ReliefWeb

In Numbers

8,486 mt of food assistance distributed in August.

US$ 12.3 million cash-based transfers made.

US$ 51.4 million six months (September 2020 – February 2021) net funding requirements, of which US$ 35.4 million is for the Cox’s Bazar L2 Emergency Response.

1.4 million people assisted in August 2020.

Situational Updates

• The Directorate General of Health Services is leading the community support team intervention in Dhaka North City Corporation, partnering with several UN agencies (WFP, FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP) and volunteer organizations. The goal is to preserve hospital capacity by slowing down disease spread at the community level through targeted home isolation and family quarantine for symptomatic individuals, combined with the promotion of public mask-wearing. WFP provides confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases with two weeks of food rations to enable them to comply with the quarantine requirements. The community support team is planning to expand the programme to the Dhaka South City Corporation.

Operational Updates

• On 19 August, WFP reached a data sharing agreement with UNHCR, the first of its kind globally, for biometric data transfer. The agreement will enable the two agencies to align beneficiary data and provide life-saving services more accurately.

• In August, WFP provided food assistance to 854,483 refugees: 750,978 through e-vouchers, and 103,505 through in-kind food distributions. Of the 17 e-voucher outlets, Building Blocks (a software based on blockchain technology) is operational in eight outlets; the others still use SCOPE.

• WFP has taken on the coordination of logistics and procurement to assist the Government in the procurement of medical supplies. By the end of August,
WFP delivered 400 mt through the COVID-19 Supply Chain System, and is planning to facilitate delivery of an additional 100 mt over the next months. Under the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility project funded by World Bank, WFP has delivered 60 high flow nasal cannulas to hospitals and procured 57,120 test kits (RTPCR) for the Directorate General of Health Services.

• As part of COVID-19 programmatic adaptations, WFP is implementing the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme across all 45 nutrition sites in the camps and 106 community clinics in the host community. The blanket supplementary feeding programme (BSFP) for children under five is integrated into general food assistance modalities, facilitated by the SCOPE platform.