Highlights
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In February, WFP reached 60 regional and local officials from five regions with its capacity building workshops on disaster risk management.
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WFP has strengthened its partnerships in the Province of Sechura by training local government officials as well as civil society organizations on food security and nutrition related issues.
WFP Assistance
WFP Peru is one of the few country offices in the world that does not have a food assistance operation (food or cash transfers). Its support to government priorities is done through technical assistance and policy support. Using an innovative approach on capacity development, the office focuses on two areas: food security and nutrition, and emergency preparedness and response. Projects are currently implemented through trust funds, the objectives of which are explained below.
2017 is a year of transition for the office. The country office is currently preparing the five-year strategic plan as per the Integrated Roadmap to be presented at the November Executive Board session. The new portfolio of the office is expected to include a new advocacy role for WFP in Peru stemming from its work with Chef Gastón Acurio and a renewed partnership with the private sector.
Under its PROSAN initiative, WFP seeks to improve the food security of 23,000 vulnerable people in Sechura, where the lack of government health services and economic opportunities, particularly for women, contributes to above average rates of chronic child malnutrition and anaemia. WFP aims to strengthen government capacity and, principally female-led community nutrition programmes, address micronutrient deficiencies, support smallholder farmers’ market access and develop emergency response capacity. WFP´s work here and in Ventanilla is designed to inform government decisions on anemia and malnutrition reduction strategies by identifying best practices and scale – up. In the two years since the start of the programme, anaemia levels have been reduced from 58% to 45% in children under three.
Building on the reduction of anaemia by 20 percentage points achieved during the 2011-2015 project, this new nutritional education initiative targets a larger geographic area to support government efforts to reduce malnutrition by working with female community leaders, parents, teachers and local authorities as well as providing capacity building support for district staff and public health and social protection officials in Ventanilla district, outskirts of Lima.
With its Japan funded LCD project, WFP’s objective is to help authorities coordinate and strengthen their humanitarian logistics response capacity, focusing on needs assessment, transport, warehousing and distribution, integrating gender and cultural considerations.
Operational Updates
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In its efforts to support the Government to reach SDG 2 “Zero Hunger” and improve food security and nutrition, WFP in Sechura province led a capacity building workshop on “Safe Water” with the local grass roots civil society organizations of two human settlements.
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WFP trained government officials in a four-day workshop in the district Cristo Nos Valga of Sechura province on prevention of anemia.
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WFP carried out an evaluation of the nutritional status of the children participating in the project for anemia reduction in Ventanilla in order to support its successful implementation.
As part of WFP’s efforts to improve disaster risk management capacity in Peru, WFP in cooperation with the National Institute of Civil Defense held capacity building workshops in the cities of Trujillo and Cusco on the joint “Manual for Damage and Needs Assessment”. The activity reached sixty regional and local government officials from the regions of Trujillo, Cusco, Puno, Apurimac and Arequipa.