WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 217

Standard Project Report 2016
Country Resources and Results
Resources for Results
WFP's overall support to the Government in 2016, through the first year of the two-year country programme (CP),
was challenging as a result of reduced resources.
WFP was able to ensure a daily balanced diet for 150,000 children in the Northern Province throughout the year
under the school feeding programme thanks to a donation of rice and cash for vegetables and condiments from the
Government of Sri Lanka, multi-year carryover funding from Canada, and a donation of canned fish from Japan.
However, in 2016, the component of the country programme focused on nutrition support for vulnerable groups
continued to face serious resource challenges. With no new funding received during the year, the treatment of
moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) programme was gradually phased out from the beginning of the year and was
fully suspended in June 2016 because of the pipeline break of Super Cereal Plus, the specialised nutritious food
(SNF) used for the treatment of MAM in children aged 6-59 months.
However, through activities under a trust fund, WFP managed to increase technical support to the Ministry of Health
with the support of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Programme of the
Sustainable Development Goals Fund and the Government of Spain. Specifically, assistance to the National
Nutrition Steering Committee, the Ministry of Health and the Presidential Secretariat (NNSL) was provided through
two important initiatives on rice fortification and the quality enhancement of Thriposha, a locally-produced nutritious
corn-soya blend used countrywide as part of Sri Lanka's social safety net programme, the National Supplementary
Feeding Programme. WFP also helped the Medical Research Institute (MRI) to successfully carry out two
nationwide nutrition surveys among schoolchildren and pregnant women.
In addition, in 2016, WFP made progress on a Climate Adaptation Management and Innovation Initiative
(C-ADAPT) grant to implement a climate adaptation pilot project. This project involves mangrove conservation and
skills training for women for livelihood diversification, combined with micro-finance for women's groups for business
startups. Lessons learned from the C-ADAPT project will contribute to the implementation of the resilience-building
component of the country programme, which received its first funding from the Korean International Cooperation
Agency (KOICA) in October 2016, allowing activity implementation to start in 2017.
In 2017, while developing the Country Strategic Plan and with an eye to the transition of the CP, WFP will focus on
introducing nutrition-sensitive approaches to food assistance for asset creation (FFA) in partnership with other
United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, and the private sector in order to
help the Government in addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition. Success stories will be documented and
shared with all stakeholders.
Achievements at Country Level
WFP Sri Lanka saw significant achievements in 2016, including contributions to the Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG) 2 road map. In particular, the national Strategic Review on food security and nutrition towards zero hunger
was commissioned and will be launched by the Government of Sri Lanka in February 2017. The strategic review will
provide a rich consultative process to lay the foundations for the country strategic plan (2017-2022), due to be
presented to the WFP Executive Board in November 2017.
In addition to the achievements of the country programme, particularly the continuation of the school feeding
programme in the Northern Province, and the securing of a multi-year grant from the Korean International
Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to fund resilience activities beginning in 2017, WFP also had a number of other
achievements in 2016.
WFP's expertise and added value in vulnerability assessment, analysis and mapping, as well as disaster
preparedness and response, continued to be widely recognised and valued in Sri Lanka. During the floods and
landslides in May 2016 following Cyclone Roanu, the Ministry of Disaster Management requested WFP to carry out
a rapid needs assessment, which was subsequently used as a basis to inform the national programmatic response.
Following the floods, WFP co-led the food security and agriculture sector of post-disaster needs assessment.
Similarly, in December 2016, drawin