Highlights
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WFP will support a technical working group that is due to spearhead the development of a national school feeding policy, with parents at the centre of implementation. .
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WFP will reinstate the full school feeding ration in the month of November to ensure that all schools in the Karamoja region can provide two meals a day to 130,000 children.
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WFP launched a beneficiary feedback helpline in the Karamoja region for piloting. The helpline is toll-free and provides beneficiaries with a mechanism for directly accessing WFP.
Operational Updates
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WFP participated in a high-level government dialogue on school feeding, chaired by the Minister of Education and Sports and First Lady of Uganda on 26 October. The discourse agreed to create a multistakeholder technical working group to spearhead developing a coherent and coordinated school feeding policy, with parents at the centre of implementation.
The meeting recognized the advantage of homegrown school feeding in stimulating local economies, agreeing to explore the modality in Uganda. Other key issues emphasized were the need for food fortification and financial and technical support of development partners. -
Based on improved resource projections, WFP will reinstate the full school meals programme rations in November to ensure that schools in the Karamoja region provide two meals a day. Since August 2017, school children have been receiving one meal a day, which compromises the potential gains of a key safety net.
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On 21 September, WFP launched a beneficiary feedback helpline pilot in Kotido and Moroto districts.
The helpline is toll-free and provides beneficiaries with a mechanism to submit feedback and complaints including serious complaints such as fraud, corruption and sexual exploitation and abuse. The pilot includes include a refugee operation location. Lessons learned from the pilot will guide the rollout of the helpline in all WFP operation areas in Uganda. -
WFP together with the Ministry of Health and district health teams in the Karamoja region have begun an assessment to investigate how the food and nutrition component affects adherence to anti-retroviral treatments. The assessment will cover all the seven districts of Karamoja, reaching 1,141 households.
There has been a perception that the dynamics around HIV/AIDS and ARV adherence are different in Karamoja given that it is a chronically food-insecure region. -
WFP is running out of funds to provide food and nutrition assistance to 1.2 million refugees. Despite the continued support from traditional and new donors, and new contributions received in recent months, the operation requires USD 77.2 million for the next six months (November 2017 - April 2018) to meet the increasing refugee needs. Expected contributions, if made available in time, will enable WFP to purchase food from the local markets during the harvest season.