Highlights
WFP continues relief food assistance to displaced and returnee populations in the country’s north-west, complemented by livelihoods, nutrition and education support in the region alongside other targeted districts across Pakistan.
Provincial consultation meetings of the Food Security and Nutrition Strategic Review continue.
Cash-based livelihood support activities are in progress in FATA. Preparatory work for the implementation of livelihood support activities in KP, Sindh and Balochistan is underway.
The inception phase of the stunting prevention programme in Sindh and Balochistan has started.
WFP Assistance
In January 2016, WFP began its activities under a new operational model “Transition: Towards Resilient and Food-Secure Pakistan”. Under the framework of this project, WFP will continue working in close partnership with the Government at different levels to: ensure the improvement of food security and nutrition among displaced and returnee populations; reinforce the resilience of communities living in the most hazard-prone areas; address malnutrition among the most vulnerable segments of the society, particularly pregnant and nursing women and children under the age of five years; and support a favourable environment for women to achieve social and economic equality.
WFP’s specific activities in the country include: life-saving relief food assistance to IDPs and new returnees; school feeding in FATA, livelihoods support activities in areas of return in FATA and drought-affected districts of Sindh, Balochistan and KP; nutrition programmes in KP, FATA,
Sindh, Balochistan and Pakistan Administered Kashmir regions; community-based disaster risk reduction interventions in the most hazard-prone and food-insecure locations; developing the Government’s capabilities in disaster risk management and other areas linked with food security and nutrition. In 2016, WFP is targeting 3.4 million people for assistance.
WFP’s food-assistance-for-assets (FFA) activities particularly target highly vulnerable groups who have lost their productive assets and livelihoods during crises resulting from natural or human-induced disasters. FFA activities are implemented using a combination of cash and food assistance depending on the availability of infrastructure, services and food in the targeted areas and local markets. Nutrition support activities being implemented in targeted districts across Pakistan seek to treat cases of moderate acute malnutrition amongst vulnerable women and children; and a supplementary feeding initiative is being implemented in Sindh to reduce the incidence of malnutrition amongst these vulnerable population groups.
Education support school feeding initiative in FATA aims to increase enrolment and stabilize attendance in primary schools, with specialized focus on increasing access for girls. WFP’s initiative in developing and producing specialized nutritious products for the treatment and prevention of malnutrition, supports local producers in improving the quality and quantity of production with the added benefit of stimulating the economy, creating employment and raising food safety standards.
WFP locally purchases a significant amount of commodities for its food assistance. WFP also mills and fortifies wheat flour with enhanced vitamins and mineral premix in Pakistan. Along with other actors, WFP has been working on supporting a national strategy for wheat flour fortification that builds local capacity to mill and fortify wheat for the commercial sector.
In order to place food security and nutrition at the centre of the national development agenda and support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG-2) “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”, WFP has been supporting the Government in the National Zero Hunger and Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) initiatives (since 2012) and in the formulation of multi-sectoral policies and strategies. WFP is also engaged in Government’s food security and nutrition-related assessments and analyses which provide an evidence base for informed programming and policy decision-making. In addition WFP is also participating in the Common Country Assessment (CCA); which is a joint excercise being conducted by all United Nations agencies to prepare the next phase of the Delivering as One initiative (OP III).
The construction and installation of Humanitarian Response Facilities (HRF) and emergency storage facilities (flospans) aim at augmenting the emergency and disaster response capabilities of the Government as well as the international humanitarian community.