Attachments
In Numbers
875 mt of food assistance distributed
US$ 0 cash-based transfers made
US$ 3 m six months (October 2018-March 2019) net funding requirements, representing 42 % of total
159,000 people assisted in September 2018
Operational Updates
• WFP provided supplementary feeding to 26,000 children aged 6-23 months as part of its nutrition prevention activities. Of this number 4,823 were new enrolments into the programme. In addition, 1,400 moderately malnourished children aged 6–59 months received targeted supplementary feeding for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition, and 19,250 pregnant and lactating women (PLWs) received monthly rations in the form of super cereal and fortified oil (including 1,200 PLWs newly enrolled in this category).
• On 18 September, the Vice President and chair of the National Food Security Council called an emergency meeting to declare an emergency food crisis situation for the cropping season 2018/2019. He also informed of the outbreak of food and mouth disease threatening livestock. During the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture presented findings of a rapid assessment of the food security situation of The Gambia indicating an estimated 1.7 million people projected to be under pressure due to inadequate rainfall resulting in decreased yield. The Government made a plea to development partners to come to the aid of the Gambia Government and its people.
• Following the food crisis declaration by the Government, the country office M&E team is working with Government technical representatives and other partners on a pre-harvest assessment to get a better understanding of the situation on the ground.
There was a VAM mission from RBD to work with the M&E team to provide technical support to the Government in designing a robust methodology in a bid to understand the vulnerability and impact based on the Government declaration of potential crop failure due to erratic rains.
• on 6 September, the Vice President of The Republic of The Gambia and Minister of Women’s Affairs successfully launched the Zero Hunger Strategic Review Report. The Vice President who is also the chair of the Zero Hunger Advisory Board along with partners highlighted the challenges and opportunities in realizing the SDG 2 to Zero Hunger. WFP Deputy Regional Director, Mr. Peter Musoko, senior government official, heads of UN agencies, and other stakeholders attended the meeting.
• WFP, IOM and the National Disaster Management Agency jointly organized a training of trainers on contingency planning. During the four-day training, seven regional disaster management coordinators, five Red Cross Branch officers, five Community and two Rural Development officers were trained and certified.
The objective of the training was to identify the mechanisms in place at national, regional and district level and augment capacities to ensure an effective response to emergencies. Based on the risk analysis/mapping carried out during the training, elements of the national contingency plan will be implemented at regional and district level.
• The country office Supply chain unit received a LESS support mission from HQ in September who trained staff to reinforce the country office capacity in planning activities with regards to stock movements at the port and warehouse.
The staff was also trained to increase efficiency in the handling of stock.