Highlights
WFP continues its 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.
The first round of provincial and national consultation meetings of the Food Security and Nutrition Strategic Review have been completed. The final consultations are being planned.
Production of Maamta, the locally developed lipid-based nutrient supplement for pregnant and nursing women (LNS for PNW) has started. Distribution is planned during January 2017.
Operational Updates
On the Food Security and Nutrition Strategic Review, the first round of provincial consultations have been completed and the high-level national stakeholder consultation took place in November 2016. A second round of provincial consultations is being organized with the provincial governments in December and January to validate the preliminary findings.
The local production of a lipid-based nutrient supplement named Maamta, for pregnant and nursing women, successfully started in November 2016. The product will be distributed as part of the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and the Stunting Prevention programmes for PLW in January 2017, replacing Super Cereals and vegetable oil. Maamta is a special dietary supplement to enrich the food intake of pregnant and nursing women. The product can be eaten directly from the package requiring no dilution, mixing or cooking. Contrary to Super Cereals, Maamta will increase the nutrient intake for mothers while greatly reducing customary intra-household food sharing.
The inception workshop of the “Food Consumption Trend Analysis by using Household Integrated Expenditure Survey data (2001-2014)” was organized in November with participation from the Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Regional Bureau in Bangkok. The participants recognized the importance and relevance of the analysis and agreed to constitute steering and technical committees to lead this process.
WFP is developing a strategy paper for the inclusion and mainstreaming school feeding in the next Education Policy of Pakistan (which is currently under review). This activity is being conducted in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Education & Professional Training.
WFP, in coordinagtion with the FATA education secretariat, conducted an art competition in the schools targeted under the school feeding intervention. Three selected drawings from this competition were sent to the Kangawa Biennial Children Arts Exhibition, organized by Japan. In addition, selected entries from this competition will also be sent to the Global WFP School Feeding Children Arts Competition.
The inception meeting of the DFID funded Joint Resilience Programme was held in Sukkur and was attended by all relevant stakeholders including the provincial disaster management authority (PDMA). This project is being implemented jointly with FAO and UNDP in four districts of Sindh and Punjab.
Following the first round of cash disbursements for recovery interventions in South Waziristan agency last month, WFP and its cooperating partner further intensified the operations in the Agency by engaging with the political and military authorities for improved security and disbursement arrangements. The WFP ICT team was specially deployed to look at the connectivity issues and made some special arrangements by installing VSAT.
WFP and FAO, co-facilitated the first Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) training for the members of the IPC working group. The training covered the technical elements of the IPC and analysis of the data available, with specific focus on chronic food insecurity.
WFP carried out an orientation for a team of Rescue 1122 in Jafarabad, Balochistan. During the orientation session, WFP also provided School Safety, Search & Rescue (SAR) and Fire Alarm kits to the Rescue 1122 team.
The first draft of the National Fortification Strategy has been finalized and is under review.
Provincial consultation for Pakistan Multi Sectoral Nutrition Strategy is underway and the first draft of this strategy is due to be finalized in December 2016.