ReliefWeb

Highlights

On 6 January, WFP’s Country Director met with the Vice President of The Republic of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin to brief him about WFP’s work and to confirm full support to the Government in addressing stunting.

WFP participated in a joint needs assessment under the lead of the Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, in support of the Government’s response to the floods which affected the Greater Jakarta area in January 2020.

Operational Updates

• The WFP Country Director met with the Vice President of The Republic of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin to brief him about WFP’s work in the country and to confirm full support to the Government in addressing stunting. WFP highlighted the following three focus areas of its continued policy engagement and technical assistance: food security and nutrition analysis, disaster risk management, and the prevention of stunting and other forms of malnutrition.

• The Ministry of Social Affairs and WFP launched the Kampung Siaga Bencana (Disaster Resilient Villages) report on 23 January 2020. The study is a compilation of lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations from the programme. After the report launch, WFP facilitated a discussion on future collaboration and improved support with the community-based disaster-risk management working groups.

• WFP, through the National Logistics Cluster, supported the National Disaster Management Body (BNPB) during the Greater Jakarta flood response that affected three provinces (Jakarta, Tangerang, and Bekasi), affecting 511,000, displacing 19,000 resulting in 60 casualties. Upon request, WFP’s technical assistance benefitted the provincial disaster management bodies in the affected areas as well as supporting extreme weather early warnings for 12 provinces across Indonesia.

• WFP participated in a joint needs assessment under the lead of Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, in support of the Government’s flood response. WFP provided technical assistance to field assessments for the assessment, which were conducted in 15 districts and municipalities across three provinces.

• In support of the Ministry of Education’s school feeding programme: Progas (Program Gizi Anak Sekolah), WFP and its partner Cargill continued implementing Progas in seven primary schools across five districts. In January, WFP and Cargill also launched Progas in an additional municipality, Serang, Banten. The Serang District Education office officiated the launch with a tree planting at the school garden, which was attended by WFP, Cargill and local district government representatives.

• WFP has further strengthened the social and behavioural change communication campaign for improved nutrition and healthy diets in Kuningan,
West Java, in partnership with EVOLVE. WFP trained additional facilitators on the materials through the Kuningan District Education Office, District Health Office, and local public health centers. To support the campaign, WFP has implemented a homegrown school garden at the pilot school.

• WFP participated in an evidence-based policy discussion on the changing process of the National Supplementation Program from iron folic acid to multimicronutrient substances. This discussion was initiated by Vitamin Angels (a charity), Indonesia Fortification Coalition, and the Ministry of Health. The aim of the discussion was to compile feedback and recommendations as part of the policy development process.

• WFP, alongside experts from Bogor Agricultural University and STIS Statistics Polytechnic (an academic institution), was invited by the Food Security Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture to provide data generation methods on the 2020 Food Security Vulnerability Atlas. The Food Security Agency also requested WFP to become a member of the technical working group for the 2020 Food Security Vulnerability Atlas alongside the Food Security Agency, Statistics Indonesia, and academia.

• WFP released a Seasonal Outlook Bulletin for JanuaryMarch 2020 to United Nations Humanitarian Country Team members, containing updates and information on climate, vegetation and crop monitoring updates.

• As part of its response to the Greater Jakarta Floods, WFP participated in the development of the initial tool for the joint emergency market assessment led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Cash Voucher Assistance Working Group.