WFP :: Kenya Update :: April 2013

Transcription

1 WFP :: Kenya Update :: April Food and Nutrition Security Highlights Heavy rainfall was received in April resulting in improvement in crop farming but also in serious flooding in some locations. Partners started retargeting and registering beneficiaries in order to reduce the numbers to 1.1 million from the previous 2.1 million. Minimal food distributions under drought recovery operation took place. Overall, the long rains season which began in March, has been normal to above normal across the country except in a few localized places in southern coastal strip and northeastern Kenya. During April, enhanced rainfall was recorded over western and central highlands, and parts of northeastern and southeastern lowlands. Most weather stations in these areas recorded rainfall that was well above 125 percent of their longterm means for the month. While allowing crop farming and pasture growth, the heavy rains resulted in flooding which displaced people, ruined livelihoods and destroyed roads. The above average rainfall in southeastern marginal farming areas has led to unusual increase in acreage planted with food crops, which added casual labour opportunities. These opportunities are likely to be available through June, enabling most poor households to afford food. In the pastoral livelihood zones, water points have filled up, but recovery of pasture and browse has been slower than usual. Accelerated pasture growth is expected over the coming weeks and will likely result in healthier livestock body conditions and increased milk supply after calving and lambing. Preparatory work on the biometric identification project and the fresh food vouchers continued in the refugee camps. The final study on the fuel-efficient stoves in Kakuma showed they had a positive impact to assisted households in host and refugee communities. WFP held a consultative workshop with partners to discuss the key components of the next 5-year Country Programme currently being designed. WFP urgently requires contributions to meet needs over the next six months (May to October). Total resource shortfalls are S$56.1 million, of which US$3.1 million are for the refugee operation. The total shortfall also includes US$2.7 million required to provide humanitarian air service. Maize prices are likely to remain stable or decrease slightly since a good harvest is expected, despite the delays in distributing fertilizer and the high fuel costs. Consequently, households food access is likely to improve further through September. Results of nutrition survey for two counties were released in April. Prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) in West Pokot decreased to 9.8 percent compared to 12.3 percent in 212, but the overall nutrition status in the county remained poor. In Tana River, there no significant change in the nutrition status of children as GAM level was 13.8 percent in 213 and 13.5 per cent in 212. Chronic malnutrition levels are critical in West Pokot with 46.8 percent of children stunted and remain serious in Tana River at 33.7 percent.

2 2. WFP Response in April 213 Drought Recovery Operation (PRRO 2294)) Minimal food distributions took place during the month. There was a late start of the beneficiaries retargeting and registration process in majority of the counties because of delays in approving the number of people requiring assistance as per the letter from the Ministry of State Special Programmes. The process therefore continued into May, and is likely to reduce the amount of food distributed and people reached during the month. For the next six months, the government will supply Plumpy Sup to treat moderately malnourished children below five years of age. WFP will however, continue providing Super Cereal and vegetable oil to pregnant and breastfeeding women in all targeted counties. Therefore, WFP s planned figure under targeted supplementary feeding programme has been adjusted downwards. PRRO 2294: Food and cash transfers April 213 General food distributions (GFD) Food-for-assets (FFA) Targeted supplementary feeding (TSFP)* Cash-for-assets (CFA) Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) Beneficiaries Tonnage (mt) Cash transfers (US$) Planned Actual Planned Actual Planned Actual 413,9 18,19 (4%) 26,8 119,688 (46%) 56,94 35,119 (62%) GRAND TOTAL 731,64 172,916 5,66 18 (4%) 3,268 1,255 (38%) (54%) (24%) 8,771 1,669 (19%) *TSFP the approved project plan is 115, beneficiaries. However, the government has its own supplies of Plumpy Sup, which is being distributed in some areas WFP operational plan has therefore been reduced. Also owing to improved food security, the proportion of the population that is malnourished has decreased significantly. Building the Resilience of a Female-Headed Household Rhoda Vata Kitalu, a 54-year old woman has not had an easy life ever since a fire accident left her with serious burns on the left side of her body and severed her fingers when she was a little girl. Because of the burns, she was unable to help in the farm or domestic chores at that time. Therefore, her father therefore enrolled her into school. As fate would have it, she dropped out in secondary school due to ill health and lack of school fees. She was soon married off, but divorced six years later and returned to her parents home with her three children. She did menial jobs and in 2, she used her savings to purchase a small plot of land in her home village in Kyuso in Kitui County, a marginal agricultural area. In 29, Rhoda was identified as needing food assistance and was enrolled under WFP s food-for-asset (FFA) programme. Because she is literate, she was appointed to keep her groups records and prepare monthly reports. That year, the group built a communal earth water dam to collect rainwater for their livestock. In 21, WFP s partner Action Aid International taught them how to conserve soil and water in their farms by digging terraces and zai pits (shallow holes used to retain water for to support crop growth). Since these simple techniques were introduced, my crop yield has improved even with the little rain we receive. I used to harvest about 27 kgs bags of maize but now I get 45 kgs, says Rhoda. She is so pleased with the results that she plans to increase the number of zai pits on her farm. Rhoda and other women in her village work in groups of four members. Even though we are compensated for three days in a week, we work one extra day to ensure that we reach every individual s farm weekly, she adds.recently, Rhoda received a 1,5-litre tank to harvest and store rainwater, as part of the inputs poor families such as hers are receiving through the joint WFP/FAO initiative aimed at improving food security and building resilience in droughtprone communities. This is a dream come true for me. The water will not only reduce amount of time I take to draw water from the river, but will also help me expand my vegetable farming and tree planting, said a joyful Rhoda.

