Attachments
In Numbers
158 mt of food dispatched
US$455,000 cash distributed
67,605 people assisted in November
Operational Updates
• The first-ever Southeast Asian Summit of the School Meals Coalition took place in November in Siem Reap, Cambodia, bringing together delegations from ASEAN member-states engaged in school meals programmes. WFP Lao PDR’s Representative and Country Director and the Vice Minister of Education and Sports (MoES) led a team of government to engage and accelerate collaboration and commitment to enhancing school meals. Lao PDR joined the Coalition last September.
• WFP provided training and agricultural inputs to improve farmers’ agricultural production and supply locally grown food to schools under the home-grown school feeding initiative. With a generous contribution of US$1.1 million from the Swiss Development Cooperation, WFP will scale up the initiative.
• WFP participated in the Pre-Intersession Policy Dialogue to the 8th ordinary National Assembly session, to brief parliamentarians about the National School Lunch Programme, and advocate for additional funding for the programme.
• WFP conducted a second round of Emo-Demos, a participatory nutrition behaviour change programme, in 16 villages of Oudomxay province. The sessions focused on iron-rich foods and feeding timelines for children aged 6 to 23 months. These activities aim to enhance the community’s knowledge and practices related to nutrition.
• The second phase of the Agriculture for Nutrition project piloted the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) in four villages of Attapeu province. GALS is a participatory methodology developed by the International Fund for Agriculture Development with the aim of sharing farming and household tasks more equally and making joint decisions on nutrition-related investments.
• WFP and district officers conducted trainings on linking agriculture, nutrition and natural resources in two districts of Xieng Khouang province, supporting communities to adopt nutritious dietary practices by utilizing locally available resources.
• As part of the Sustainable Rural Infrastructure and Watershed Management Sector Project, WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, distributed US$455,000 to 3,113 smallholder farmers in 75 villages in Houaphanh, Xieng Khouang, Xayabouly and Luang Prabangrovinces. Based on their investment plan, each provinces. Each farmer received US$146 as the first part of a US$300 grant to buy seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and rent machinery to increase the production of high-value dry season crops.
• WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, trained 32 government officials from Bokeo, Luang Namtha, Phongsaly and Oudomxay provinces on humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. The training focused on roles of humanitarian actors, the disaster management cycle, procurement and transportation during disasters, relief item management, emergency coordination, and the legal framework, to strengthen government crisis response capabilities.
• WFP, Tetra Tech (a consulting firm providing international development services) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare organized a workshop to review findings from a study on integrating climate risk data into social registries. Participants refined strategies to improve social protection systems, enhance data sharing and system interoperability, advance targeting mechanisms for vulnerable populations and foster inter-ministerial collaboration.