting patients with Tuberculosis (TB) has yet to restart due to continued funding challenges and ongoing strategic discussions with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
WFP Assistance
School Feeding: WFP’s school feeding programme complements the Government of Tajikistan’s social safety nets by providing daily school meals to 370,000 students in more than 2,000 schools (over 54 percent of the total schools) in rural areas. Since October 2013, WFP has supported activities to build the government’s capacity, specifically, the financing and managing of the nationallyowned school feeding programme, which aims to assist vulnerable food insecure communities in rural areas.
Since the beginning of 2016, WFP has been assisting the Government in drafting a national school feeding programme. WFP, in cooperation with its technical partner Russian NGO Social Industrial Food Services Institute, has implemented activities to improve nutrition indicators through school meals, as well as by enhancing the management and service of the school meals through various time and cost effective models of organization. In June, WFP reviewed templates for school feeding monitoring and evaluation, held summer activities and training for staff, as well as initiated Field Level Agreements for the next academic year.
Food Assistance for Assets: Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) programmes help meet immediate food needs of food insecure people while building community assets.
Using food, vouchers or cash transfers as incentive, communities work on community assets that help reduce exposure to and impact of shocks, strengthen resilience to natural disasters, and contribute to sustainable livelihoods while ensuring environmental benefits.
Tajikistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Therefore, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation have become increasingly important components of efforts to build community and household resilience. By the end of 2015, FFA projects resulted in a total of 33,500 m3 of check dams to protect arable land, the rehabilitation of 530 classrooms, reparation and construction of 29 bridges and 265 water supply systems. New FFA activities are in the implementation process.
Emergency Response: WFP supports Tajikistan’s emergency preparedness and response system, working with the government’s Committee for Emergency Situations and other relevant agencies. Based on its solid experience in this sector, WFP is an active member of the national Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team and contributes to achieving objectives of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. WFP responds to natural disasters and emergencies through emergency food assistance and relief interventions. To ensure readiness in case of rapid onset emergencies, a contingency stock is foreseen for targeted distributions for an initial period of three months.
Treatment and Prevention of Malnutrition: Tajikistan has the worst nutrition indicators in Central Asia. Every year more than 5,000 children are enrolled in a WFP-supported supplementary feeding programme treating moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) in selected Primary Health Care Centres. WFP undertook the process of developing Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) guidelines and is working to scale up the prevention of chronic and acute malnutrition, contingent upon resources and funding. WFP’s nutrition programming is focused in Shartuz and Kulyab districts in the Khatlon region because of high prevalence of malnutrition. WFP also co-chairs the Food Security and Nutrition Development Coordination Council cluster, and advocates for nutritional goals. Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP) proposed Balkhi district as the third district (after Shartuz and Kulyab) to resume nutrition activities. In June, WFP completed assessments of Primary Health Care Centres in Balkhi district, which has one of the highest malnutrition rates in Tajikistan.