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WFP Niger Country Brief, December 2020

Страны
Нигер
Источники
WFP
Дата публикации

In Numbers

1,40 mt of food assistance distributed*

USD 1,2 m of cash-based transfers made*

USD 83 m six months (January – June 2021) net funding requirements

901 337 people* assisted in November 2020

* November figures are reflected here as December figures are not yet available

Strategic Updates

• The extension of the WFP L3 Emergency for Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) has been approved for an additional six months, until 30 June 2021.

• From 9 to 10 December, a joint UNICEF/WFP workshop was organized in Senegal on the implementation of the UNICEF/WFP concept note to strengthen the collaboration at country level in different areas, namely nutrition, school feeding, and resilience. The objective of the workshop was to take stock of the implementation of the joint programme, identifying successes and challenges and to generate orientations and recommendations to inform the development of the partnership in 2021.

Operational Updates

• In view of rising COVID-19 cases in Niger, the United Nations country team (UNCT) in Niger has reinstated teleworking modality to minimize the spread of COVID-19 among UN staff. As such, all WFP Niger staff have been instructed to work from home from 14 December for an initial one-month period, except for a few staff who can only fulfil their duties from the office (location dependent).

• In response to an increase in reported COVID-19 cases, the Government ordered the closing of schools in Niger from 17 December to 4 January 2021. WFP in Niger is organizing school feeding activities in 922 schools targeting 155,000 beneficiaries, including cash grants for adolescent girls and direct cash transfers in some of the schools. A second training of trainers’ session for the School Connect project (a digital platform to access information related to school meals activities in real time) was held on 30 December.

• Community-based nutrition activities (such as cooking demonstrations and sensitization sessions at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Center) that were suspended since April due to COVID-19 restrictions, resumed progressively in small groups.

• The recent attack by a non-state armed group in Diffa (on 12 December) has caused the internal displacement of more than 1,500 households (approximately 11,000 people) in the region. Through the Rapid Response Mechanism, WFP prepared three months of food assistance for the affected and host populations and nutrition prevention activities for children aged 6-23 months. All the 1,500 households targeted were reached.

• WFP has reached over 240,000 flood-affected people through food and cash distributions in Diffa, Tahoua,
Zinder, Maradi, Agadez and Tillabery regions as part of the first round of planned distributions and the second round of the distribution is almost completed as well.

• WFP and partners are supporting the scale-up of the national Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) programme in response to the economic impact of COVID-19. In collaboration with the World Bank and UNICEF, as of 21 December, WFP has assisted more than 61,000 households (approximately 430,000 beneficiaries) in 29 municipalities in the regions of Dosso, Diffa, Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéry, and Zinder.

• In terms of seasonality, this is the most favourable period to source locally produced millet and beans (Niebe). WFP is mobilizing additional resources that would enable the sourcing of additional commodities.