WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | страница 777

Standard Project Report 2016
Outcome: Reduce undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 6-59 months, pregnant
and lactating women, and school-aged children
Activity: Nutritional support for vulnerable groups
Under component 1, WFP provided a programme for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) providing
targeted supplementary feeding (TSFP) for children aged 6-59 months in the Northern, Uva and Central Provinces
where rates of acute malnutrition were high (all the districts had wasting prevalence above 15 percent). Through
primary health centres, children with MAM aged 6-59 months (according to weight for height measurements <-2 to
>-3 standard deviation) were provided with a monthly take-home ration of 6 kg of Super Cereal Plus, a specialised
nutritious food. The activity aimed to treat 45,000 children with MAM in 2016. However, as a result of severe funding
shortfalls, the actual number of children reached was 9,741 (21 percent of the planned number). Although Super
Cereal Plus was available until October 2016, the actual availability of the product gradually declined from 30.3 mt
in January 2016 reaching 4,971 children aged 6-59 months, to 0.142 mt in October reaching only 119 children.
There were significant fluctuations in the availability of Super Cereal Plus during the interim months caused by the
lack of timely resource contributions, resulting in frequent pipeline breaks. Furthermore, the activity was limited to
districts in the Northern Province where WFP was present for the last 10 years. Although efforts were made to
expand the activity to Uva and Central Provinces, the break of Super Cereal Plus supply rendered this impossible.
The country programme (CP) also intended to provide Super Cereal to pregnant and lactating women (PLW) for the
prevention of acute malnutrition, but for the same reason, this component of the activity did not take place.
WFP worked closely with the health staff to ensure that nutrition education and counselling was an integral part of
the MAM treatment programme. This component was implemented directly by public health midwives with technical
support from WFP.
Strategic Objective: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger (SO4)
Outcome: Increased equitable access to and utilization of education
Activity: School meals programme for primary and secondary school children
Through the school meals programme under component 2, WFP worked in partnership with the Ministry of National
Policies and Economic Affairs and Ministry of Education to provide mid-morning meals to 94 percent of the planned
160,000 primary and secondary school children in the Northern Province. WFP provided food items including rice,
lentils/split peas and vegetable oil, while school cooks and parents were responsible for preparing the meals at the
schools. The Government donated 3,300 mt of rice (approximately USD 776,356) to the WFP-supported school
meals programme, and the Ministry of Education supplemented the programme with a greenery fund providing cash
for the purchase of vegetables and condiments. In addition to the initially planned food basket, the Government of
Japan donated canned fish to provide animal protein to the school meals menu, totalling 330 mt received in 2016.
Overall, the school meals programme was smoothly implemented by the Government and WFP, ensuring a hot and
nutritious mid-morning meal was provided to schoolchildren during the day.
While the WFP-supported school meals programme in the Northern Province is currently supplied with food items,
the government-run school meals programme in the rest of the country is operated through cash-based transfers
(CBT). In consultation with the Government and informed by technical assessments, WFP will explore the possibility
to gradually shifting the school meals programme in the Northern Province to use the CBT modality where possible
in 2017. This will help increase opportunities for local production and provide additional income to smallholder
farmers and fishermen, the majority of whom are also parents of students in assisted schools.
Strategic Objective: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger (SO4)
Outcome: Ownership and capacity strengthened to reduce undernutrition and increase access to education at
regional, national and community levels
Activity: Strengthening the capacity of the Government through technical assistance
Given the limited funding availability for the procurement of specialised nutritious foods, WFP aimed to build on the
capacity of the existing national supplementary feeding programme, implemented by the Ministry of Health using
Thriposha, a locally fortified blended food. Thriposha was used for the management of undernutrition nationally,
targeting over 1.1 million children aged 6-59 months with underweight, children with faltered growth and/or MAM,
and all PLW regardless of their nutritional status. WFP’s role was to provide technical support to the Ministry of
Health and Indigenous Medicine and the Thriposha factory to increase the availability of safe and nutritious foods by
improving the product quality and quantity; and to improve access to nutritious foods by strengthening the supply
chain as well as the programme delivery modality through health facilities (including ration size, targeting,
intervention duration and system strengthening).