Operations

This country programme document presents a programme of activities for 2007–2010. It is based on the Fifth National Development Plan of the Government of Zambia, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2007–2010), and the findings of a joint Government/WFP participatory mid-term self-evaluation of the second Zambia country programme (2002–2006) conducted in July/August 2005.

The goal of the country programme is to strengthen the institutional and technical capability of the Government to provide social safety nets to assist hungry poor households, particularly those affected by HIV/AIDS, to meet their education, health and nutrition needs on a sustainable basis while enhancing their ability to cope with external shocks.

The country programme has three main outcomes, to which all activities contribute:

• enhanced national capacity to institute and manage national food-assistance programmes for on-site school feeding, improved health and nutrition, and disaster management and mitigation;
• greater well-being for poor and hungry people through improved health and nutrition practices and a reconstituted asset base that will increase the capacity of households and communities to rehabilitate or create and maintain assets;
• enhanced future income-earning capability for children from poor food-insecure households through improved eligibility for further education and vocational training.

The country programme will focus on:

•  improving the nutritional and health status of pregnant and lactating women, malnourished children and people living with HIV/AIDS, 
• increasing access to basic education for all, especially girls and orphans; and
• contributing to the achievement of sustainable livelihoods and reduced vulnerability to disasters and food insecurity for vulnerable communities.

Activities will focus in areas of chronic food insecurity, high rates of malnutrition and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

The budget takes into account the limited resources for development; it has been capped at US$34.4 million; the available resources cover the needs of 936,178 beneficiaries during the four years. WFP will therefore seek contributions from other sources amounting to US$5.5 million to address the needs of an additional 20,000 beneficiaries – pregnant women, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS patients receiving anti-retroviral therapy and malnourished children – by scaling up activities of the Nutritional Programme for Vulnerable Groups.