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In 2022, WFP's school feeding and resilience-building programmes displayed signs of long-term success amid contextual hardship, while new partnerships strengthened WFP's work in Guinea-Bissau. Through a budget revision, WFP shortened its 2019-2024 Country Strategic Plan by 18 months to align with Guinea-Bissau’s new development policy, "Hora Tchiga", and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) (2022-2026).
Successful partnerships and the support of donors are vital to the continuation of WFP’s work in Guinea-Bissau. WFP established new partnerships in Guinea-Bissau to diversify its support and strengthen its ability to carry out operations.
A new agreement was reached with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support smallholder farmers and their families affected by food insecurity. This built on the success of the 8-year funding of USD 6.7 million secured in 2021 through a debt swap agreement signed with the Government of Guinea-Bissau, Spain, and WFP.
WFP partnered with more nationally based NGOs and government ministries than ever before in Guinea-Bissau. As part of its saving and changing lives agenda, WFP rolled out a range of successful pilots throughout the country in partnership with national organisations and the national government. Under the UNSDCF, WFP is working alongside UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA in a joint project to support the government's development of its first Social Protection Policy. WFP is contributing by supporting Guinea-Bissau's Ministry of Women, Families and Social Solidarity (MWFSS) in developing a social registry to enhance the government’s capacity to support its population and bolster resilience to climate shocks.
WFP implemented several programmes throughout the year that actively contributed to the ability of Guinea-Bissau’s national government to take over and lead projects in the long term. Despite funding shortfalls in 2022, WFP was able to prioritise and implement its activities, reaching over 198,000 people, a 1.6 percent increase compared to the needs-based plan. Despite the effects and extent of the international global food crisis, which led to a rise in food prices worldwide, WFP continues to work in Guinea Bissau to save and change lives. Under the Saving Lives agenda, WFP delivered specialised nutritious foods to prevent chronic malnutrition to 20,000 children aged 6-23 months, as well as delivering Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) treatments to children and nutrition sensitisation programmes supporting pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLWG). However, funding challenges in 2022 meant that WFP reached only 690 schools. Despite these funding challenges, WFP successfully implemented school feeding activities throughout the year.
In 2022, WFP launched a range of pilots, offering innovative support in the country. Addressing the 31.7 percent prevalence of undernourishment requires wholesale approaches[1]. WFP expanded its successful School Connect pilot, accelerating data-collection on school attendance, consumption and food stocks whilst training staff in assisted schools. After impressive results in 47 schools in Biombo by July, the pilot helped a further 33 schools in Oio beginning in August. These school feeding programmes were effective in stabilising both enrolment and attendance rates in schools across Guinea-Bissau, with attendance rates reaching a CSP-high of 96 percent. WFP resumed programmes for beneficiaries living with HIV through food distribution after these activities were discontinued in 2018 due to a lack of funding, and from 2023 will deliver cash assistance to their households. WFP continues to develop its programming driven by the need to support vulnerable populations, having rolled out a pilot of take-home rations for people living with disabilities in 2022 for 321 beneficiaries.
WFP’s programmes worked towards vital resilience building against climate threats and developing food security, protecting Guinea-Bissau’s vulnerable agricultural population and economy. Whilst rural areas of the country have more than 80 percent of the population working in the agricultural sector, Guinea-Bissau lacks food sovereignty and security. In 2022, WFP partnered with the Food and Agricultural Organisation to implement System of Rice Intensification training for 150 farmers across 15 villages, increasing rice productivity fourfold and reducing demand for seeds, water, and agri-chemicals. Partnerships with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and national NGOs funded by the Peacebuilding Fund enabled climate security innovations and workshops in these villages. WFP worked with the national NGO Estrutura Comunitária de Animação e Sensibilização para o Desenvolvimento (ECAS-D) to rehabilitate dikes, improve wells, and support women’s associations for horticultural production.