Attachments
Highlights
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WFP Chad piloted SCOPE cards for cash-based food assistance in the Lake Chad region for 2,650 internally displaced persons living in Kaya. The SCOPE card is a brand new tool using biometric information: the recipient’s identity is verified through a fingerprint scanner and a financial service provider cashes out the entitlements checking the information on the SCOPE card with a card reader/point of sale device. It enables accurate delivery of assistance in a context where the populations are very mobile. This modality is being scaled up.
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According to the March 2017 Cadre Harmonisé, during the lean season 3.5 million people will be food insecure including 897,400 in crisis (phases 3 and 4) – 95 percent of whom in the Sahel. WFP is planning to assist 413,000 vulnerable people and 105,600 women and children with preventive nutritional support in the Sahelian belt. To deliver this support, USD 20 million are urgently needed.
Operational Updates
Country-wide:
Despite a global improvement in the food security situation in Chad towards the end of 2016, following a good harvest in most parts of the country (a 13.6 percent increase of agricultural yield compared to the 5-year average), the March 2017 Cadre Harmonisé (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) estimates that during the upcoming lean season, from June to September, 2.6 million people will be under pressure (phase 2), and 897,400 people will be in a crisis situation (phase 3 and 4) and require assistance, of whom 2.2 million in phase 2-4 in the Sahel. The highest levels of vulnerability are anticipated in the Eastern Sahel: Ouaddai, Wadi Fira, Guéra, and in the Lake Chad Basin in the Western Sahel. During the lean season, global acute malnutrition rates are expected to exceed crisis thresholds in the majority of the Sahel regions.
Factors with a possible deteriorating effect on food security for this period of the lean season include the low purchasing power of households (in a context of a fiscal and economic crisis in the country), the net production deficits in some parts of the country, low market capacity to ensure inter-regional flows and the disrupted livestock trade due to insecurity in neighbouring countries which results in unfavourable terms of trade for the pastoralists.
Without assistance, vulnerable households will be unable to cover their basic food needs. The Government and food security cluster partners, including WFP, are preparing a response plan. EMOP 200777 (Lake Chad crisis):
WFP Chad’s strategy in the Lake region is shifting: it consists in maintaining unconditional food and nutrition assistance for vulnerable IDPs and refugees but also in encouraging a progressive transition to early recovery and out of direct unconditional assistance. Sixteen food assistance for assets projects are underway to restore livelihoods for both the displaced populations and host communities. The activities include land management (polder rehabilitation, vegetable gardening) and irrigation works (digging artificial ponds) and started in January with a contribution of EUR 4.5 million from the European Union (Instrument Contributing to Peace and Stability). Follow the link below to watch a report on the Lake Chad crisis’s impact from the China Global Television Network with an interview from the Head of WFP Bol Sub Office or read a photo-reportage on a family who receives WFP assistance.
PRRO 200713:
With ECHO and France’s support, 7,400 households are partaking in food assistance for assets programmes in the Sahel to meet the immediate food needs of their families (37,000 people) and strengthen their resilience before the lean season. See here for a photo-reportage of ongoing project in Guéra.
Challenges
Funding constraints undermine WFP’s capacity to respond to the food needs of refugees in the east and south of the country and Chadian returnees from C.A.R.
Partnerships
In Chad, WFP implements all its operations through partners; the network includes 40 international and local NGOs. WFP works closely with the Government through REACH on nutrition, and the Ministry of Agriculture on food security information and analysis. Refugee assistance is implemented in collaboration with UNHCR and the national authorities. The Food Security Cluster is held regularly at national and regional levels and WFP Country Director is the Chair of the UN SUN Network. WFP participates in the humanitarian coordination forums and the UN Country Team, which recently finalized the UNDAF 2017-2021.