ReliefWeb

In Numbers

68 mt of food assistance distributed in July

USD 0.4 M six months (Sep 2022 - Feb 2023) net funding requirements

70 630 people assisted In July 2022

Operational Updates

• On 27 June 2022, WFP, UNFPA and UNICEF, in collaboration with the UN Resident Coordinator Office and the Ministry of Women, Family and Social Solidarity, officially launched a two-year project on social protection, funded by the Joint SDG Fund. Project activities include the development of a shock-responsive social protection policy, the design of a social registry and the delivery of unconditional cash-based transfer to 1,500 food insecure households in Bolama Bijagós, Tombali and Gabu regions.

• In July, WFP distributed 60 mt of food to 70,630 schoolchildren (>50 percent girls) in assisted schools that had not yet closed for the summer holidays.

• In July, WFP concluded its School Connect pilot in 47 schools in Biombo region and kicked-off project expansion in 33 schools in Oio region in August. School Connect aims at improving tracking of attendance, consumption and stock inventory in schools participating in WFP’s homegrown school feeding programme by digitising data collection and analysis via tablets. Since the beginning of the pilot in May, WFP distributed tablets to all 80 school directors and organized two trainings for 166 staff at the school, sector and regional levels. In July, all school directors from Biombo successfully shared reliable data on children attendance and remaining food stocks. Access to real-time information significantly reduced the lag between data collection and analysis, facilitating WFP’s planning of school feeding operations for the 2022/2023 school year.
WFP is currently seeking funds to expand the project to all 693 assisted schools across the country.

• Between July and August, WFP, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and partner NGOs, identified and registered 20,000 children aged 6-23 months at risk of malnutrition in Oio, Bafatá and Gabú, who will participate in WFP’s stunting prevention programme. WFP also trained 75 health staff (including 51 women) from all regions on how to provide nutritional support for people living with HIV and tuberculosis.

• Between July and August, WFP and FAO Identified and trained 150 farmers in 15 villages in Gabú, Bafatá and Quinara regions on the principles of the System of Rice Intensification technique (SRI). This technique allows smallholder farmers to increase rice crop productivity while decreasing the quantity of water, seeds and chemicals used. Previously tested in Guinea-Bissau by local agronomists, the technique led to a four-fold increase in yields compared to traditional techniques. Through this pilot, funded by the SDG Joint Fund, WFP and FAO wish to further test this technique with local communities to appraise its potential for rice production in the country.
Participants received rice seeds, created the nurseries for rice germination and prepared the fields for transplant of sprouts in September.

• In August, WFP, UNDP, and partner NGOs kicked-off the implementation of an innovative project on climate security in 15 villages in Cacheu, Quinara and Gabu regions. The project, funded by the Peacebuilding Fund, aims to mitigate security issues arising from climate change impacts on land and water availability, by creating gender-inclusive civic spaces and implementing climate change adaptation solutions through Food assistance For Assets (FFA). WFP and its partners presented the project to local authorities, civil society organizations and targeted villages, and gathered information on conflicts and climate-related issues. In the coming weeks, WFP and its partners will organize a 3-day participatory workshop in each village to identify specific resilience projects they wish to implement.

• As part of its resilience activities, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Economic Development Project for the Southern Regions (PADES) and with funding from IFAD, WFP trained and equipped 13 market monitors in the regions of Tombali, Quinara and Bolama Bijagos to autonomously collect food prices and share them with local communities through radio programmes. In August, WFP also initiated the purchase of 248 mt of rice from PADES beneficiaries, to be distributed to schools in the southern regions, as part of its home-grown school feeding programme.

• On 28 July, WFP Guinea-Bissau presented its new Country Strategic Plan (CSP, 2023-2027) during the informal consultations of the Executive Board. The strategy, which is fully aligned with UN Sustainable Development and Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF, 2022-2026) and with the government’s policies and development priorities, will be submitted for approval to the Executive Board in November.
While standing in continuity with the previous CSP (2019-2022), the new strategy presents four programmatic shifts:

1. Improved synergy between WFP’s programmatic areas; 2.
   Stronger integration of climate change adaptation across all activities; 3. New focus on social protection and 4. Better integration of cross-cutting themes (gender equality, social inclusion and environmental sustainability).