In Numbers
5.291 mt food assistance distributed
US$ 162,427 cash-based transfers made
US$ 564,509 six-month (September 2021 – February 2022) net funding requirements
111,293 people assisted in AUGUST 2021
Operational Updates
WFP assisted 111,293 people in August, as part of its integrated package of interventions implemented in Zambia.
Among those assisted, WFP reached 17,554 refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo with food and cash assistance; 17,408 people through nutrition support interventions; 59,331 smallholder farmers through early recovery and resilience strengthening interventions and 17,000 people through social protection and capacitystrengthening activities.
WFP and partners continued to mobilize the refugees, especially those receiving cash-based transfers (CBT), to form savings groups. This is in line with the recommendations of the WFP-UNHCR Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) undertaken at the refugee settlement that highlighted the need to gradually introduce activities that promote refugees’ self-reliance. The groups will facilitate savings, and therefore income generation and investment among the refugees, enabling them to improve their livelihoods and become self-reliant.
Five additional savings groups were formed in August, bringing the total to 50 savings groups established in 2021. Of those groups, 19 have already received training (with 14 trained in August), while the remaining will receive training in the last quarter of the year. Seven groups are already saving, two of which have started making their first savings in August.
Under the smallholder support component of the CSP, farmers are saving and reinvesting their savings to expand agricultural activities. As of August, 167 smallholders (87 percent women) in seven savings groups in Namwala and Siavonga districts shared ZMW 175,707 (approximately USD 17,600) at the end of the saving cycle.
WFP continued its efforts to enhance people’s nutrition by promoting the processing and preservation of locally available nutritious foods and ensuring the availability of diverse foods beyond the harvest season. As part of these efforts, WFP finalized and virtually pre-tested a processing and preservation manual and training cards developed for the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). Those were tested with provincial and district staff in Central, Eastern, Southern and Western provinces in order to collect feedback and enhance the material before dissemination at national level.
As part of WFP’s technical support for the implementation of the national Home-Grown School Meals (HGSM) programme, WFP continued to work with the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) on the rollout of the decentralized procurement strategy for the programme. WFP facilitated the training of 88 government staff from five ministries (Education, Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Community Development and Social Services, and Health) in 11 districts, with a focus on strengthening staff capacity on food procurement and safety. WFP also supported MoGE to integrate grain bags system into nine hydroponics gardens in nine schools in Gwembe district; this will enable schools to implement mixed production of horticultural crops to promote diversified school meals, while ensuring sustainability. In total, 12 gardens have been set up in the district, with nearly 1,300 children expected to benefit from them. Additionally, WFP completed the setting up of a model hydroponic garden at Woodlands B Primary School in Lusaka district. The model garden is a Centre of Excellence where skills on the technology can be learned and replicated in other schools and communities.