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WFP Mauritania Country Brief, December 2020

Países
Mauritania
+ 1
Fuentes
WFP
Fecha de publicación

In Numbers

403 mt of food assistance and specialized food distributed

USD 0.9 m cash-based transfers made

USD 12.5 m six months (January 2020 – May 2021) net funding requirements

171,153 people assisted in December 2020

Operational Updates

• Following the end of the lean season response, food security and nutrition partners in Mauritania held a virtual lessons-learned exercise to improve the implementation of the 2021 integrated emergency response. Partners discussed the challenges faced and provided recommendations to improve different thematic areas (household targeting, geographic prioritization, assistance modality, gender, communication, accountability, monitoring and evaluation). The outline of the 2021 national response plan was also prepared and validated by the workshop participants.

• For the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition, WFP reached 16,808 children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in Guidimakha, Gorgol, Assaba, Tagant and Hodh El Charghi regions, while continuing in parallel activities in malnutrition centers of Nouakchott for the benefit of 93 children and 48 PLW as part of COVID-19 response plan.

• School feeding programme was not implemented due to the decision of the Mauritanian Government to close schools from 13 December until 11 January as a preventive measure to limit the spread of COVID-19.

• As part of the African Risk Capacity’s Replica Coverage programme (a climate risk insurance coverage), the parameterization of the drought insurance for 2021 was finalized and for the first time, the parameters will measure the impact of drought on pastoralism. Hence, for 2021, Mauritania will benefit from an insurance covering both agriculture and livestock against risk of drought.

• In Mbera refugee camp, in order to minimize the frequency of contact and gatherings, the December food and cash distributions were coupled with those of November. Thus, 237 mt of rice, 19 mt of oil and 4 mt of salt were distributed to 52,678 individuals and around USD 43,000 of cash-based transfers were made to 58,800 individuals. General distributions were coupled with malnutrition prevention and treatment activities, providing 41 mt of specialized nutritious foods and ready-to-use supplementary food to 1,091 PLW (for prevention and treatment activities), 3,450 children aged 6-36 months (for prevention) and 451 children aged 6-59 months (for treatment). Distributions were preceded by nutrition education communication sessions on essential family practices, including exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding and dietary diversity. Due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, schools in the camp were closed. Nevertheless, three schoolmeal distributions were carried out in the six schools of the camp before the closure, reaching 4,028 students with specialized nutritious food and diverse food commodities.