Attachments
Overview
The archipelago of São Tomé e Príncipe (STP) is home to 225,000 people [1]. Classified as a lower-middle-income country, STP is a fragile economy dependent on imported products, including petroleum, staple foods, and animal protein [1]. In 2022, WFP STP continued repositioning itself as the government’s strategic partner in the development and humanitarian areas. It opened working fronts to address the following risks: 1) the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 that reduced the Government’s financial commitment to the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) activities; 2) the elections in STP and the changes in Government; 3) the reduced number of in-country donors or donors interested in financing small-scale development operations in Small Island Developing State (SIDS); and 4) rethink the management of emergency school feeding operations to meet both development and emergency preparedness and response (EPR) needs.
In 2022, WFP in STP managed these risks and strengthened its capacities to support the country in overcoming some challenges. Regarding education, sanitary measures were taken to stop the spread of COVID-19, such as reducing the number of students per class, shorter breaks, expanding the school premises, and improving the school transport network [2]. In 2022, 50,000 students benefitted from on-site school meals. Until June, when schools were already open after the restrictions of 2021, 20,000 students received on-site school meals supported by WFP and the Chellaram Foundation. After June, the Government retook full ownership of food acquisition and on-site school meals for all 50,000 beneficiaries. 5-11 years-old schoolgirls were the group receiving, in absolute numbers, most of WFP’s interventions. They accounted for 7,446 beneficiaries. For crisis operations, WFP assisted 1,500 smallholder farmers, fishermen, and their households with unconditional food as flood assistance.
Costly energy access hinders food production and logistics, increasing the prices for operating school feeding and smallholder agriculture market support (SAMS). This contributes to almost 2/3 of Santomeans living below the USD 3.20/day poverty line. However, STP presents positive development points. STP primary school accomplishment rate is 87 percent, life expectancy is 66 years, the mortality rate for children 6-59 months is 51 percent, and 97 percent of the population accesses water and 60 percent electricity, disregarding their price or stability. These numbers are above the continental standard [3].
Considering Country Capacity Strengthening (CCS), WFP and other UN agencies launched the SDG Project focused on the local food value chains in May. This project has gender-sensitive components throughout its objectives and focuses on institutional and individual-level CCS. WFP and its partners organised regular coordination meetings with the Government to discuss the construction of irrigation and drainage systems in Camavo. The SDG Project visited Uba Budo and engaged with the local community. In the first semester of 2022, WFP, in partnership with the Government-owned School Feeding and Health Programme (PNASE), conducted awareness campaigns to increase the consumption of local products at schools. In addition, WFP donated office equipment to the Ministry of Agriculture in September.
As part of South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) and CCS’s long-term impacts, a Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) exercise was completed in February. Furthermore, the Parliament approved a PNASE law in August. WFP continued advocating for PNASE’s funding regulation and disseminating its impacts with the SABER[4] evidence. SABER dissemination workshops will take place in 2023. In 2022, with support from the Regional Bureau Dakar (RBD), the CO started another series of long-term planning for its second-generation (2G) CSP, which will run from 2024-2028. In addition, in 2022, WFP launched a decentralised evaluation of capacity-strengthening activities. WFP and the government will use this evaluation's findings and recommendations to generate helpful evidence to inform the design of the new CSP and interventions.
Under the WFP-NGO HELPO partnership, STP reactivated community school gardens and a pigsty in Água Grande and Cantagalo districts. The action with HELPO is an institutional CCS technical support for PNASE. As a result, the project produced 236 kg of animal protein and 1 ton of vegetables for PNASE. Including fresh food is a commemoration for PNASE as it did not involve any parents' financial contribution. As part of the cooperation between Brazil and STP, in 2023, PNASE will receive food donations through WFP’s in-country food assistance operations, targeting schools in communities most vulnerable to climate shocks.