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WFP Bangladesh: Rohingya Refugee Response | Situation Report #13 (27 March 2018)

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Bangladesh
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Sources
WFP
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Highlights

  • Phase II of WFP’s emergency response is underway, and WFP requires a total of USD 280 million for a sustained response to meet the needs of the Rohingya refugees through the rest of the year.

  • WFP has started transitioning refugees from food assistance to cash-based transfers (CBT), and aims to transition all refugees to CBT by the end of the year.

  • Preparations are ongoing for the upcoming monsoon season, which is expected to have significant impacts on securing safer settlements, and WFP operations.

Situation Update

  • The monsoon season is fast approaching, and is expected to have significant impacts on the refugee settlements. The humanitarian community is undertaking a multitude of preparedness actions.

  • Although the influx of refugees from Myanmar has slowed over the past months, 3,236 new arrivals reportedly crossed the border in February, bringing the total new arrivals to more than 5,000 since the beginning of the year, UNHCR reports.

  • 80 percent of new arrivals interviewed cited family safety and security as the main reasons for fleeing, and 43 percent cited restrictions on livelihoods as another major reason, in addition to frequent raids and lack of food.

  • About 2,500 Rohingya refugees from the Kuna Para “no man’s land” (zero line, on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar), who have been there since the end of August 2017, have been ordered to vacate the area by Myanmar authorities. WFP integrates new arrivals into the ongoing food distribution cycle on a continuous basis.

  • Following the inter-agency Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) covering the period from September 2017 to February 2018, the Joint Response Plan (JRP) for March-December 2018 was launched in Geneva on 16 March, with a total budget of USD 950.8 million.

WFP Response

  • Phase II of WFP’s emergency response (March-December 2018) commenced this month. As part of the response plan for Phase II, WFP has begun transitioning all refugees from food assistance to cash-based transfer assistance through e-vouchers.

  • 165,000 people are receiving food assistance through e-vouchers redeemable at WFP assistance outlets in March, up from approximately 89,000 people in January and February. WFP plans to transition all refugees to food assistance via e-vouchers by the end of the year.

  • Planning continues at the WFP office in Cox’s Bazar for the forthcoming monsoon season in close collaboration with the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), other United Nations agencies, and cooperating partners, and a number of preparedness actions are underway.

  • In preparation for the monsoon season, WFP is preparing to implement community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) projects through a cash-for-work (food assistance for assets) approach, where vulnerable refugees will undertake mitigation and rehabilitation activities in exchange for cash. Key community projects have been identified and WFP is in the process of identifying potential cooperating partners.

  • Under a USD 2.7 million grant from Japan for disaster risk reduction through food assistance for assets, a number of preparedness activities are being planned, including the rehabilitation of access roads to major WFP food distribution sites, slope stabilization in high risk areas, rehabilitation of secondary and tertiary drainages, and cash-for-training activities.

  • Phase II of WFP’s emergency response is currently still only 8 percent funded, and WFP urgently requires USD 11.3 million to extend its food, e-voucher and nutrition assistance until the end of July.