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Malawi + 3 more

WFP Malawi Country Brief, July 2017

Attachments

Highlights

  • A delegation from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) visited Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) sites in Mangochi and Zomba districts to observe a comprehensive training session on Integrated Watershed Management approaches.

  • A delegation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) visited Mdzobwe public primary school to observe the National Reading Programme activities in Standard 1 and to deepen their understanding of the SMP. USDA is the WFP’s biggest donor for the School Meals Programme (SMP) in Malawi.

Operational Updates

Food Assistance for Assets (FFA)

  • In July, WFP signed Field Level Agreements (FLAs) with 7 Co-operating Partners (CP) to implement Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) projects across 8 districts between June and December 2017. The FLAs for Dedza and Balaka districts will be signed in August 2017. In total, the FFA activities will be implemented in 10 districts.

  • As part of the FFA activities, participants in Chikwawa, Zomba and Phalombe districts began receiving food as part of their entitlements in July. To date, 9,130 households (50,215 beneficiaries) have been assisted. The ration per month comprises of 30 kg maize, 8 kg of supercereal, 1.1 kg of oil and 6 kg of pulses per household.

Purchase for Progress (P4P)

  • In partnership with GrainPro Kenya, P4P commenced the implementation of a pilot promoting hermetic grain storage bags for the mitigation of Post-Harvest Losses (PHL) at household level for smallholder farmers in Malawi. Initially, the project will train 118 farmers through a Training of Trainers (TOT) who in turn will cascade the knowledge across all the 59 FOs.

Climate Services

  • Farm Radio Trust (FRT), a WFP strategic partner in climate services, began mobilising farmer contacts (mobile phone numbers) and mapping out farmer groups in Mangochi, Chikwawa, Zomba, Balaka and Blantyre districts. The farmer groups will integrate radio and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in their groups to enable them to receive weather, climate and agro-advisories through mobile phones and radio.

Social Protection

  • WFP Malawi contributed to the consultation on the National Resilience Plan (NRP) which is under development and due to be finalized next quarter.
    Priorities for WFP are alignment of the NRP to Malawi’s Social Support Programme II and Joint Emergency Food Aid Programme (JEFAP) review on topics related to shock sensitive social protection, bringing together the social protection and humanitarian sectors, with a focus on the most vulnerable and food and nutrition insecure (in line with the breaking the cycle agenda).

School Meals

  • WFP supported the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) in developing a School Health and Nutrition (SHN) policy. WFP is also supporting the MoEST to launch and disseminate the SHN policy in September as well as develop a National School Feeding Strategy.

Nutrition

  • Treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) continued in July. 73,900 children and pregnant and lactating women as well as 33,540 adolescents and adults under the National Care Support Treatment (NCST) programme for both moderate and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were reached.

  • WFP conducted a workshop for the transition and scaling down of activities implemented under the Prevention of Stunting Project in Ntchisi district, which is funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). Participants, including Ntchisi District Councils, World Vision and WFP staff, were asked to develop a transition plan with two possible scenarios.