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Guinea-Bissau

WFP Guinea-Bissau Country Brief, February 2018

Attachments

In Numbers

580.9 mt of food assistance distributed
USD 27,531 cash-based transfers made
USD 7 m six months (March-August 2018) net funding
requirements, representing 33% of total

174,452 people assisted in FEBRUARY 2018

Operational Updates

• WFP and partners continued pilot activities for home-grown school meals in Guinea-Bissau through the purchase of locally produced food items channelled from smallholder farmer associations prioritizing women. This pilot initiative has been taking place in Oio, Cacheu and Bafatá regions, and is planned to expand to other regions. The programme encourages rural smallholders to produce diverse food crops for supply to school meals, benefiting household incomes and local economies.

• In February, WFP conducted quarterly activities for food distribution to WFP-supported schools across the eight regions of Guinea-Bissau. A WFPcontracted private transport company was engaged to distribute the food donations.

• Together with the Ministry of Education, WFP organized an event on 7 March, celebrating the African Day of School Meals for which the official date has been 1 March since its creation by the African Union in 2016. The Ministry and WFP agreed to hold the event at “1 de Junho” school in Canchungo, Cacheu. Learning from the 2017 event, the Ministry and WFP involved more schoolchildren. WFP and Ministry of Education staff traveled to Harare, Zimbabwe for a continental workshop on home-grown school meals and the African Union’s official celebration of the African Day of School Meals on 1 March.

• Between 5 and 12 February WFP conducted a field survey to collect information on food security for periodic reporting to Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). Between 21 and 23 February, WFP organized a training on analysis of food security data. Participants became more familiar with processes to calculate and interpret food security indicators.