ReliefWeb

In Numbers

51,381 people assisted in September 2020

77mt of food assistance distributed

US$0 cash-based transfers made

Operational Updates

• In September, the situation with COVID-19 remained relatively stable with an increasing trend of confirmed cases (the greatest concentrations in Batken, Osh and Jalal-Abad provinces). Bishkek city has the fourth greatest concentration. Despite the situation, WFP continues its operations to support the most vulnerable.

• On 22 September 2020, “the decree on the approval of the regulation on the organization of school meals for schoolchildren in 1-4 grades”, prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) with technical support from WFP, was endorsed by the Kyrgyz Government. The regulation outlines the main objectives of the Optimizing School Meals Programme (OSMP), its financing mechanism, organizational principles, safety and quality monitoring, and the responsibilities of programme stakeholders. It represents another achievement in the programme’s institutionalization being the main implementation tool for the School Meals Law ratified by the Parliament last year.

• Under the Rural Women Economic Empowerment (RWEE) Project, WFP completed community mobilization in 34 pilot villages and collected project proposals aiming to train 840 vulnerable rural women to gain skills on various topics, such as sewing, greenhouse farming, dairy processing and fish farming. Participants who are vulnerable households will receive food to address their food needs. After completion of these thematic trainings, all participants will be trained on basic business planning and financial literacy. The participants will then have an opportunity to submit business plans for project ideas to apply for grants for mini-processing equipment.

• On 24 September 2020, WFP handed over the Food Security Atlas, a unique online instrument to map food security and nutrition situations across the country, to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Industries and Melioration (MoAFIM) of the Kyrgyz Republic. The handover concludes a two-year partnership to digitize food security data collection, analysis, and dissemination for planning food security interventions at district-level. The online FSA collects and analyses a massive amount of real-time data on over 70 food security and nutrition indicators, providing a comprehensive and real-time analysis of food availability, access, utilization and stability at province and district-levels. This tool will support policymakers at national level and local authorities in the field to determine shocks related to food insecurity.