Standard Project Report 2016
social safety nets. The workshop brought together government ministries that had not previously worked together in emergencies. The lessons learned workshop recommended: 1) using the Government’ s safety net programme, Divineguma, to respond to emergencies in the future and strengthening its capacity for this purpose; 2) developing a standard operating procedure for emergency response to improve collaboration among all stakeholders under the coordination of the Ministry of Disaster Management; and 3) providing technical and capacity support to the Ministry in emergency preparedness, assessment, and early warning, including WFP’ s 72-hour assessment methodology, as well as its flood and drought monitoring and surveillance systems. WFP and the Government plan to develop further and use the social safety net cash-based delivery model based on the recommendations and inter-agency linkages built during the workshop in order to strengthen national emergency responses.
Progress Towards Gender Equality
Gender considerations remained central to WFP ' s response. WFP advocated for equal numbers of men and women to sit on the beneficiary selection committee, and for household bank accounts to be opened in the name of women household members. This effort resulted in more than half of the new bank accounts( 55 percent) opened under the project being in women’ s names, as well as an increase in women’ s financial inclusion and access to credit at lower rates.
The project planned to increase women’ s participation by encouraging a female family member to register as the cash recipient. WFP consulted with the Government, United Nations agencies, and community-based organizations to identify and implement prevention strategies to limit the potential risks associated with cash-based transfers, such as gender-based violence.
In accordance with WFP’ s Gender Policy, the project integrated gender equality and women ' s empowerment into all activities, by ensuring women and men ' s equal participation in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of gender-sensitive interventions. As part of the community participation in the programme, women held more than half the leadership positions in project management committees.
WFP used the emergency response operation as an opportunity to sensitise government officials on the importance of gender equality and women ' s empowerment and to explore the potential of including a gender-sensitive lens into the existing Divineguma system. During counterpart training conducted at the national and district levels, WFP placed emphasis on gender equality. This helped ensure gender responsiveness and accountability in the implementation of assistance to equally benefit men and women, with a particular focus on households headed by women.
Sixty percent of the government officers engaged in beneficiary screening, selection, registration, and project implementation, as well as more than 80 percent of banking staff who served the beneficiaries, were women. Moreover, this intervention afforded WFP an opportunity to work with Divineguma to further include gender considerations in the targeting and implementation of national safety nets over the long term.
In partnership with the Department of Divineguma Development, through the Divineguma development officers, sensitisation sessions and messaging were conducted for beneficiaries, both male and female, on the benefits of joint decision-making on the use of the assistance and on the importance of gender equity in using cash-based transfers to ensure food security in the household.
Overall, monitoring findings showed that in 62 percent of beneficiary households, women made decisions over the use of cash, whilst in 29 percent of households the decisions were made together by women and men. The proportion of household expenditure on food was higher( 58 percent) in households headed by women than in households headed by men( 50 percent). Women heads of household were also the primary caregivers in beneficiary households and were in charge of preparing food, which played a key role in improving the households ' nutritional status. The higher proportion of household expenditure on food by women contributed to the positive results in household food consumption and dietary diversity.
Protection and Accountability to Affected Populations
WFP worked in coordination with the Government to select Divineguma banks for cash withdrawal which were in close proximity to targeted households. This careful selection resulted in limiting travel times and minimising transportation costs for beneficiaries when collecting cash-based assistance. It also reduced potential safety risks travelling to and from cash collection points. Moreover, WFP worked with the Divineguma banks to ensure beneficiaries had access to cash withdrawals in dignified conditions. The Letter of Understanding between the Government and WFP stipulated that the full entitlement of cash-based assistance was to be transferred to the
Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of( LK) 19 Single Country EMOP- 200990