Attachments
In Numbers
1,450 mt of food assistance distributed
US$ 0.47 m cash-based transfers made
US$ 7.6 m six months (January – June 2020) net funding requirements
129,274 people assisted in December 2019
Operational Updates
• Following the end of the lean season response, food security and nutrition partners in Mauritania held a lessons learned exercise to improve the implementation of the 2020 integrated emergency response. Representatives of the Government (Adviser to the Prime Minister's Office, Ministries of Health, National Education and Rural Development and the National Commission for Food Security – CSA), financial partners and international and national NGOs took part in the workshop. The CSA presented its vision for the coordination and implementation of the 2020 response plan to be carried out under the Response Preparation and Coordination Mechanism, expected to be put in place in the course of 2020. Moreover, the outline of the 2020 national response plan including a time chart of activities, was prepared and validated by the workshop participants.
• Due to funding shortfalls, WFP has been forced to suspend the emergency school feeding programme in Mbera camp during the 2019-2020 school year, hampering the implementation of the self-reliance strategy for Malian refugees. School feeding acts as a solid incentive, especially in emergency context, to combat school dropout, enhance educational outcomes and minimize associated protection risks for out-of-school children, including worst forms of child labour and early marriage. And while it is too early to draw conclusions, a drop in the enrolment rates by as much as 10 percent has so far been observed when comparing the 2019/2020 and the 2018/2019 school years. WFP is striving to continue fundraising for this major humanitarian priority in the camp.
• WFP continues implementing the recommendations of the integrated livelihood strategy for Bassikounou, providing assistance to refugees on the basis of vulnerability rather than status alone. In December 2019, WFP conducted a post-distribution monitoring survey to measure the impact of this new strategy on food security of refugees. Results show that the acceptable food consumption score for deactivated households (the most secure ones) is higher than for households in other groups and food insecurity affects less deactivated households (25 percent), than households receiving just the cash portion of the ration (group 4 -31 percent) or the full ration (groups 1, 2 and 3 - 33 percent).
• Following confirmation of the pay-out from the African Risk Capacity’s (ARC) Replica Coverage programme which provides index insurance against droughts to African Union member states, the CSA validated WFP’s 2020 implementation plan submitted in October. The pay-out is expected to finance the provision of cash-based transfers in Tagant between March and May in 2020 (pre lean-season).