WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Page 542

Standard Project Report 2016
resource pool of trainers on IMAM for each of the 11 earthquake-affected districts originally proposed for the TSFP,
including Gorkha, Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha districts. The centrally trained resource persons conducted the
district-level training of trainers to extend the resource pool, who in turn facilitated the IMAM training for health
workers, FCHVs and community members.
Through these activities, WFP reached 2,962 children under 5 years of age in three districts in 2016. Although the
initial plan included 41,000 children in 14 districts, the limited resources available for the PRRO compelled WFP to
reduce the beneficiary plan to 3,344 children in only three districts. This resulted in an under-achievement when
compared with the originally planned number of beneficiaries, although WFP actually reached 88 percent of the
reduced plan of 3,344 children by the end of 2016. The capacity development activities undertaken by WFP and
partners showed visible results since the MAM treatment programme was well-implemented with minimum technical
errors. Recognising the positive results achieved in 2016, the Government has agreed that WFP may further
support the MAM treatment programme until mid-2017, in line with available project resources.
•
•
•
Strategic Objective
: Reduce risk and enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs (SO3)
Outcome
: Risk reduction capacity of countries, communities and institutions strengthened
Activity:
Food assistance for assets (FFA) in Gorkha, Dhading and Nuwakot districts
FFA activities in the PRRO were not implemented in 2016 due to the delayed government approval that resulted in
a late start of the project. The FFA activities were carried over to 2017; however, preliminary activities such as
selection of assets for repair, selection and training of partners, and mobilisation of the community and local
authorities was done in 2016. WFP did not undertake separate outcome monitoring of the FFA activities, but annual
outcome monitoring will be done from 2017 and will be reported accordingly.
The National Capacity Index is normally measured every two years, as per WFP's corporate guidelines.
The National Capacity Index (NCI) measures change in capacity level according to milestones agreed to against a
country's overarching capacity strengthening objectives. In 2016, WFP did not hold the stakeholders’ workshop to
assess the NCI on resilience in 2016 as the FFA component was not implemented. In 2017, along with the annual
outcome monitoring, WFP will make arrangements with the government authorities to assess the resilience NCI.
Progress Towards Gender Equality
The main focus of WFP’s MAM treatment programme was on children aged 6-59 months and their caregivers,
particularly mothers as the primary beneficiaries of the overall distribution of supplementary food and other nutrition
services, hence beneficiary cards and maternal and child health cards were distributed in the names of children and
women. In Nepal’s cultural context where men are invariably the heads of households, the decision-makers, and the
primary receivers of services, beneficiary cards in the name women and children helped to prioritise the nutrition
needs of women and children that may have otherwise taken a back seat. It helped create community awareness of
the importance of prioritizing food and nutrition for women and children and of the need to correctly utilize the WFP
supplied the ready to use supplementary food (RUSF) to prevent acute malnutrition in their children. As a result,
both men and women came to collect the RUSF and participated in follow-up visits with the children.
Partner Save the Children hired more women as nutrition assistants in each district to support the female
community health volunteers. In male-dominated rural households, women often do not have many opportunities for
expanding their knowledge, and mostly resort to traditional practices in child care. In this background, there was the
need to actively involve more women as nutrition assistants and female community health volunteers, so that
mothers and female caregivers could easily relate to them and express their questions and concerns and gain
exposure to new knowledge and practices. This helped to successfully implement WFP's MAM treatment
interventions at the community level. The large numbers of female volunteers in the programme helped to
expand the outreach of interventions to families in many remote village development committee areas (VDC) who
would otherwise not have come to the health posts due to the long distance they have to travel. The female staff
were able to build a rapport with mothers and female caregivers and provide them the space for voicing their
questions and concerns and also make them understand the importance of the screening and treatment
programme.
During the designing of the implementation strategy, WFP included gender considerations in partner's agreements,
requiring that partners needed to ensure that assistance was placed directly in the hands of women, and that
women received prominent considera