WFP Bangladesh Country Brief, June 2023

In Numbers

912 mt of food distributed

US$8.9 million cash-based transfers made

US$ 82.4 million net funding requirements for WFP’s Country Strategic Plan (July-December 2023)

1.04 million people assisted

Operational Updates

• Monthly rations for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar fell to US$8 per person per month, down from US$10 in March and US$12 (full assistance) previously. To restore full rations from August until the end of 2023, WFP urgently needs US$45 million (as of 10 July). Refugees’ food intake has dropped to 67 percent of full assistance (only 83 percent of energy requirements per SPHERE standards).

• In Cox’s Bazar, 912,300 Rohingya refugees received e-vouchers valued at only US$8 due to the acute shortage of funds. To prevent further deterioration of food insecurity, WFP continued to provide an additional US$3 to women-, elderly-, and childheaded households; and households with people with a disability; to enable them to buy fresh food items from WFP outlets. Meanwhile, WFP reduced the available food options at evoucher shops to simplify food selection for beneficiaries amidst the ration cuts.

• WFP continued to provide preventive and curative nutrition services to refugees at 45 integrated nutrition sites and to Bangladeshis at 132 community clinics to address malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. More than 198,400 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and children aged 6-59 months were reached in June, including 75,700 refugee children aged 24-59 months who received a US$3 nutrition-sensitive e-voucher in lieu of the pricier, specialized nutritious foods given in the past.

• On Bhasan Char, WFP supported 29,0001 Rohingya refugees with a fixed food basket and continued its small-scale e-voucher pilot, reaching 7,500 people with their choice of packaged items, such as rice, oil, salt and sugar and fruits and vegetables.
  Through its malnutrition prevention and treatment programmes on the island, WFP supported 7,900 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and children aged 6-59 months with specialized nutritious foods. In addition, 9,500 primary-aged children were supported through WFP’s school feeding activities.

• In Cox’s Bazar, WFP continued school feeding in schools and camp learning centres and provided fortified biscuits to 250,800 refugee and 60,700 Bangladeshi children. WFP will resume distributions in July for Bangladeshi children and refugees.

• Under the disaster risk reduction programme, 10,100 refugees cleaned 298 km of drains and constructed 1.6 km of drainage, 3.8 km of pedestrian pathway, 722 m of access road, 76 m of brick guide wall and 944 m2 of brick stairs. To reduce flood risks during the monsoon season, refugees also maintained 171,400 tree seedlings. In the surrounding community, 2,100 Bangladeshis, including 109 people with a disability, were engaged in canal and drainage works to protect agricultural infrastructure against hazards; reforestation and slope protection. In Teknaf, six rain gauges and six flood markers were installed, which will enable WFP to release forecast-based financing to vulnerable households based on site-specific weather data, as well as national and international weather models.

• WFP’s Cox’s Bazar livelihoods programme supported 23,800 vulnerable Bangladeshi women with training to set up microbusinesses and US$3,300 was generated and shared among 487 beneficiaries selling produce at WFP aggregation centres. The self-reliance programme engaged 33,700 of the most vulnerable refugees in waste collection, upcycling and other activities.

• With WFP assistance, the Department of Women Affairs has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorates General of Family Planning and Health Services to support the interoperability of their respective information management systems (MIS). The DWA’s MIS is now compatible with that of the Departments of Health and Family Planning, ensuring the accuracy of applicants’ pregnancy data under the Mother and Child Benefit Programme (MCBP). Supported by WFP, DWA signed another MoU with the Office of the Registrar General, which will allow the MCBP MIS to store beneficiaries’ children’s data and encourage mothers to register their children in the national birth registration system.

• In June, WFP began verifying 150,000 households in its anticipatory action database in eight flood-prone districts to support the potential activation of forecast-based financing. At the request of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, WFP distributed fortified rice to 130,000 women in 17 sub-districts, complementing the government distribution to 1.7 million Vulnerable Women Benefit programme participants in 165 other sub-districts.

• Under the Urban Food Assistance Programme, WFP provided unconditional mobile money transfers and nutrition messaging to 12,800 people. WFP distributed US$113,600, of which 84 percent was spent on healthy food items in WFP-contracted shops.