Attachments
Overview
In the final year of its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2018-2022, WFP played a critical role in addressing food insecurity and malnutrition in Timor-Leste. While there were hopes for an economic recovery following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country was heavily impacted by the global food crisis, fueled by the conflict in Ukraine and surging inflation. These factors posed a substantial threat to food security and nutrition in the country and made WFP's response even more crucial.
In response to growing concerns about worsening food security and nutrition, WFP supported the Government in delivering food and nutrition assistance to tens of thousands of pregnant and lactating women. This supplementary food was provided in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion. WFP also provided technical support to these ministries in areas such as designing and implementing a nutritious food basket in alignment with their social protection objectives. Alongside this direct food assistance, WFP reached over 100,000 people across the country with messages about healthy and nutritious diets. These messages centered on healthy diets for pregnant and lactating women as well as nutrition education among adolescents, which were bolstered by social media and television broadcasting.
The year saw some notable milestones achieved around the Government's commitments to nutrition and school-based programming. The continued joint advocacy by WFP and its partners contributed to the Government increasing its investments in nutrition programmes four-fold in the 2023 Annual Fiscal Budget, to USD 10 million. In addition, WFP's advocacy around school meals contributed to the Government announcing an increase in the 2023 national school meals programme budget from 8 million to 22 million, which will translate into an increase of 68 percent in the value of each student's school meal.
WFP provided significant technical support for the national school meals programme in 2022. This included assistance in developing a school meals manual, introducing fortified rice, enhancing monitoring and evaluation, strengthening food safety aspects, and promoting healthy and nutritious eating under a newly signed tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between WFP, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, and the Ministry of State Administration.
Another major activity in 2022 was the implementation of a joint school health and nutrition project, "Say No to 5s", to improve the school meals programme in three municipalities.
WFP continued to solidify its role in providing technical support for the Government by signing a new three-year agreement with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion to strengthen capacity around beneficiary targeting, food distributions, and supply chain-related services. This included providing logistics expertise to strengthen the country’s food supply management system, and technical support in distributing food items for nutrition assistance. Throughout the year, WFP also continued to engage in policy, programming, and partnerships through the multi-stakeholder Technical Advisory Group for Rice Fortification and installed blending machines in Baucau and Bobonaro, by working with local rice millers. WFP also supported the Civil Protection Agency and the National Logistics Center on efforts to blend fortified rice locally, which was critical in enabling 10,000 flood-affected people to receive 42 mt of locally blended fortified rice in mid-2022.
WFP maintained its presence in all 13 municipalities in 2022, with WFP field staff embedded in municipal administration offices in line with the Government Decentralization Framework. In 2022, the Government of Timor-Leste endorsed the 2023-2025 Country Strategic Plan. WFP will continue its strong partnership with the Government and partners to strengthen the country's capacity in education, health, nutrition, and social protection while promoting gender equality.
WFP will continue working to achieve food security through the Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger) and 17 (Partnerships) in line with the 2030 agenda and the Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan (2011-2030)