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Guinea-Bissau

WFP Guinea-Bissau Country Brief, March 2018

Attachments

In Numbers

581 mt of food assistance distributed
US$5 m six months (April-September 2018) net funding requirements, representing 23% of total

173,593 people assisted in MARCH 2018

Operational Updates

• Together with the Ministry of Education, WFP organized an event on 7 March celebrating the 1 March, African Day of School Feeding established by the African Union in 2016. WFP and the Ministry of Education staff travelled to Harare, Zimbabwe for a continental workshop on home-grown school meals and the African Union’s official celebration on 1 March. The national celebration was held at “1 de Junho” school in Canchungo, Cacheu. Learning from the 2017 event, the Ministry and WFP invited more schoolchildren to participate in the celebration.

• WFP and partners have been carrying out the second phase of pilot home-grown school meals with the purchase of locally produced food items by smallholder farmer associations particularly from women’s groups. This pilot in Oio and Cacheu regions built on the lessons learned from the first pilot in Bafatá region (2014–2017) started in October 2017. In April, WFP will expand it to three additional regions. The pilot encourages rural smallholders to produce diverse food crops to supply to schools nearby for the school meals programme, increasing household incomes and inputs to local economies. These farmers also receive training on literacy, nutrition and agriculture skills. Among local food items purchased are peanuts, beans, pulses and tubers. Cooperating partners are local NGOs AD, COAJOQ and KAFO.

• During March, WFP completed its quarterly food distribution to WFP-supported schools across the eight of nine regions of Guinea-Bissau supported by a private transport company whose drivers were all sensitized and trained on WFP programme and procedures.