Attachments
2020 Overview
WFP’s Country Strategic Plan (CSP 2019-2023) in Côte d’Ivoire aims to gradually shift from the direct provision of food assistance to enabling the Government to achieve zero hunger through country-owned national policies, programmes and interventions. In 2020, WFP supported the Government of Côte d’Ivoire in crisis response by providing emergency food and cash-based transfers to affected populations, and made progress in long-term development programmes, including school feeding, strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers, and providing capacity strengthening in food and nutrition security. 2020 was marked by several challenges. The fragile political situation, the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing government restrictions not only exacerbated the food and nutrition security of the population, but also affected the implementation of WFP activities. WFP was quick to adapt to the new operational environment, ensuring the continuity of long-term programmes, reprioritizing planned activities and reallocating resources accordingly.
Despite adequate overall funding, WFP activities varied significantly in terms of resourcing, with school feeding and crisis response activities being relatively well funded, while capacity strengthening activities were heavily under-resourced.
To mitigate the socio-economic effects of the pandemic, a joint programme between WFP, UNAIDS and the Magic System Foundation provided timely cash-based assistance to over 2,300 vulnerable households in the district of Abidjan. The assistance contributed to the food and nutrition security of pregnant and lactating women, children aged 6-59 months, people living with HIV, elderly people and persons living with disabilities. During school closures, WFP ensured the continuity of its school feeding programme by distributing special take-home rations to primary school children and facilitating students’ access to distance learning through local radio stations.
Beside COVID-19, WFP was confronted with two major crises in 2020. The flash floods in June and the presidential election crisis in October resulted in thousands of people requiring emergency assistance. To ensure a coordinated response to these crisis situations, WFP participated in the design and implementation of interagency contingency plans, working closely with the Government, UN agencies and NGO partners. As such, WFP assistance reached 1,000 flood-affected households, and over 4,700 internally displaced persons and host families affected by the election-related violence.
Despite operational and funding challenges, WFP made progress towards long-term objectives of its CSP. In the northern and western regions, WFP aimed to bring transformative change to the lives of vulnerable women farmers through the Smallholder Agriculture Market Support programme. WFP-supported women farmer groups benefited from strengthened technical and organizational capacities, increased productivity and improved access to markets, contributing to greater resilience, food security and empowerment.
In partnership with the Ministry of Education through the Directorate of School Canteens, WFP continued its school feeding programme, supporting 125,000 schoolchildren in 613 public primary schools in seven regions in northern, north-eastern and western Côte d'Ivoire. Provision of school meals to boys and girls, take-home rations to girls, literacy training and complementary activities aimed to reduce the prevalence of chronic malnutrition, food insecurity, illiteracy and gender disparities among vulnerable primary schoolchildren. In 2020, WFP received a second five-year grant from the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Programme, allowing the progressive handover of WFP-supported schools to the Government and local communities over the next five years.
Throughout the year, WFP continued to provide technical assistance to national partners through capacity strengthening activities. In the area of nutrition, WFP’s partnership with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene included technical support to the Cost of Hunger in Africa study, the national rice fortification strategy, the national survey on the nutritional status of people living with HIV, and the value chain study of the orange fleshed sweet potato.
Furthermore, WFP continued to strengthen the capacities of the Ministry of Health and the New Public Health Pharmacy by optimizing medical distribution networks and improving end-to-end health supply chain management to enhance the availability of medical products in health facilities across the country. Importantly, WFP continued to promote South-South and triangular cooperation, in collaboration with the Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition. These efforts aimed to support knowledge and experience sharing among countries by documenting best practices in post-harvest loss reduction, while also capturing WFP experiences in linking school canteens to women farmer groups for locally sourced fresh produce.