WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Page 426

Standard Project Report 2016
WFP’s emergency food and cash distributions enabled people to meet their immediate food needs and contributed
to uphold respect and dignity. Continued relief service to IDPs acted as a conflict containment action in the country’s
complex humanitarian context, contributing to maintaining relative stability in the affected areas. WFP's transition
strategy in Rakhine State was put on hold to prevent the spill-over of already brewing tensions in the assisted
communities following the security incidents in northern part of the state. WFP used the Food Consumption Score
(FCS) and Diet Diversity Score (DDS) to assess the food security situation of assisted populations. Despite the
timely delivery of live-saving assistance to most of the targeted populations, some downward trends were observed
in the most food-insecure and conflict-affected areas. The percentage of households with poor FCS increased by
4 percent compared to 2015, although the vast majority of households continued to report an acceptable FCS.
DDS reported by the assisted households decreased by 0.9 percent. A number of sporadic and continued armed
conflicts caused prolonged security concerns, less livelihood opportunities and worsening market which negatively
contributed to the household food consumption. In 2016, FCS and DDS were measured several weeks after the
food distribution, when beneficiaries’ food stocks were already depleting. In contrast, in 2015 the FCS was collected
shortly after the distribution occurred. This difference in the timing of the data collection could explain the worsening
trend. In addition, the data collection methodology improved significantly in 2016 through the introduction of mobile
data collection, which captured more accurate data to enable improved analysis. However, the limitations of FCS
and DDS being collected from different households than in 2015 meant that monitoring could not capture
intra-household food consumption nor show how food consumption changed.
Strategic Objective: Support to restore food security and nutrition and establish or rebuild livelihoods in fragile
settings and following emergencies (SO2)
Outcome: Adequate food consumption reached or maintained over assistance period for targeted households, and
improved access to assets and/or basic services, including community and market infrastructure
Activity: Asset creation
Due to the previous year’s flooding and landslides, tens of thousands of acres of agricultural land, especially paddy
fields, were damaged by a thick layer of debris. As a result, landless and casual labourers, most relying on
agricultural work for their livelihoods, could not access farming labour, which resulted in large food gaps. Cash for
assets enabled the affected communities to fill food gaps to some extent, before starting work on their next
monsoon season crops. As some damaged paddy fields and irrigation channels were rehabilitated on time, the
farmers did not miss the monsoon and winter crops. Moreover, as the targeted beneficiaries could access jobs
within their villages, the migration rate was significantly reduced. A number of damaged roads were fixed through
cash-for-assets activities, which improved the socio-economic status of the affected population by increasing
access to markets and social services.
Supporting the restoration of agricultural potential, such as the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, land
development such as terracing and soil and agricultural land technology (SALT), and fishing pond construction,
directly improved annual income of poor households, which in turn reduced negative coping mechanisms.
According to the results of an internal mini-impact study, 90 percent of the respondents no longer practised
slash-and-burn farming due to WFP terracing land development. Sixty-six percent of the respondents expressed
that their monthly income had improved as a result of the restoration of agricultural potential. The construction and
rehabilitation of roads and bridges resulted not only in improved economic potential by increasing access to
functional markets, but also improved access to social services such as health and education. Although not
measured, the construction and rehabilitation of roads and bridges, soil and water conservation, rehabilitation of
forests and tree plantation and renovation and construction of drinking water ponds, mini earth dams and gravity
flow water supplies, were expected to improve access to safe drinking water, health and education, as well as
increase crop yields and resilience in the community in the long run. Of the assisted beneficiaries, 37,725 people
benefited from cash based transfers while 12,685 people received in-kind food baskets. WFP overachieved the
targeted number of people by 57 percent due to the larger than anticipated impact of floods and the scale of the
projects. Compared to 2015, the proportion of households with an acceptable FCS improved from 89 percent to
93 percent. The planned targets for the construction and rehabilitation of irrigation canals were not reached due to
the prioritisation of relief activities in the country. As a result of the security incidents in northern Rakhine and the
lack of permission for humanitarian access, WFP had to suspend the establishment of school and family
gardens and contour bunds in the northern part of Rakhine State duing the last quarter. In other areas, the planned
targets for the construction and rehabilitation of irrigation canals were not reached due to earmarked and limited
funding.
Strategic Objective: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger (SO4)
Outcome: Reduced undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 6-59 months and
pregnant and lactating women (PLW)
Activities: Nutrition support to PLW and children aged 6-23 months
Myanmar, Union of (MM)
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Single Country PRRO - 200299