WFP Senegal Country Brief, May 2024

In Numbers

66,212 people assisted

US$ 29,481 cash-based transfers made in May

US$ 12 million six-month (June-November 2024) WFP Senegal net funding requirements

Operational Updates

• Strengthening Resilience and Livelihoods:
  WFP and the Mastercard Foundation launched operations for the “Strengthening Food Systems for Youth Employment” project targeting the creation of 76,500 jobs by 2026 in six regions, namely SaintLouis, Matam, Tambacounda, Kolda, Ziguinchor, Kaolack.

• WFP and cooperating partner staff were trained on tools and softwares to be used for beneficiary targeting and profiling. Field-level agreements were signed with six cooperating partners and implementation started with beneficiary targeting and profiling. Sales contracts amounting to USD$ 1,638 were signed with local producer organizations, and local purchasing began as part of the home-grown school feeding (HGSF) pilot in Kolda. WFP also met with value chain key market actors, namely Auchan and Club Tiossane, to initiate discussions on forward contracts with project beneficiaries.

• WFP initiated the process of supporting agripreneurs on value addition by processing fortified rice for consumption.

• School Feeding (SF): WFP assisted 71,476 pupils, of which 55 percent of girls, in 285 primary public schools in three regions with the lowest indicators of academic performance and the highest indicators of malnutrition and food insecurity.

• WFP, with the involvement of the School Canteen Division, trained 23 canteen staff and National Education school inspectors on the use of the School Connect software in Kolda. This will enable ten schools to start using School Connect, leading to an improved management of the SF programme.

• WFP and ECOWAS held a conference on HGSF with the attendance of ECOWAS member states as well as non-member states and Senegalese government officials. Topics discussed included securing financing, reviewing best practices, ensuring knowledge management, and experience sharing for the implementation of HGSF programs in the region.

• Nutrition: WFP, in partnership with Sénégalaise des Filières Alimentaires and dsm-firmenich, launched a fortified rice production line in Saint-Louis to combat malnutrition and feed into WFP-supported school canteens, starting with the region of Matam with 236 school canteens.

• “Fonio Machine” moved forward in WFP’s Innovation Accelerator Sprint Programme aiming to produce 13 fonio husking machines, training and empowering women-led food processing units. The project aims to make fonio more accessible.

• WFP was invited by USAID to visit their Feed the Future Senegal project in the Saint-Louis region aimed at enhancing productivity and sustainability.

• WFP provided crucial support to the Government through endorsement by signature for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months. This initiative involves the distribution of 21,858 metric tons of Lipid-based Nutrient Supplement - Large Quantity (LNS-LQ) to 3,643 beneficiaries in 364 health centres over 2 months.

• Food assistance: WFP teams were strongly focused on supporting the upcoming launch of the Nutrition Reinforcement Plan (“Plan National de Riposte”).