WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 229

Standard Project Report 2016
The Government contributed significantly to ensuring the smooth implementation of WFP activities, particularly
through the dedicated project management unit within the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs. Six
district management units in the Northern Province and Moneragala district in the Uva Province were established
exclusively to support the implementation of WFP activities and monitoring.
In order to provide nutritional support to vulnerable groups in Sri Lanka, especially women and children, WFP’s
main operational partner was the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine, as the lead government institute for
all nutrition-specific interventions and related activities. The Ministry of Health owned a factory producing Thriposha,
the corn-soya based specialised nutritious food used nationally to target 1.1 million children aged 6-59 months with
underweight and moderate acute malnutrition, as well as all pregnant and lactating women regardless of their
nutritional status. Accordingly, the partnership with the Ministry of Health provided an entry point for WFP to offer its
technical capacity to assist the Government to map out the gaps in Thriposha production.
Using WFP's recommendations, the Ministry was able to use its own internal funding to improve the production
facility and the overall quality and supply chain of the product.
WFP worked with the National Nutrition Secretariat under the President’s Office to undertake other activities
including the revision of the national Multi-Sectoral Action Plan for Nutrition (MSAPN), the initiation of rice
fortification, and the development of a national nutrition surveillance system supported by the SDG project funded
by the Government of Spain.
The Government provided an in-kind donation of 3,300 mt of rice for the school meals programme. In addition the
Government also provided greenery funds for the purchase of fresh vegetables and condiments, enabling the
provision of diversified nutritious meals. Broadly, WFP worked on a longer-term partnership strategy to enhance the
implementation capacity of agencies involved.
In 2016, the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs experienced difficulties in securing resources for its
contribution for the associated structural costs required for resilience-building activities, which negatively
affected the implementation of projects. As a mitigation measure, WFP and the Ministry identified and prioritised
resilience-building projects that required a lower percentage of structural costs, which were implemented for a short
duration in January–March 2016.
WFP initiated national and local preparations to engage line ministries, including through training sessions, to
commence the resilience-building and livelihood interventions with funding support from the Korea International
Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in 2017. District inception workshops were planned in December, but were postponed
as a result of drought emergency preparedness. The workshops will take place in January 2017.
In 2016, WFP strengthened the capacity of its staff in nutrition, vulnerability analysis and other areas through basic
training on nutrition concepts and baseline and endline data collection and analysis. Likewise, WFP also enhanced
the capacities of government partners in the same areas, as well as in emergency preparedness and response
which included WFP's 72-hour assessment methodology and the first phase of WFP's preparedness simulation
exercise (SIMEX).
As the slow-onset drought became apparent during the fourth quarter of the year, WFP assisted the Government to
conduct a rapid desk assessment using the 72-hour assessment methodology, secondary data as well as satellite
images. The results of the assessment in December, which indicated the drought would be the worst in Sri Lanka in
ten years, and its recommendations were endorsed by the Government Cabinet for planning national response
actions. The analysis also served other key stakeholders including the Humanitarian Coordination Team (HCT) and
development partners by helping to identify necessary support to emergency preparedness and response. The
Ministry of Disaster Management has requested WFP to be the technical lead on a rapid drought assessment at the
household leve