Attachments
Overview
In 2022, Tunisia continued to face significant political and socioeconomic challenges compounded by the impact of the Ukraine conflict on food security. With the new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for 2022-2025, WFP has reinforced its technical assistance and policy advice to the Government and has been able to achieve its goals in terms of strengthening capacity and promoting innovation in nutrition and safety net strengthening. The CSP contributes mainly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 17 "Partnership for the Goals."
Further strengthening its partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE), mainly through the Office of School Works (OOESCO), WFP sustained its support for the improvement of the National School Feeding Programme as a key social safety net. This included the optimization of the school meals supply chain, through the promotion of local purchases. The digitalization of the school canteen supply chain has been successfully launched in the central canteen of Zaghouan and two decentralized school canteens in Siliana. In support of these efforts, WFP enabled South-South cooperation at the local administration level, facilitating OOESCO's participation in the Global Child Nutrition Forum in Benin.
Building on its commitment to enhancing national institutions and local partners' capacities, WFP conducted 9 workshops and trainings, ensuring ownership and knowledge transfer to more than 288 institutional and Government staff. Workshops and trainings have enabled educators and school canteen cooks to develop their skills in nutrition, hygiene, and stock management. WFP fostered the production of eight evidence-based knowledge products to support decision-making, such as nutritional research, and vulnerability assessments, including an assessment of national and regional markets for school feeding, advocacy for better nutrition care of people living with HIV, and a Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) analysis. The FNG analysis emphasized the need for multi-sectoral interventions involving stakeholders in the food security, social protection, and health systems to improve access to nutritious food for both children and adults.
WFP also focused on consolidating the Government’s capacity to generate gender-sensitive data and analysis. WFP engaged with the Ministry of Family, Women, Children, and the Elderly, to ensure that the food security challenges of rural women were addressed by national policies and strategies. In this regard, WFP commissioned a study on the working conditions of women farmers, with recommendations endorsed by line ministries. WFP is committed to efforts to put food security and nutrition at the center of the new national strategy for the socio-economic empowerment of rural women, by joining forces with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and UN Women, through the Joint Inter-Agency Programme: ‘Accelerating Progress Towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment" (JP RWEE).
In 2022, the cumulative crises of COVID-19 and the Ukraine conflict have exacerbated current vulnerabilities of access to food, leading to an increased risk of food insecurity in Tunisia. In response to the Government’s request for assistance to the most vulnerable households, WFP conducted a CSP budget revision to include a one-time food distribution to 7,500 vulnerable families in the most affected rural regions of Kairouan, Kasserine, and Siliana.
The global food crisis is challenging Tunisia's ability to import sufficient cereals to produce wheat flour-based foods.
WFP, therefore, contributed to the assessment of the risk of cereal shortages, analysing the cereal supply chain globally, regionally, and locally and sharing this analysis with the UN Country Team and donors. In addition, WFP identified the need to better prepare for a potential increase in needs by drafting a concept of operations (CONOPS) for a potential scale-up of in-kind and cash transfers, including potential "assistance to Libyan refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in southern Tunisia", in case of changes in the political and economic contexts of either country.
An outline for more shock-responsive social protection was presented to the Ministry of Social Affairs, paving the way for future WFP support to the Ministry's efforts to strengthen social protection. Additionally, a strategy was developed with national institutions in the agricultural sector, and an associated action plan to strengthen the resilience of the food system to crises, including climate change.