This operation has been modified and exentended in time until 31 December 2009 as per Budget revision 5 (see below).
Hurricanes directly affected these countries. Despite a relatively calm 2006 hurricane season, WFP had to intervene through its existing protracted relief and recovery operation and country programmes in localized emergencies resulting from volcanic eruptions, flooding and earthquakes. For 2007, a total of about 17 hurricanes are forecast, five of which are expected to be of severe intensity.
Disasters of this type lead to increased hunger and under nutrition among the most vulnerable people. The 2005/06 regional EFSA found that households’ food quantity and diversity had declined by more than 50% in Honduras, 44% in El Salvador, and 25% in Guatemala, mostly owing to asset and crop losses caused by natural disasters. A WFP assessment concluded that about 40 percent of the population of Gracias a Dios, a province in Honduras, had access to only half of the recommended kilocalorie intake, five months after the October 2005 Hurricane Beta.
These drastic reductions in consumption come on top of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. For example, in areas of El Salvador affected by hurricanes and drought, the prevalence of stunting among children under 5 is more than double the national average. In Honduras, acute malnutrition is almost 3 times the national average in hurricane and droughtprone areas.
During 2006, United Nations country teams created inter-agency groups for joint postemergency evaluation exercises. These groups are increasingly applying joint programming principles and implementation mechanisms, through the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
This protracted relief and recovery operation (PRRO) will be complemented by WFPs regional capacity-building initiatives to support food-based. social protection programmes. Regional special operation SO 10449.0, creating the Latin America and Caribbean Emergency Response Network (LACERN), will offer capacity-building opportunities through national governments and regional institutions, providing a wider framework for contingency planning, nutritional and food security assessments, targeting, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and food fortification.
Information on beneficiary target groups and options for interventions were derived from WFPs comprehensive and region-wide food security assessments. Intervention modalities were guided by experience gained and lessons learned from previous emergencies in the region.
Strong collaboration with national counterparts informed the overall strategy of the operation.
The proposed operation covers the period from 1 June 2007 to 31 May 2009 at an estimated total cost of US$32.2 million. Up to 471,000 beneficiaries a year will benefit from 46,500 mt of food aid.
