WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Seite 232

Standard Project Report 2016
highest priority households during the lean season and to ensure support for the rehabilitation of productive
infrastructure in a timely manner.
Post-distribution monitoring revealed that in any given week, 95 percent of the targeted resettled households who
received cash-based transfers consumed rice, oil and sugar, 60 percent consumed milk and dairy products, and two
thirds included vegetables to their diet on a daily basis. Nearly one fourth of households ate fish, eggs or meat for
five days out of seven and one third consumed legumes/nuts on at least two days, while 23 percent consumed fruits
for two days or more. This showed an improvement in diet diversity among beneficiaries who received cash-based
transfers.
Overall, the food consumption pattern of the assisted population improved, with a reduction in the proportion of
beneficiaries reporting poor food consumption patterns from 5.7 percent baseline figure to 1.53 percent after the
receipt of food assistance. However, 32.8 percent of the assisted population had borderline food consumption
patterns, compared to the baseline of 27.9 percent, since consumption patterns moved from poor to borderline
during the intervention. The main groups of people who reported having poor or borderline consumption scores
were the resettled communities in Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, assisted by WFP from January to
March 2016. The probable reason for the weak food consumption scores among these beneficiaries was the short
duration of this intervention of three months instead of six months as a result of resource shortfalls.
The households interviewed reported having spent 72 percent of their household income (including WFP
cash-based transfers and other sources of income) on food. Non-food expenditures were largely dedicated to
transport, soap, household items, clothing and communications. Other expenditures included electricity, fuel for
cooking and water. One third of the households interviewed invested their income on housing construction and
repairs, a quarter of households used income to repay debts and 12 percent paid for education-related expenses.
The prices of staple food items followed seasonal trends, while the prices of other food items saw low fluctuations
during the intervention period. As a result, the food basket's affordability using cash-based entitlements did not
significantly vary. The local market had a sufficient supply of pulses, and local purchases did not create price
increases or shortages in the market.
Support for the restoration of agricultural potential, such as the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, land
development such as terracing and soil and agricultural land technology, and fishery pond construction, reduced the
use of negative coping mechanisms within food-insecure households. The construction and rehabilitation of roads
and bridges resulted not only in better economic opportunities for beneficiaries through access to functional
markets, but also improved access to social services such as health and education. Soil and water conservation
directly supported the livelihoods of vulnerable households by increasing the crop yield per acre of their
marginalised farmlands. However, as a result of the reduced number of beneficiaries due to funding shortfalls,
vulnerable communities were not able to create all the planned community assets to increase their resilience to
shocks. Due to the short duration of the intervention, the Community Asset Score was not calculated during the
year.
In 2016, WFP implemented livelihoods, school meals and nutrition activities in the same communities to ensure an
integrated approach to address food insecurity and improve the nutrition situation. In selected districts, WFP
integrated its activities with the Government to create greater impact in building community resilience. Special
attention was given to ensure that men and women had equal opportunity to participate in the programme, while
encouraging women’s participation taking into account the reality in Sri Lanka that women have lesser access to
livelihood opportunities. This resulted in more women taking part in the resilience-building activities than men (5,557
women compared to 4,927 men).
Progress Towards Gender Equality
According to the Gender Gap Report 2016, Sri Lanka's gender gap increased over the last year and gender equality
ranking declined from 84 in 2015 to 100 in 2016 out of 144 countries. Sri Lanka scored high in educational
attainment and public health, but the low score in economic and political empowerment brought down the overall
score. Low economic participation of women resulting in limited ownership and control of resources may have
implications on food and nutrition security of the population, and therefore, will need to be closely monitored.
As part of all its activities, WFP took into consideration gender disparity with particular attention to the correlation
between food insecurity and gender. WFP advocated for equal participation of men and women in school feeding
management committees and supported women within the community in attaining leadership positions.
Recommendations from the Sri Lanka gender analysis undertaken by the county office in 2015 were incorporated
into project design and activities carried out in 2016.
Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of (LK)
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