WFP Nicaragua Country Brief, August 2018
In Numbers
US$ 1.21 six months (August 2018-January 2019) net funding requirements
164,200 people assisted in August 2018
Operational Updates
• WFP and the Ministry of Education reached 164,200 pre- and primary schoolchildren with school meals every day in some of the most remote and poorest communities in the Northern Autonomous Caribbean Coast (RACCN) and Jinotega. In addition,
WFP completed the construction of facilities in two rural schools to ensure proper preparation and storage of food for the school meal programme.
These facilities directly benefit 300 schoolchildren in the northern region of the country.
• As a way to enhance national capacities towards delivering an efficient emergency response, WFP provided training and technical assistance to government officials to improve vulnerability analysis and the use of data collection tools.
Moreover, WFP contributed to the implementation of a Seasonal Livelihood Programming (SLP) consultations in the department of Madriz. A total of 56 members of the National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention (SINAPRED) were trained on SLP methodologies and tools.
Further, WFP delivered technological equipment for the improvement of the Operation Centres for Disasters (CODE) in five municipalities of the country’s Dry Corridor. At these facilities, government staff monitors potential threats of natural phenomena that could negatively affect vulnerable communities.
• WFP continued to strengthen the capacities of its assisted farmers associated in farmer organizations (FOs), to promote climate resilience and improve their access to food. In August, WFP held workshops on crop management and production techniques for vegetables and cacao, which will serve to diversify farmers’ production and increase their consumption of home-grown products. Female farmers of two farmer organizations received training on the effects of climate change on their harvests. The training modules, which were delivered at Universidad del Zamorano in Honduras, focused on agroforestry systems, crop management and polycultures.
• To increase vulnerable populations’ access to nutritious and adequate food, WFP and its partner INTA presented farmer organizations the harvest results of different varieties of bio-enriched beans.
These varieties, harvested by WFP-assisted farmers, proved to be highly resistant to adverse weather conditions.
• With the aim of bridging the gender gap in rural areas of the country, WFP is implementing a Women Economic Empowerment Strategy to assist smallholder farmers, providing women with an additional technical assistance, inputs and promoting gender awareness. In August, WFP, female farmers of two farmer organizations received training on the registration of production costs, basic accountability, and financial administration.