Attachments
III.Executive Summary
The Community and Household Surveillance (CHS) assessment was conducted in Nyarugusu and Nduta camps in Kigoma region from 29 th July to 5 th August 2024, to monitor food assistance outcomes, determine the impact of food assistance and other services on the targeted households and to monitor food security and livelihood trends as well as cross-cutting issues of protection, accountability to affected populations, gender and disability. Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM) modules for both food and non-food items were included to assess assistance implementation aspects including beneficiaries’ perceptions on the quality and efficiency of the distribution.
Following an increase of fortified wheat ration from 296 to 365 grams and fortified vegetable oil from 8 to 15 grams in mid-June 2024, refugees received 75% of the recommended caloric intake (kcal) compared to 50% during 2023 CHS. As a result, food consumption patterns have improved, where households with insufficient (poor or borderline) food consumption decreased from 32% to 27% while the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) at 4.3 out of 6+, almost same as 4.2 in 2023 CHS. The HDDS continues to reflect low food diversity among beneficiaries, exposing them to potential food insecurity and malnutrition.
Households applying extreme coping strategies also declined as the food consumption-based Coping Strategy Index (rCSI) decreased from 26.6 in 2023 to 17.8, while the proportion of households applying high coping strategies decreased from 71% to 39%. Households adopting ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ livelihood coping also decreased from 28% to 19%. This indicates an overall improvement in food security and reduced stress amongst refugees. Households in Nduta have a higher rCSI compared to Nyarugusu, while female headed households have higher rCSI compared to male headed households, indicating more stress among households in Nduta and female headed households respectively. Higher rCSI for households in Nduta and for female headed households follows similar trends in previous CHS, as level of vulnerability has tended to remain the same given continued restrictions to livelihoods which impacts more the Burundians in Nduta and female headed households across both camps.
The percentage of households that were food insecure slightly decreased from 34% in 2023 CHS to 32%. The percentage of food secure households that could meet food needs without engaging in food consumption-based and livelihood coping increased from 1% to 4%. Prevalence of food insecurity is higher in Nyarugusu compared to Nduta, among female headed households compared to male headed households, and elderly headed households, among others, which is a similar trend compared to previous years.
Following improvement in food rations, refugee engagement in risk activities including movement outside the camp has decreased from 64% in 2023 CHS to 38%. Households facing issues when they go outside the camps has also decreased from 54% to 35%. This underscores the fact that when ration levels improve, exposure to protection risks associated with severe coping strategies is reduced. The percentage of households going outside the camp to buy food items has also decreased by almost half, from 37 to 19%.
There was a general increase in the average number of days that food lasted for all food items, following the ration size increase in June 2024. Monthly food ration allocated to cover 28 days lasted an average of 21 days for wheat flour compared to 16 days in 2023 CHS, while pulses lasted 13 days compared to 11 days in 2023. Vegetable oil and iodised salt lasted 15 days each, compared to 9 days and 13 days respectively for 2023 CHS. The prevalence of adults consuming only one meal per day also decreased from 42% to 26%.
Households satisfied with the food distribution process increased from 80% in 2023 CHS to 85%.
Increased satisfaction was linked to use of SCOPE system in the beneficiary verification process (51%) which has simplified the process and reduced the verification time, improvements in the food scooping process (41%), announcements before distribution (39%), crowd control arrangements (34%) and verification process (32%) as population is divided into sessions and specific time to collect their food ration. Areas of dissatisfaction for the 15% of the households that were not satisfied, included congestion (25%), insufficient crowd control (20%), distance to distribution site (15%), underweight bags (11%), and cheating by distribution staff (10%). WFP considers a difference of +/-5% on the weight of bags acceptable, which makes the beneficiaries dissatisfied although this was communicated to the community.
About 67% of the sampled households received various non-food items (NFIs) within six months prior to CHS/PDM, mostly soap. FGD respondents indicated that soap ration remains insufficient, and distribution is not regular. Households also indicated that there was shortage of other NFIs such as cooking utensils, clothing, blankets, sleeping mats, and sanitary/dignity materials, which were only distributed to new arrivals.
About 55% of the households were satisfied with the new NFI distribution process, mostly due to less time taken during the distribution process (75%), good organization (48%) and reduction in conflict during NFI distribution. Households who were not satisfied were mostly concerned with long time taken (79%), poor organization (42%) and increased conflicts during NFI distribution (25%). There were more households satisfied with NFI distribution in Nyarugusu (74%) where biometric verification is used, compared to Nduta (36%).
Contribution of food assistance as the most important livelihood1 source further increased from 79% in 2023 CHS to 82% following improved rations and limited options for other livelihood sources due to restrictions. Households engaged in casual labour decreased while those engaged in small scale business and sale of food assistance increased. Some households (16%) reported changes in their livelihood sources, including losing a livelihood source (44%), changing a type of livelihood source (37%) or adding a new livelihood source (14%).
About 25% of the sampled households reported using a complaint and feedback mechanism (CFM) for food related issues, which is a slight decrease from 29% in 2023 CHS, mostly at the litigation desks in the distribution centres. CFM was used to request for assistance, to report lost entitlement/SCOPE card, to request for information or to report not being on the beneficiary list.
WFP distribution sites are reportedly safe, accessible, dignified and treat beneficiaries respectfully, whilst 4 of the sampled households (0.5.%) still faced security challenges related to WFP assistance in the last distribution.
On the perceived needs - income, money, or resource to live was the most serious concern for over half of the population (56%), followed by food (55%). Food was ranked the most serious concern by 92% households in 2023 CHS and was top on the list but has reduced following improvement in food rations. There were more households in Nduta citing different areas of serious concern such as food, clothing, sanitary material for women and access to clean toilet compared to Nyarugusu.