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Zambia + 3 more

Zambia Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028

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Overview

Over the past few years, Zambia has made significant progress in increasing food production and productivity and reducing malnutrition levels. However, the country continues to face considerable developmental challenges which saw it re-classified to low-income from lower-middle-income status in 2022. Poverty levels remain high at 54 percent nationally, coupled with high malnutrition rates (35 percent stunting) and increased inequality, especially for women and youth facing severe challenges with youth unemployment at 26 percent.

In the second half of 2023, WFP launched its new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2028, guided by national policy frameworks and the strategic priorities of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. The CSP reinforces WFP’s role as a partner of choice for the Zambian Government in achieving national priorities and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 17 by 2030. Furthermore, the CSP includes key strategic and programmatic shifts to ensure WFP’s continued relevance and added value.

WFP continued strengthening the Government’s capacities to develop and implement impactful, inclusive, and targeted food and nutrition security programmes along the food value chains from production to consumption. Partnerships with the Government, cooperating partners, United Nations agencies, multilateral agencies, the donor community, academia, and the private sector remained key in the launch and implementation of the 2023-2028 CSP.

In 2023, WFP reached 112,214 (50 percent female) with food assistance, nutrition improvement support, smallholder farmer support, disaster risk management, and social protection interventions. Across its programming, WFP integrated nutrition and gender aspects, especially for women, youth, and people with disabilities, ensuring that assistance was inclusive and nutritionally sensitive.

WFP continued to provide cash assistance and nutrition improvement interventions to over 8,000 crisis-affected people in Zambia, including refugees and asylum seekers. To promote the self-reliance of refugees in the Mantapala refugee settlement, WFP launched the strengthened livelihoods activity to equip 1,200 farmers (1,000 refugees, 200 host community members) with skills and supplies, using a Farmer Learning Hub model for knowledge transfer and collective learning.

WFP supported the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services in training 122 (61 percent female) extension workers and leading farmers in food processing, preservation activities, and nutrition education. This effort to enhance the nutritional status of vulnerable people in Zambia will see an increasing number of households benefiting from the knowledge, which can improve consumption patterns.

WFP also supported the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services to enhance the Integrated Social Protection Management System, including onboarding nutrition-targeted beneficiaries under the first 1,000 critical days nutrition pilot, focusing on the period from conception to age two. Additionally, to provide nutrition-sensitive social protection, WFP developed a manual to integrate nutrition education at the school level, targeting learners, teachers, and community members.

WFP facilitated activities, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the private sector, and WFP in China (South-to-South Triangular Cooperation), to bolster resilience among smallholder farmers through innovative technologies. These efforts included promoting regenerative agricultural practices and establishing mechanization service hubs, all supported by smallholder farmer-managed cooperatives and enterprises. Consequently, 55 hectares of land were cultivated using conservation agriculture methods..

WFP continued to provide innovative and cost-efficient logistics services to various stakeholders, including timely and appropriate on-demand services for supply chain, innovation, and health logistics services to relevant actors. This included facilitating the transportation of food commodities for humanitarian purposes and enhancing the distribution of temperature-sensitive medical supplies in Zambia.

WFP managed to sustain its programmes throughout the second half of 2023 primarily because of multi-year contributions, internal resource mechanisms, and the carry-over resources from the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2019-2023, which concluded its implementation in June 2023.