Attachments
In 2023, Chad faced severe food insecurity during the June--August lean season for the fourth consecutive year. Moreover, food insecurity in the country was exacerbated by a significant increase in displacements triggered by conflict, rising food prices, and climate shocks. WFP initially set a goal to assist 3.9 million people. However, various limitations, including the global economic downturn, chronic underfunding, and operational challenges such as food and fuel shortages, forced a reduction in its target. This adjustment aligns with a trend that began in 2021. Despite these constraints, WFP, in collaboration with the Government of Chad, succeeded in delivering food and nutritional assistance to 2.8 million individuals, 53 percent of whom were women. Consequently, WFP prioritised the most vulnerable groups within its plan.
WFP provided unconditional food assistance to over 1.3 million people, 51 percent of whom were women, under its strategic outcome 1 (crisis response). However, due to funding constraints, internally displaced persons (IDPs) did not receive food assistance in the second half of the year. The Acceptable food consumption score for IDPs dropped to 35 percent in 2023, from 62 percent in 2022. Limited funding also meant that WFP could only assist 55 percent of the most vulnerable refugees as per its pre-2023 Sudan crisis plan. Nevertheless, the unexpected influx of Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees fleeing the Sudan conflict from April 2023 led to more refugees receiving assistance than initially planned. In this context, WFP enhanced its community communication and feedback mechanisms (CFM) to foster social cohesion and ensure accountability to the affected populations.
Under the Government's leadership, WFP strengthened its collaboration with other United Nations agencies, humanitarian actors, and local authorities. This enabled WFP to implement an adaptive and far-reaching response to the Sudan crisis in 2023, with 96 percent of the new arrivals and the most vulnerable host populations provided with critical food and nutrition assistance. WFP also supported South-South collaborations for the development of Chad's unified social registry under its strategic outcome 5.
Furthermore, WFP planned to reach one million severely food insecure people during the 2023 lean season period under its strategic outcome 2. Due to funding challenges, WFP could only reach one fifth of its plan. Among those assisted, the level of people with an Acceptable food consumption score increased by 28 percent comparing results before and after WFP's 2023 distributions. Moreover, women made up 50 percent of targeting and CFM committee members.
WFP's school meals programme, also under strategic outcome 2, received approximately half of the funding requirements for 2023. WFP assisted 342,000 schoolchildren in total -- 68 percent of its target for 2023. This marked a notable decline from the 99 percent achievement in 2022, primarily because WFP had planned to assist more than double the number of children in 2023. Despite this shortfall, the programme maintained high attendance and retention rates exceeding 90 percent for both boys and girls among those who received assistance.
Through its strategic outcome 3, WFP provided nutrition assistance to 540,000 people in need, with a malnutrition treatment recovery rate of 98 percent. WFP reached half of the people planned due to the late arrival of specialized nutritious foods. WFP also supported malnutrition prevention, including blanket feeding in the lean season response in addition to capacity-strengthening initiatives for local production units within women-led groups.
WFP's resilience-building programme, under its strategic outcome 4, benefited 240,800 people -- 51 percent of whom were women. In a country which annually faces floods and droughts, WFP supported the construction of different water harvesting initiatives, including 40 kilometres of dikes that enabled the cultivation of 4,600 ha of land. Moreover, WFP trained 14,300 lead farmers in using farming technologies and practices. More broadly, WFP's integrated resilience package uses a humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach and consisted of asset creation, nutrition-sensitive and home-grown school feeding activities, alongside capacity-strengthening.
WFP also provided common services to humanitarian and development organisations through its strategic outcome 6. These included logistical and aviation services. WFP worked closely with its partners to deliver 7,100 mt of humanitarian goods to affected populations, including transportation and delivery of 10.7 million mosquito nets to people across Chad in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Chad. The United Nations Humanitarian Aviation Service (UNHAS), managed by WFP, carried out 59 lifesaving medical and security evacuations and transported light cargo across the country. Moreover, UNHAS flights carried over 2,100 passengers across Chad every month -- 76 percent more than in 2022.
From August 2023 onwards, WFP supported cross-border operations from Eastern Chad to Western Sudan, in collaboration with the Sudan cluster and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which ensured the coordination and monitoring of the activities. In 2023, WFP Chad successfully dispatched a total of 11 convoys to West Darfur, carrying over 7,500 mt of mixed commodities -- enough to feed 838,000 food-insecure and affected people in Sudan.
Of the total amount of food transfers made by WFP in 2023, 76 percent were locally procured (48,100 mt), which equated to USD 22.8 million in purchases from 14 suppliers --80 percent more tonnage than 2022. WFP also supported local businesses, with USD 5.1 million of the USD 39.5 million delivered to people using cash-based transfers (CBTs) via local retailers (whom WFP partnered with for its CBT programme).
Given the instability in the region during 2023, restrictions in food flow movements affected local food availability in-country, e.g. the political crisis in Niger and food inflation in Nigeria. Although WFP was able to secure local procurement, it alone was not sufficient to fulfil total supply needs. However, the support of the Global Commodities Management Facility (GCMF), WFP's advance financing mechanism, enabled WFP to match distribution plan requirements by prepositioning stock in-country.
In 2023, WFP extended its country strategic plan 2019--2023 until February 2024, through a budget revision that better accounted for current food and nutrition needs.