WFP Cameroon Country Brief, July 2018
In Numbers
2,300 mt of food assistance distributed
US$454,670 cash-based transfers made
US$2.8 m six months (July-December 2018) net funding requirements
322,200 people assisted in July 2018
Operational Updates
• In July, WFP assisted 186,900 people in the Far North region, 74,300 people in Adamawa region and 61,096 in East region through its interventions including general food distributions (in-kind food distribution and cash-based transfers), seasonal support, nutrition support and livelihood activities such as food assistance for assets (FFA).
Under these interventions women and girls accounted for 52 percent and men and boys 48 percent.
• During July, WFP, under its Preventative Nutrition Programme (Blanket Supplementary Feeding-BSFP), assisted a total of 143,400 children aged 6-59 months with specialized nutritious food in the East (23,900 children), Far North (72,700) and Adamaoua (46,800) regions. Moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) treatment activities were successfully implemented with more than 4,000 children assisted across targeted regions. Average recovery rate for MAM treatment programme in July stands at 92 percent.
• Using the platform provided by the Preventative Nutrition Programme, complementary activities were provided to beneficiaries at distribution sites by other partners. Across all targeted regions, 1,000 children received relevant vaccines, 1,050 children were supplemented with vitamin A and 500 children received medication for deworming at WFP sites.
• Twenty-three infant and young child feeding (IYCF) mother support groups and 14 individuals have created home gardens and are growing a variety of vegetables with tools provided by WFP. WFP also provided home counselling and support to 890 mother-child pairs in some of the targeted districts of the East region through community health workers. Reports from community health workers show significant improvement in knowledge and behaviour of IYCF practices. The proportion of children having minimum acceptable meal frequency increased from 59 percent in June to 62 percent in July. Sixty eight percent of children under 6 months were found to be exclusively breast fed and 59 percent of children above 6 months continue to be breastfeed. 53 percent of children within 6-23 months have minimum diet diversity.
• In July, WFP assisted 26,405 beneficiaries in the East and the Far North regions with USD 454,670 transferred to beneficiaries.
• 6000 beneficiaries in the East region received food assistance through FFA and they contributed to the construction of the dike foundation for fish ponds, plantation of okra and watermelon, which will boost the stability and development of local economy and social environment for refugees, IDPs and host communities
• In July, UNHAS transported 700 passengers, 1.48 tons of light cargo and served 50 organizations (including to Chad), with 50 sorties. In addition, one Users Group and one Safety Meeting were held respectively on 18 and 28 July.
• Ministère de l’Agriculture et du Développement Rural (MINADER) of Cameroon, through Programme National de Veille et de Renforcement de la Sécurité Alimentaire (PNVRSA) conducted a food security and nutrition assessment in the West, North-West and South-West regions in Cameroon, with technical and financial support from WFP, FAO and UNICEF. Integrated into the existing Food Security Monitoring System, this assessment was initiated due to the high prevalence of food insecurity in the West (18 percent) and North-West (18 percent) according to the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) 2017, as well as by the persistence of the Anglophone crisis in the North-West and South-West. The data collection was carried out from 1 to 15 July by the Zonal Extension Workers (ZEWs) and delegates of MINADER at the decentralized level. In total, 1,820 households from 107 sentinel sites and 95 markets were surveyed. Final analysis is ongoing and the results will be available in August 2018.