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Gambia

WFP The Gambia Country Brief, July 2018

Attachments

In Numbers

110.3 mt of food assistance distributed

US$ 44,785 cash-based transfers made

US$ 3.26 m six months (August-January 2019) net funding requirements, representing 42 % of total

180,848 people assisted in July 2018

Operational Updates

• Positioned as a nexus for governments, private and donors, civil societies, WFP continues to help government successfully implement home grown school meals. In July, it funded a nationwide exercise where relevant stakeholders met to review the implementation progress and chart the way to how the multiple sectors of government can accelerate their participation level in the implementation of home grown school meals. The meetings were chaired by the regional governors and hosted by the regional education directorates. All government sectors including key sectors of agriculture, health and education were in attendance plus NGOs and civil society groups.

• The monitoring and evaluation team coordinated the mid-term review of the Annual Performance Plan (APP) on the 19 July 2018. All the country office key performance indicators as well as the key deliverables were reviewed to measure progress over the period. This forms the basis for key priorities to be set for the rest of the year.

• From 23 to 27 July, the country office received a team of two consultants from the Regional Bureau to assist in next steps towards food fortification. The goal of this team was to visit local food processors, as well as key stakeholders in nutrition to determine how the country office will proceed in its role of food fortification with locally available cereals.

• 21,862 children aged 6-23 months received blanket supplementary feeding against malnutrition in Lower River, North Bank, Central and Upper River Regions. The blanket distribution is meant as a preventative measure against malnutrition during the lean season which lasts for a period of five months.

• 1,302 moderately malnourished children aged 6-59 months received ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF). The treatment programme takes the form of the provision of monthly rations with periodic follow ups by a community Health Nurse with the support of village support groups (VSG) members.

• A mission from the African Development Bank along with a representative from ARC visited the country office in July. A decision was taken to collaborate on terms of references and feasibility study looking at the options of weather indexbased insurance.

• The EU accompanied by WFP and representative from National Authorising Officer Support Unit (NAOSU) took part in a monitoring mission to the Lower River Region. Three distribution sites were visited where distributions were taking place in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

• The country office participated in the third Continental Training for the Cost of Hunger (COHA) study held in Nairobi, Kenya from 2 to 6 July 2018. WFP participated along with two Government institutions; National Nutrition agency and the Gambia Bureau of Statistic. The aim of the workshop organized by the African Union Commission (AUC), WFP Addis and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) was the transfer of skills and capacity building for the Cost of Hunger Study methodology as well as share experiences with countries that have already concluded the study.
The Gambia has been approved on the list of countries to undertake the study in 2018. Plans are therefore on the way in collaboration with the Government to begin implementation of the next steps to initiate the study.