WFP Lesotho Country Brief, October 2024

In Numbers

USD 45 million six months (Nov 2024 - April 2025) net funding requirements, representing 88 percent of total requirement.

76,608 peole assisted from January to October 2024.

Operational Updates

Activity 1: Crisis response

• In response to the declared food insecurity emergency related to the El Niño induced drought, WFP started distributions in Qacha’s Nek district, providing food assistance to 12,724 people facing high food gaps. WFP is working with a network of local retailers to provide the prescribed food items (maize meal, wheat flour, sugar, beans, split peas, eggs, tinned fish, milk, Iodized salt, cooking oil, paraffin, washing powder, soap bars, matches, vegetable seeds) to the targeted people.
• During the distributions, WFP collaborated with the Department of Environmental Health, Police, Department of Nutrition from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition to undertake Social Behaviour and Communication education on Food Handling and Hygiene, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, Protection issues, Gender Based Violence issues, as well as Good Nutrition practices.
• Preparations are ongoing to start distributions in the other 3 targeted districts (Maseru, Mohale’s hoek, Quthing). WFP plans to support 272,000 people during the lean season (October 2024-March 2025), however the available funds will enable WFP to support a total of 72,600 people until December 2024.

Activity 2: Emergency preparedness

• WFP supported Government staff from Disaster Management Authority and the Ministry of Social Development to attend the 1st Africa Early Warning for All Multi-Stakeholder Forum held in Namibia alongside the 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. The forum called upon governments and stakeholders to commit to enhancing early warning systems in Africa by allocating resources, strengthening institutional capacities, promoting technology transfer, and fostering collaboration at all levels. Key lessons included the importance of building capacity for urban vulnerability assessments, integrating early warning systems with local response plans, and incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into disaster risk reduction efforts. Additionally, the workshop emphasized the need for regional data sharing frameworks, harmonized and institutionalized anticipatory action tools, and regional logistics prepositioning strategies, while fostering multi-sectoral coordination across the Disaster Risk Management cycle. These lessons will inform activities implemented in collaboration with the government ensuring that initiatives are well-aligned with regional priorities and are strengthened through a unified approach to disaster preparedness and response.

Activity 3: School feeding

• As part of capacity strengthening initiatives, WFP provided financial support to the Ministry of Education and Training to train about 800 school feeding committee members and 90 caregivers on school feeding management focusing on food safety, handling, and storage.
• Under the home-grown school feeding pilot project supported by the Government of Monaco, WFP in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Nutrition at district level trained 60 smallholder farmers on climate smart farming in efforts to support farmers to increase production for a steady supply of vegetables to local schools.

Activity 4: End malnutrition

• WFP in collaboration with the Smallholder Agriculture Development Project II sensitized 15 roller millers on food fortification to ensure that they are aware of the food safety dynamics and abide by the national fortification regulation. The training follows an assessment that was undertaken in August to evaluate the knowledge of local millers on food fortification and labelling and the national food fortification regulations and guidelines. Results indicated that the millers had limited knowledge on issues related to food fortification.
• WFP conducted the Gender Rapid Assessment to understand the link between food insecurity, Gender Based Violence, and the risks related to WFP transfer modalities to put in place mitigation measures in WFP’s emergency response. The assessment was conducted in Qacha’s Nek and key findings highlighted that food insecurity and tensions in the household caused by lack of consensus on prioritisation and lack of financial literacy are some of the contributing factors towards violence against women.

Activity 5: Resilience building

• WFP as part of the Climate Resilient Food Systems (CRFS) Alliance supported the Government to facilitate the National Climate Resilient Food Systems dialogues. As a follow up to the country diagnostic exercises, and using Lesotho as a case study, the CRFS Alliance in consultation with the Government of Lesotho held a multi-stakeholder workshop, to foster dialogue, knowledge sharing, and collective action to drive the transformative changes needed to build food systems resilience in the face of climate change. The workshop brought together diverse key actors and stakeholders to identify priorities and guide future interventions and investments in building climate- resilient food systems in Lesotho.