This emergency operation is designed to complement the recently approved special operation (SO) 10449.0 “Latin American and Caribbean emergency Response Network” (LACERN), through the procurement and pre-positioning of 450 MT of high energy biscuits (HEBs).
The HEBs will be equally distributed among the three sub-regional depots established through the SO, i.e. Barbados, El Salvador and Ecuador. Once established, the stocks will be managed under the SO and will constitute WFP’s immediate food response in the event of an emergency and consequent WFP intervention.
The amount of HEBs to be pre-positioned has been arrived at through the analysis of recent trends in the magnitude and nature of emergency food interventions in the region and assumes a nominal caseload of 150,000 to be assisted for a period of two weeks.
This stock, providing an average of 900 kcal per person per day, would cover both the most urgent needs of the nominal caseload in the acute phase of an emergency situation during which the affected population would not be able to cook due to displacement or lack of access to the basic facilities (clean water and cooking equipment) and would subsequently complement food rations ordinarily provided by the governments in the region following the initial phase of an emergency.
The rationale for the pre-positioning of HEB biscuits in the sub-regional depots responds to:
