Standard Project Report 2016
sensitisation campaigns was shared at Food Security Cluster coordination meetings co-hosted with the Ministry of Agriculture and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization( FAO).
WFP was an active member of the Communicating with Communities Working Group and the informal Cash and Voucher Working Group, both led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs( OCHA), which met throughout the cyclone-response to develop standards, identify gaps, and ensure active coordination among humanitarian partners implementing cash and voucher emergency operations.
Performance Monitoring
WFP worked in close collaboration with the Government and its cooperating partner, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency( ADRA), to design and conduct monitoring of the food assistance operation. ADRA has been operational in Fiji since the beginning of 2006, and has excellent in-country linkages as well as experience in emergency response, including cash-based transfer( CBT) interventions and development projects.
The post-distribution monitoring( PDM) was carried out from 20 April to 20 July 2016. ADRA conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the programme. The quantitative survey was created by WFP, and made available to ADRA via Kobo Toolbox, the open-source tool to collect data in the field using mobile devices. Twenty field monitors were trained by WFP and ADRA to use the tool, and were subsequently deployed to the 12 priority areas to collect data. A total of 3,121 households( approximately 4 percent of targeted beneficiaries) and eight retailers were surveyed, and 55 life stories were collected. The main challenges reported by ADRA during the monitoring process were the short time frame to collect data; outdated beneficiary information; lack of power and connectivity to operate mobile phones in some of the most remote areas; and responding to questions from individuals not included in the food assistance programme.
The PDM provided valuable information on beneficiary satisfaction, helped service providers to improve delivery, and monitored the timely disbursement of funds. ADRA’ s monitoring functioned as a feedback and complaints mechanism for programme recipients, and enabled timely programme adjustments to be made during the implementation of the operation. WFP teams joined monitoring missions in some of the areas worst affected by the cyclone in the Northern, Central and Eastern Divisions to ensure the effective monitoring, evaluation and coordination with stakeholders on the ground, and to assess efficiency in addressing gaps identified. Additional food and non-food gaps noted during PDM were communicated by members of the Food Security; Shelter; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene( WASH); and Protection Clusters.
Results / Outcomes
Strategic Objective: Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies( SO1)
Outcome: 1.2 Stabilised or improved food consumption over assistance period for targeted households and / or individuals
Activity: Food assistance intervention through cash-based transfers
By leveraging the Government’ s existing social protection programmes, WFP was able to rapidly channel assistance to meet the immediate food needs of people most affected by Tropical Cyclone( TC) Winston for two months, without the need to develop a parallel food-based intervention. Following the signing of a tripartite Letter of Understanding with the Government in April, WFP funds allocated for the roll-out of the cash-based transfer( CBT) intervention were swiftly transferred to the Ministry of Economy and subsequently to the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, which topped-up the first round of entitlements in May to meet the immediate foods needs of vulnerable recipients. WFP was therefore able to increase the purchasing power of beneficiaries’ regular allowances to access additional food items using existing transfer mechanisms with which beneficiaries were already familiar.
In May and June 2016, WFP provided 63,285 vulnerable people,( or 88 percent of people targeted under the EMOP), with additional cash entitlements to purchase nutritious foods. Those reached were vulnerable people registered in the Poverty Benefit Scheme( PBS), Care and Protection Allowance( CPA) and Social Protection Scheme( SPS) national social protection programmes, living in the 12 priority areas most affected by the cyclone. According to post-distribution monitoring, 99 percent of interviewed beneficiaries said they had full decision-making power on how to use the food assistance entitlements. In addition, none of the beneficiaries reported having sold or exchanged their entitlements for other items or services, suggesting the cash-based assistance was widely used by beneficiaries as intended to support their household food needs.
Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands( FJ) 15 Single Country EMOP- 200957