Attachments
In Numbers
- 5,823 mt of food distributed USD
- 73,597 of cash distributed USD
- 133 million six months (February 2022-July 2022) net funding requirements
- 677,991 people assisted in January 2022
Operational Updates
Political update and impact on operations: The 24 January military coup did not stop WFP operations, in line with its commitment to support vulnerable populations, but it forced WFP to slow down its activities.
The pollical events especially impacted: (i) social protection and country capacity strengthening activities, as main partners and direct beneficiaries of activities are Government institutions; and (ii) the timeline of cash-based transfers (CBT) payments to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and resilience beneficiaries. As a result, WFP will transfer entitlements for January and February together, to be distributed next month.
Of the 250,000 planned beneficiaries to receive conditional food/cash transfers in January, 202,000 or 80 percent received CBT or food assistance. Cash transfers to vulnerable adolescence girls and their families in the para-urban sector of Ouagadougou continued. Malnourished children and their mothers continued to receive food vouchers supported by the regional project CRIALCES. Food distributions were carried out for IDPs, resilience beneficiaries, and schoolchildren.
Assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs): In January, WFP supported 439,196 IDPs (229,856 women; 209,340 men) to meet their food needs, with food commodities distributed in the Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Est, Nord, and Sahel regions. WFP also provided nutritional supplements to 46,293 pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLW/Gs) and children (aged 6-23 months) within the same targeted populations as these are particularly at risk of malnutrition.
WFP conducted a series of emergency rapid responses (some of them jointly with other United Nations agencies) in hard-to-reach areas, following waves of displacements due to the conflicts. WFP assisted more than 80,000 new IDPs in the Centre-Nord, Est, and Sahel regions.
Nutrition: In the Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Nord, Est, Nord, and Sahel regions, a total of 72,747 moderate acutely malnourished children (aged 6-59 months) and PLW/Gs were detected and referred to health centres for treatment. In the framework of the CRIALCES project, WFP enhanced the nutritional status of 4,200 beneficiaries consisting of children (aged 6-59 months) and PLW/Gs with nutritious food baskets, while strengthening livelihoods and transforming food systems. Through this project, WFP has been supporting the production of fortified flours at the local level and its regulatory framework at the national level.
Resilience: WFP distributed 921 mt of in-kind food to about 3,000 participants (half of them women) of the asset creation work realised in December, in the Centre-Nord region. This assistance benefited an estimated 21,000 people, given that households in Burkina Faso consist of an average of seven members. In the same region, key achievements of the January Food For Asset (FFA) activities included the digging of two boulis (of 3,000 m3) and the excavation of two other boulis of (27,000 m3). A bouli is an artificial pond retaining runoff water. This technique is originating in Burkina Faso and is also used in other Sahelian countries.
WFP conducted Smallholder Agriculture Market Support (SAMS) activities in the Est region. These included trainings of: (i) 180 members of cooperative societies (including 70 percent women) on market research techniques; (ii) 16 heads of cooperative societies (including 60 percent women) on leadership skills; (iii) 140 members of women's rice processing cooperatives on parboiling; and (iv) 115 women members of a peanut production and processing cooperative on the use of “Aflasafe” (a certified biological control product which prevents aflatoxin contamination).
Social protection: As part of its safety net programme whose focus is on empowering vulnerable adolescent girls residing in the periurban neighbourhoods of Ouagadougou, WFP supported 8,685 households with CBT assistance.
Education: Attacks by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) led to the closure of 3,200 schools (13 percent of the schools in the country) so far, depriving over 500,000 children of education. WFP has established strong partnerships with several stakeholders to create synergies and complement assistance in this highly volatile context.
Despite the insecurity, WFP supported a total of 137,877 schoolchildren (69,733 girls; 68,144 boys) in January via its regular and emergency school feeding programmes, in the Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Nord, Est, Nord, and Sahel regions. WFP encouraged the attendance of girls by providing monthly family take-home rations, made up of 10 kg of dry cereals, to almost 25,000 schoolgirls.
Harvesting began in 20 school gardens in the Sahel region, in collaboration with the Regional Directorates in charge of agriculture and education. The ongoing production will contribute to improving the nutritional quality and diversifying school meals. It consists of vegetables (cabbage, tomatoes, onions, eggplant), tubers (sweet potato with orange flesh), and fruits (papaya). Due to insecurity, other school gardens previously developed by WFP in the region are either inaccessible or the schools to which they are linked are closed.