WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | 页面 26

Standard Project Report 2016
Under the Social Safety Nets component, WFP delivered the Enhancing Food Security (EFS) programme as part of
an integrated programme in Cox’s Bazar district outside the camps, targeting households on the basis of
vulnerability. Within EFS, the adult woman of the household was recognised as the priority transfer recipient, and
she and her family were supported further by a child safety net, including school feeding and a comprehensive
nutrition programme for the treatment and prevention of undernutrition for pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and
children. EFS was the core intervention and empowered vulnerable women to engage in economic activities to
improve food security for themselves and their households. A monthly subsistence allowance covered essential
household consumption needs while women invested a cash grant in income-generating activities (IGA). The
participants were supported by skills training and BCC delivered through ‘self-help’ women’s groups, with the aim to
facilitate their learning, engagement, and voice on critical matters that constrained acceptable food security and
nutrition, such as child marriage, human trafficking, and inappropriate health, hygiene and nutrition practices.
Both the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) and the investment component of VGD (ICVGD) programmes
targeted ultra-poor women as participants; they and their household members were the beneficiaries. In programme
design, as with EFS, male family members were encouraged to be involved in the creation of the IGA business
plans to ensure household support. ICVGD women were notably empowered, reporting increased mobility,
increased decision-making within their families and their communities, increased confidence to engage in IGAs and
increased social empowerment through network building with private and public sector service providers (including
WFP, NGOs, the Government, banks and vendors). Finally, the programme created an opportunity for 75 locally
recruited ‘contact women’ to support project participants, even outside of the ICVGD activities.
Protection and Accountability to Affected Populations
All nutrition activities were carried out during daylight and timed in such a manner to enable female participants to
return home before nightfall. Women were advised to come in small peer groups to nutrition activities. During
enrolment, beneficiaries received information on entitlements, reasons for their inclusion in the programme, duration
of assistance and how the nutrition supplement should be used. Additional community nutrition centres were
established where community clinics and family welfare centres were far away from beneficiary settlements. A vast
majority of women, 95 percent, reported that they did not experience any safety concerns while traveling to and
from programme sites.
The school feeding programme continued to implement comprehensive awareness-raising activities together with
the Directorate of Primary Education, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs). WFP organized
mother gatherings, community mobilisation workshops and women leadership trainings that covered 19,850
mothers in 618 sessions. In all of these fora, women were informed of their rights and entitlements within school
feeding interventions, as well as their roles as caretakers of food, books and other materials provided by WFP to
their schools and communities.
WFP continued to organize a number of field-level agreement (FLA) compliance workshops at sub-district and
district levels to raise awareness among government and NGO officials, prevent the misuse of resources and
robbery, and strictly avoid the occurrence of child labour. Nevertheless, three such incidences were reported in
2016. As a result, WFP formally wrote to those NGO partners to express strong concern against the practice in
question and urged them to avoid similar situations in the future. The new FLAs reinforced the clause prohibiting the
use of child labour in any aspect of the programme and WFP field monitoring presence increased. To facilitate a
common understanding of programme benefits and challenges, and to motivate stakeholders to perform their roles
and responsibilities correctly, WFP conducted community mobilisation workshops and review meetings, organized
orientation sessions and made extensive use of fliers and programme signboards. Finally, WFP had a built-in
mechanism that informed NGOs, teachers and school management committees about any delays in the production
or delivery of commodities.
Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters and the Effects of Climate Change (ER) involved communities in
planning and distribution committees to select priority schemes and sites for programme implementation as well as
to choose distribution points. Community consultations helped ensure that men and women who participated in ER
and emergency activities were informed about their entitlements, scheduled workdays, and the food and cash
transfer mechanisms. Such measures resulted in the majority of people collecting their entitlements in a timely and
secure manner. A toll free hotline number was established as a direct complaint mechanism. It allowed participants
and beneficiaries, and others in the community, to directly interact with WFP, to air their grievances and provide
suggestions about programme delivery. The hotline number was marked on each beneficiary’s entitlement card and
circulated through posters and banners displayed at popular public places. Moreover, it was introduced at
community consultation meetings.
Bangladesh, People's Republic of (BD)
23
Country Programme - 200243