Attachments
In Numbers
US$ 3.55 m six months (September 2020 – February 2021) net funding requirements
WFP’s support to the Philippines prioritizes capacity strengthening activities with the national, regional, and local governments. Since March, WFP has been providing technical support and augmenting logistics operations to the Government’s COVID-19 response. WFP currently has no direct distribution of food or cash.
Operational Updates
COVID-19
• In August, WFP continued to provide logistics support to the Government in its COVID-19 response. WFP transported 78,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) on behalf of the Office of Civil Defense. WFP transported the PPE from Metro Manila to Region II (Cagayan Valley) and Region V (Bicol Region).
• The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and WFP conducted a nationwide assessment on the impact of COVID-19. More than 3,600 households were assessed using WFP’s remote monitoring toolkits. WFP and DSWD also conducted a post-distribution monitoring of the Government’s Social Amelioration Programme. The finalization of the analysis is ongoing. This is the first of three rounds of data collection that aim to gauge the food security and livelihood situation in the country amid the pandemic.
Capacity Strengthening
• In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), WFP co-led two capacity strengthening activities with the regional government on the promotion of school-based feeding and sustainable food systems:
o On 6 August, WFP and the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) completed a ten-day workshop on school-based feeding programme module development. The workshop aimed to develop the implementation and management of the school-based feeding programme in BARMM. The workshop concluded with the creation of learning modules, which will be used as guidance for BARMM’s implementing agencies.
o WFP helped inform the passing of an Executive Order that created a Food Sufficiency Task Force that will ensure a holistic and comprehensive approach in pursuing food security programmes in the newly reconstituted region.
o From 25 to 28 August, WFP, the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform conducted a workshop on the operationalization of a Food Sufficiency Secretariat towards Sustainable Food Systems.
The secretariat will take charge in harmonizing all food security and nutrition programmes in the region.
• WFP and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) are jointly assembling five sets of the Government Emergency Communications System (GECS) Mobile Operations Vehicle for Emergencies (MOVE), which arrived from Dubai to Manila in May and were turned over to DICT in July following operational delays due to the pandemic. MOVE is a rapid deployable emergency communication system that will provide ICTenabled support to disaster-stricken areas. Each MOVE set is composed of: a customized heavy-duty truck equipped with an integrated communications system known as the “Hub”; (2) a support vehicle to extend the reach of the Hub called the “Dispatch”;
(3) and an off-road motorcycle vehicle to support the crew in inaccessible terrain. In the following weeks, WFP will run two technical training sessions for DICT engineers assigned to operate the MOVE sets. This is the first phase of the partnership between DICT and WFP that started in December 2018.