3 Refugee Operation (PRRO 2174) At 425,7, the number of registered refugees in Dadaab continued to decline following removal of people from the registers after they failed to turn up for the verification exercise. In Kakuma, the total registered refugees reached 116,7 at the end of April. PRRO 2174: Food Distributions April 213 Beneficiaries Food tonnage (mt) Planned Actual Planned Actual Local recruitment of staff required for full rollout of the new food collection procedures (biometric fingerprinting) in Kakuma and Dadaab resumed after being put on hold temporarily to give more time for discussions with host community leaders. In May, WFP and UNHCR plan to use existing staff to carry out live tests of the new procedures to confirm identities of a sample of persons collecting food at WFP's food distribution centres. Temporary structures are being built to guarantee safety of staff, a smooth circulation of people and connectivity of computers in four centres in Dadaab and Kakuma. General food distributions (GFD) Targeted supplementary feeding programme (TSFP) moderately malnourished children aged 6 to 59 months MCHN Children aged 6 to 23 months MCHN Pregnant & Lactating Women School meals programme (SMP) including girls take home rations 58, 558,434 (96%) 15, 8,652 (58%) 35, 21,865 (62%) 26, 17,46 (66%) 96,564 (136%) 9,744 9,388 (96%) (55%) (84%) (88%) 63 In April, WFP began negotiating with partners providing antenatal care services in Dadaab in readiness for the start-up of the Fresh Food Vouchers targeting pregnant women. Letters of agreements with partners are being prepared. Discussions with traders and a national bank started in order to ensure systems are in place for rapidly reimbursing traders of fresh foods they have exchanged for vouchers. In addition, as part of learning and sharing, WFP hosted a workshop in Nairobi on the selection, contracting and management of traders in voucher projects. The objective was to consolidate the experiences of eight WFP country offices from East and Central Africa as well as Afghanistan in implementing voucher programmes. The lessons learnt will useful when rolling out the pilot in Dadaab. Institutional feeding (Hospital, HIV, TB & other special cases) Food-for-assets (host communities) Food-for-training (youth from host and refugee communities) 4,3 2,28 (47%) 36, 25,645 (71%) 2, 1,138 (57%) 42 1 (23%) (68%) 18 2 (8%) The final report for the Safe Access to Firewood and alternative Energy (SAFE) initiative in Kakuma was released. The study found that: There was a reduction of over 5 percent in firewood consumption compared to traditional stoves such as the 3-stones open fire. The energy efficient stoves, however, were problematic when cooking traditional flat bread common among most of the refugee communities. The fall in firewood collection reduced exposure to gender-based violence, however, amongst the host community, it has not reduced the rate of firewood collection since the extra collected is sold to boost Refugees collecting food in Dadaab refugee camps. WFP will introduce new food collection procedures whereby the fingerprints of the person collecting the food will be crosschecked against the registration records. PHOTO: WFP/Rose Ogola

