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Preamble
In 2023, the Eastern Africa Region experienced a multitude of unprecedented challenges, significantly worsening food insecurity across the region.
Climate shocks such as severe droughts and floods, along with economic downturns and conflicts worsened humanitarian crises in the region. In Sudan, escalating conflict led to a rise in internal displacements and increased humanitarian needs within the country and across neighbouring countries, already grappling with increased humanitarian demands.
The increased humanitarian needs surpassed the available funding. Across the region, countries faced reduced funding forcing WFP to introduce prioritisation and ration-cut measures to adapt to the new funding realities while boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of our work to maximise contributions from donors.
Throughout the year, WFP’s network of more than 5,000 staff relentlessly worked with the Governments and more than 300 Cooperating Partners (CPs) to deliver food and nutrition assistance, and build the resilience of communities, reaching nearly 40 million people.
In its emergency response operations, WFP provided immediate food assistance to more than 32 million people affected by crises, mostly in fragile contexts. Ethiopia, Somalia,
South Sudan and Sudan accounted for 80 percent of the people reached under emergency response. Nutrition was also prioritised to treat moderate acute malnutrition reaching more than 6 million Pregnant, breastfeeding women and girls, and children under 5. WFP integrated social behaviour change, resilience, livelihood and fortification activities into nutrition activities where possible as part of the strategies for promoting long-term change and addressing underlying causes of malnutrition.
School-Based Programmes, a cornerstone for building human capital, reached over 3 million children. WFP also strengthened governments’ capacity for national ownership of these programmes. There was stronger engagement and resourcing from the Governments on Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes (HGSF) noting its multiple benefits across different sectors including education, health, nutrition and local agriculture outcomes. In line with its integrated food systems agenda, WFP linked smallholder farmers to school markets leading to significant positive outcomes, including boosting local economies and ensuring nutritious meals for school children.
In addition to emergency response, WFP supported communities with climate adaptation and resilience action. With increasing climate disasters, more preventive approaches need to be scaled up to help communities cope with the emerging shocks. WFP worked with the Governments to strengthen early warning systems and in developing anticipatory action plans. More than 2 million people were reached with early warning messages and 200,000 people in Somalia and Burundi with prearranged cash-based transfers cushioning them from the impact of floods. This will continue to be pursued in 2024.
Social protection was critical in responding to crises and strengthening communities’ resilience to shocks. WFP collaborated with governments and international financial institutions to scale up shock-responsive social protection systems, refugee inclusion, systems strengthening and enhancement of policy and institutional frameworks.
Source link : https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/2023-wfp-impacting-lives-eastern-africa
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Publish date : 2024-05-14 07:00:00
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