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WFP Rwanda Country Brief, August 2019

Countries
Rwanda
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Sources
WFP
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In Numbers

653 mt of food assistance commodities distributed

US$ 1 m cash-based transfers completed

US$ 16 m six months net funding requirements, representing 59 percent of total requirements for the next six months (September 2019-February 2020).

229,600 people assisted In August 2019

Operational Updates

• Overview: In August, WFP reached 229,600 targeted people with its continued food and nutritional assistance. These include 148,400 Burundian, Congolese refugees and asylum seekers hosted in six camps, and 81,200 school going children in primary schools located in the most food insecure areas.

• Local purchases: in August, WFP procured a total of 10,900 mt of food commodities worth US$ 12.2 million locally from Rwanda. These commodities will be used to provide assistance to people in need in Rwanda and in the region. So far, a total of 2,104 mt have been exported to WFP’s operations in Kenya and Uganda during August.

• Ebola Virus Outbreak: As of 1 September 2019, according to WHO, the number of Ebola cases has increased to 3,036 confirmed cases and 2,045 confirmed deaths. Rwanda remains at high risk and the Ministry of Health has intensified surveillance at all ports of entry. WFP continues to provide technical support in logistics, supply chain, engineering and nutrition to support Ebola preparedness in Rwanda. WFP is currently working jointly with UNICEF to engage with partners to have fully equipped and properly staffed 25 bed capacity Ebola Treatment Centre in Kigali.

• Africa Food Security Leadership Dialogue: WFP high level delegation attended the Africa Food Security Leadership Dialogue that took place in Kigali in August. The objective of the event was to catalyse actions and financing to support countries address Africa’s worsening food security crisis under climate change. A jointly signed communique from the conference called upon stakeholders to strengthen collaboration and scale up investment and policy response for food security in a changing climate.

• Assistance to small holder farmers: Through Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA), WFP is testing an application to digitize transaction at the farmers’ cooperative level, to enhance transparency and efficiency of data collection for aggregation and sale of produce.

• Monthly food security update: Monthly monitoring shows stable price for all food commodities in July. Refugees were able to buy food from the markets since prices remained within the range of cash transfer value.

• Fill the Nutrient Gap study: Findings from the study indicate that at national level, though majority of households are food secure, their diets are dominated by energy dense staple foods and are substantially diversified. There is also a need to address sub-optimal complementary feeding practices. For the refugee context, findings showed that food accessed by refugees is low in essential micronutrients; the outstanding micronutrients would need to come from mainly animal source foods. To fill the gap, the report recommends facilitating livelihood and income earning opportunities as well as continuing community counselling on better use of cash transfers for food and preparing nutrient rich diet. Full Report

• Standardised Expanded Nutrition Survey (SENS-2019): was conducted in all refugee camps. The draft report shows that global acute malnutrition remained within WHO acceptable threshold at 2.7 percent. It further showed a reduction of stunting levels among children in refugee camps.
The report has been validated and dissemination will take place in October 2019.