Attachments
In Numbers
1,538,599 people assisted in March 2023
3508 mt of food assistance distributed
USD 4.11 million in cash-based transfers
USD 147 million six months (April 2023 – September 2023) net funding requirements.
Operational Updates
Support to refugees
• In March, WFP provided 3,508 MT of in-kind food assistance to 514,508 beneficiaries and disbursed USD 4.11 million in cash-based transfers (CBT) to 795,336 beneficiaries.
• WFP provided nutrition support to children, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, distributing 208.2 MT of specialised nutritious food under the Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) programme and targeted supplementary feeding programme. A total of 5,932 beneficiaries were treated under the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Program (TSFP) and 58,878 were supported under the MCHN programme.
• In preparation for the rollout of Phase 3 Prioritisation, WFP has conducted stakeholder engagements across all refugee settlements at regional and community levels to enable leaders and beneficiaries to understand the importance of providing the right assistance to the right people and ensuring the most vulnerable are prioritised. Stakeholders include refugee leaders, district officials, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and UN agencies. This is done to provide information to WFP beneficiaries before prioritization is conducted.
Scale-up of Cash-Based Transfers (CBT):
• During the month of March, WFP continued enrolment on to the CBT modality in all the 13 refugee settlements. As a drive towards Digital and Financial inclusion, WFP sustained cash digitization expansion campaigns and enrolment of beneficiaries to receive cash assistance. This was done through expansion of digital delivery mechanisms particularly using Agency Banking within 9 out of 13 refugee settlements of Bidi-Bidi, Imvepi, Palorinya, Palabek, Kyaka, Kyangwali, Rwamwanja, Nakivale and Oruchinga.
• WFP intends to expand the financial literacy education to include the youth as well as household heads.
Strengthening Social Protection Delivery Systems
• WFP Uganda supported the scaling up of Anticipatory Actions for Food Security in Uganda by proposing an Early Action Plan Development for floods in the Karamoja region in collaboration with the International Federation of the Red Cross. The plan involved a co-development process of identifying impacts, triggers, and thresholds linked to welldefined actions to be taken before a hazard hit to reduce its impact on lives and livelihoods of the communities. The Early Action Protocol (EAP) is a tool that guides timely and effective implementation of early actions based on specific weather forecasts for flooding events.
School Meals Programme
• In March, WFP continued to provide hot meals to 195,000 school-going children in Karamoja. To enhance management of the school feeding program, WFP working together with Karamoja district local governments, scaled up capacity building on the digital collection and reporting of school feeding data in 126 schools. A total of 300 trainees that included head teachers and food focal persons were trained. Digital data collection and reporting for school feeding under the Education Management Information System will commence at the beginning of Term III. Each school received a WFP-procured tablet to facilitate the data collection.
• To ensure food quality and safety in schools, WFP also supported the training of food focal persons and food management committee members on food safety, quality, and silo use across the nine districts of Karamoja region. The training was facilitated by District Local Governments and WFP, with over 2,000 trainees reached. Over 1,500 farmers from across the region were also included in the silo training.
Nutrition
• WFP, through its community based supplementary feeding program (CBSFP), supported community engagements through Village Health Teams (VHTs) to screen 72,704 children aged 6-59 months across the nine districts of Karamoja in March of which 20.4 percent were identified as malnourished and referred to health centres for appropriate care.
• WFP supported community outreaches in which caregivers received training on use of locally available foods to manage malnutrition where 3,071 caregivers were reached. At the outreach sites, 23,776 beneficiaries received 92.8 MT of specialized nutritious food to manage malnutrition in Karamoja. A total of 3,492 children received vitamin A supplementation, 4,872 were de-wormed, 1,127 pregnant mothers received antenatal services at the outreach posts with 452 receiving iron and folic acid supplementation, 634 clients received HIV/AIDs counselling and testing services on-site.
Agricultural Market Support (AMS)
• WFP continues to carryout activities for improved postharvest management to ensure safety and quality of commodities produced by farmers, while promoting collective bulking and marketing for the commodities to capture better market price. In March, through the farmer cooperatives, the Agriculture Market Support unit supported 50 farmer groups (totalling over 210 farmers) in Koboko district (North-western part of the country) with clustering based on selected enterprises such as groundnuts, soya beans, rice and maize