Attachments
Overview
In 2021, WFP supported the government of Côte d’Ivoire in strengthening its capacity in early warning, food security monitoring, nutrition, education, and resilience. Despite significant funding challenges, particularly for nutrition and resilience activities, WFP assisted 149,399 people out of 217,500 planned total beneficiaries in the 2021 Country strategic plan (CSP), comprising 51 percent of women. About 91 percent of the targeted beneficiaries received food assistance while 9 percent received cash transfers.
WFP’s support to the Ministry of Education to scale up the Home-Grown School Feeding remains WFP’s biggest intervention in Côte d’Ivoire. Consequently, WFP secured a five-year (2020-2025) funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) McGovern Dole, aimed at improving school children’s nutrition and education; and enhancing WFP’s gradual handover of the school feeding programme to the government by the year 2025. In partnership with the Directorate of School Canteens (DCS) and the Association of Volunteers for International Service (AVSI) Foundation, WFP provided 119,300 primary school children (50.45 percent of which are girls) in 613 schools with hot meals. Amongst them, 10,000 girls received take-home rations in three regions of Côte d'Ivoire. A baseline for this new McGovern Dole 2020-2025 funding and a final evaluation of the McGovern Dole 2015-2020 grant are currently being carried out to establish the extent to which the first phase has achieved its objectives, and to use the evaluation’s conclusions to inform the current phase’s implementation. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the national Home-Grown School Feeding Strategy, WFP also provided financial and technical assistance to 53 smallholder women farmer groups, who in return donated a portion of their fresh produce to the 613 WFP-supported schools’ canteen.
Nutrition remains an important sector where WFP provides expertise to the Government, more particularly in food fortification to combat chronic malnutrition, which remains a concern in the country. WFP was strategically involved in various government-led processes, including the national fortification strategy, the finalization of the fortification cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and health analysis, the elaboration of fortified rice specification. Through the Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) and in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the Government and WFP hosted a two-day high-level consultation on food fortification in Africa. WFP also organized a workshop including the private sector as a key stakeholder in the fortification process. WFP was further committed to the strengthening of the government national nutrition program, through the finalization of the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) study that will be presented in the first quarter of 2022.
WFP further supported the National Nutrition Program (PNN) in finalizing the Food and Nutrition Security Survey of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV).
WFP also supported the government in the design of several strategic documents, including the National Development Plan 2021-2025, the National Multi-sectoral Nutrition Plan (PNMN) 2021-2025, and the National Multi-sectoral Nutrition Information Plan (NMNIP). WFP also strengthened the capacity of the Ivoirian government in Fleet Management through an innovative project, Supply Optimization through Logistics visibility and evolution (SOLVE) financed by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation.
In collaboration with the government and partners, WFP assisted 29,758 people displaced by the 2020 presidential election, 2020 flood victims, PLHIV, and those affected by COVID-19, prioritizing vulnerable categories; children aged 6-59 months, pregnant and lactating women, the elderly, and people with disabilities, under its crisis response pillar.
With a funding shortfall of 70 percent, WFP made significant shifts in its resilience-building programme priorities. The funding limitation did not allow WFP to implement any Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) activities in 2021. Consequently, resources available were allocated to activities that contribute to increasing the production and consumption of staple foods in relation to the home-grown school feeding.
In supporting the government in reducing youths’ unemployment, WFP signed an agreement with SaH Analytics, and 298 unemployed youth were trained in digital data collection and analysis. WFP gave each of them a tablet to use in future data collection and other job opportunities. The government Agency Emplois Jeunes marketed the expertise of the trained youth, and as a result, all of them were employed by various agencies.