4 the family income. There was lower occurrence of some diseases associated with cooking in the three studied groups at the end -line period compared to the baseline period. The smoke emission from the use of the stoves reduced, and due to their portability, people cook outside the houses more easily. There was a high acceptability of the fuel-efficient stoves among the assisted households. The study recommended that the number of stoves provided should be increased and that the use of alternative fuel sources other than firewood should be explored. Country Programme (CP1668) The heavy rainfall experienced in April affected food deliveries to schools before they opened in May for the second school term. Worst affected were Mandera, Wajir and Turkana where road infrastructure is fragile and is easily damaged by heavy downpours. On 3 April, WFP held a consultative meeting with partners (government, donors and UN) about the new Country Programme being designed. The meeting concluded that the CP will have four main components i) Education ii) Nutrition iii) Market Linkage and iv) Capacity Development at national and county levels. The CP will be presented to the Executive Board for endorsement in February 214. Purchase for Progress (P4P) WFP collected 349 mt of maize and 4 mt of beans purchased from 14 farmer organizations (FO) and two small -scale traders. The food purchased was worth US$16,. Nine out the 14 FO sold to WFP for the first time and had difficulties initially in meeting the required quality. Continuous support to FOs by WFP and implementing partners is therefore critical to ensure that farmers produce and market high quality produce. Market access and linkage activities are ongoing in various field locations with active participation of the Ministry of Agriculture. Joint monitoring in April 213 observed that building farmers capacity to engage in collective marketing was on the right track. Food being loaded onto a truck from a store owned by smallholder farmers organization for delivery to a WFP-supported programme PHOTO: WFP

5 United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) Due to lack of air transport services to the remote refugee camps in Kenya, WFP/UNHAS in Somalia has been providing air transport since 29 through a partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kenya. However, with significant increase in humanitarian operations in Kenya, the demand for air travel has grown immensely. In order to meet the growing demand, UNHAS started providing dedicated air transport service to 4 humanitarian agencies within Kenya on 1 February 213 (See table for achievements so far). Sum of Hours Flown No of Passengers Flown Quantity of Cargo Transported (mt) February March The operational fleet is made of a dedicated 37-seater aircraft with an estimated annual cost of US$4.6 million. Forty percent of the budget is being recovered through sale of one -way passenger tickets at US$15 per seat to April , Dadaab and US$2 to Kakuma. The operation requires US$2.7 million to cover the remaining budget. Total 213 2, No of Flights Taken 3. Resourcing and Pipeline Summaries (May to October 213 ) WFP s current shortfall (May to October 213) for operations in Kenya is US$56.1 million. The drought recovery operation (PRRO 2294) had, as of 3 April, shortfalls totalling US$2.4 million, 5 percent of which is for cash transfers. Recent cash contributes enabled WFP to clear the backlog of accrued debts owed to families under cash-for-assets. However, there are no funds to meet requirements from June onwards; this raises the risk of the debts accruing again if more funds do not become available soon. For the refugee operation (PRRO 2174), there will be pipeline breaks of Cereals and Super Cereal plus because of funding constraints starting in July 213 with food supplies of all commodities expect Plumpy Sup running out completely from September. Also, the operation has significant amount of unpaid advances. Overall sixmonth shortfall is US$3.1 million. The Country Programme (CP 1668) has a resourcing gap of US$2.9 million i.e., US$2.6 million for the school meals programme and US$266, for the HIV and AIDS programme. UNHAS has a shortfall of US$2.7 million to cover 213 operational costs. The shortfalls are illustrated on the next page.

6 t m in d o F PRRO Drought Operation - Food Distributions (mt) May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Resource shortfalls for food distributions over the six months period are US$9.9 million including unpaid advances) Needs Shortfalls s 3 n 3 ilio 2 M in 2 S $ 1 U 1 PRRO Drought Operation - Cash Transfers (US$) May-1 3 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Shortfalls for cash-for -assets activities are US$1.5 million. Needs Shortfalls 12, 1, 8, 6, 4, 2, - PRRO Refugee Operation - Food in mt May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Needs Shortfalls The shortfalls for the refugee operation are US$3.1 million, including unpaid advance requests CP Country Programme- Food in mt May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Six months resource shortfalls for the Country Programme are US$2.9 million Needs Shortfalls