Standard Project Report 2016
Project baselines were collected in the country programme( CP) operational areas in coordination with the Government. Annual targets were set recognising the contributions of the Government and other development partners. However, due to lack of data at the district level, some baseline and follow-up indicators for the school feeding National Capacity Index( NCI), Community Asset Score( CAS) and Coping Strategy Index( CSI) were not collected in 2016 and will be measured in 2017.
Activity monitoring plans were developed in advance based on the sampling requirements established by corporate guidelines and harmonised with the CP logical framework. WFP operated six field offices in Northern and Uwa Provinces for monitoring the implementation of programme activities by the Government. Primary data collection was done by field monitors using tablets equipped with a mobile data collection application. Regular on-site and household post-distribution monitoring visits( 1,347 visits in 2016) were conducted during the year, an increase of 19 percent compared to the previous year. As an effort towards gender-sensitive monitoring, the WFP Gender Results Network team reviewed and provided inputs to all checklists to ensure gender considerations were streamlined. Female field staff took part in monitoring activities covering all districts.
In addition, where possible, WFP used reliable secondary data from the Government, academia and research organizations to minimise monitoring costs. Weekly farm-gate, wholesale and consumer prices of key food commodities were obtained from the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute( HARTI) of the Ministry of Agriculture. The secondary data obtained from the Government was used for programme planning and targeting. WFP supported the strengthening of the Government ' s monitoring capacity to streamline programme implementation and output reporting by introducing new processes and tools. Government counterparts were trained in the collection and analysis of food and nutrition data. Joint monitoring activities were carried out to ensure government ownership and regular review meetings were held at the national and district levels.
WFP collaborated with Medical Research Institute( MRI) to carry out two nationwide nutrition surveys amongst pregnant and lactating women and primary school children aged 6-12 years to provide better information on the nutrition status of these target groups. Furthermore, WFP supported the Ministry of Health to revamp its national nutrition surveillance system, and it is expected that the system will be rolled out across the country in 2017.
Results / Outcomes
In 2016, the two-year country programme( CP) was 46 percent funded overall, with USD 9 million received compared to USD 19.7 million in requirements. However, the majority of resources were not received in time to implement planned activities for the year. This had a significant adverse effect on the project ' s implementation, especially for the nutrition and resilience-building components of the CP.
Strategic Objective: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger( SO4)
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 of the CP, the programme for the prevention of acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months was implemented during the first few months of 2016 in 249 health centres, utilising a resource transfer from the previous WFP project( PRRO 200452). It is anticipated that the quality of the programme outcomes was severely impacted by the lack of timely resources, which resulted in pipeline breaks for Super Cereal Plus. Although the Super Cereal Plus distribution data show the availability of food until October, the number of beneficiaries fluctuated significantly each month, indicating the inconsistency in the duration of the treatment of beneficiaries with moderate acute malnutrition( MAM). Furthermore, as a result of the lack of a national protocol for MAM treatment, and limited resources available to support and train health staff to appropriately collect MAM programme performance indicators, information on the MAM treatment performance indicators, including the mortality rate, recovery rate, non-response rate and default rate, was not adequately collected and these indicators are therefore not reported.
However, it should be noted that in Sri Lanka, i) health centres are often within easy reach by the general population, ii) health care services operate free of charge, and iii) most of the cases of acute malnutrition among children are MAM rather than severe acute malnutrition( SAM). As a result, the risk of mortality was considered to be low. In addition, the burden of underlying diseases, such as diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection, continued to be low in the country.
Limitations found in the implementation of the MAM treatment programme also resulted in low coverage( 35 percent) under the programme, with only 9,741 children aged 6-59 months reached in 2016. A desk review was carried out to calculate the coverage rate of the MAM treatment programme, based on consolidated data from
Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of( LK) 20 Country Programme- 200866