WFP Sri Lanka Country Brief, July 2019
- Countries
- Sri Lanka
- Sources
- WFP
- Publication date
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In Numbers
Poor nutrition among women of reproductive age remains an issue in Sri Lanka, with 10 percent underweight and 45 percent overweight or obese. Meanwhile, 33 percent of pregnant and lactating women are anaemic.
Sri Lanka ranks 2 nd of 176 countries prone to climate shocks (Global Climate Risk Index)
US$ 4.35 million – Six months net funding requirement (July 2019 – December 2020)
Operational Updates
• WFP, UNFPA, together with Government partners, kick started a series of workshops in July linked to WFP-supported resilience building and livelihood support activities in five districts. The workshops target government staff at the community level to raise awareness and understanding on gender topics, such as gender division of labour, gender inequality, women’s empowerment, gender and nutrition, gender and food security and gender transformative programming. This is part of a WFPUNFPA joint project called ‘CHANGE’, which is addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment through improved nutrition, food security, sexual and reproductive health, and access to health services in Sri Lanka.
• In July, Experts from WFP’s Bangkok and India offices provided government partners from the Health Promotion Board (HPB) with training on nutrition and social behaviour change communication. The training aimed to build capacity across planning a nutrition communication strategy. With Sri Lanka’s nutrition status on malnutrition and obesity worsening, WFP and the Government are working together to increase awareness and advocate for healthy diets. The HPB of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine has identified the need to update the National Nutrition Communication Strategy in Sri Lanka (2007-2011), WFP continues to provide it with technical and some financial support.
• WFP and the International Food Policy Research Institute are rolling out operational research to assess the impact of resilience-building activities on nutrition outcomes. This study, which will begin data collection towards the end of 2019 to early 2020, will add to the body of evidence for the nutrition-sensitive programme within the country as well as globally.