World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

 Threats to Food Security
• Poverty
• High demographic growth
• Arid and semi-arid lands in the north and east
• Droughts
• HIV/AIDS

The poor performance of the March to May 2011 long rains following two failed seasons have greatly undermined the food security situation in Kenya. According to the long rains assessment up to 3.75 million people need food assistance particularly in the arid northern districts and the marginal agricultural areas in the south east and coastal areas. The situation has been compounded by high food prices as a result of local and global factors. WFP, in close coordination with the Government of Kenya is scaling up its operations to reach the 3.75 million people and requires $101.5 million in the next six months.

 The number of severely malnourished children admitted to hospital has increased by 78 percent this year compared to last year. Malnutrition rates among children below the age of five years have risen dramatically with reports of up to 37 percent in some northern districts -- more than double the emergency threshold of 15 percent. The most affected districts are Turkana, Moyale, Isiolo, Wajir, Mandera and Marsabit. To address this, WFP is providing blanket supplementary feeding in these six districts to all children under the age of five years as well as for pregnant and nursing mothers—about 624,000. In addition, about 100,000 people (moderately malnourished children under the age of five years, and pregnant and nursing mothers) in 21 districts in arid and semi arid districts are receiving supplementary food assistance.

 The refugee camps at Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya continue to receive large influxes of refugees from Somalia with UNHCR reporting an average of 1000 new arrivals daily. Kenya currently provides shelter to about 556,000 refugees with Dadaab hosting about 474,000 and Kakuma in north-western Kenya about 82,000.

 Having walked long distances with little or no food and water, most of the new arrivals in Dadaab are severely malnourished with global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates reaching between 18 percent and 42 percent. WFP is providing the new arrivals with a three-day ration of ready-to-eat, high-energy biscuits and general food rations upon registration.

WFP is providing blanket supplementary feeding to 90,000 children under the age of five years in the Dadaab refugee camps. Children aged six months to five years are given a ration of ‘super cereal’ which is a highly nutritious paste that is fortified with the necessary micro-nutrients.
Children who are moderately malnourished are also receiving Plumpy’Sup - a nutrient- fortified ready-to-eat food supplement - through a targeted supplementary feeding programme at Dadaab’s health posts.

School meals remain an important safety net for many communities. WFP is providing school meals to 680,500 pre-primary and primary school children in the northern districts, coastal semi-arid areas as well as in the slums in Nairobi. The Government, through the Ministry of Education, is also feeding 610,000 school children through the Home Grown School Feeding programme. WFP provides a mid-morning meal for all primary and pre-primary school children at the refugee camps and a take home ration for girls.

WFP is gradually transitioning from short-term interventions to recovery activities such as food-for-assets (FFA) and cash-for-assets (CFA) through which WFP, in collaboration with the Government, is enabling communities to improve their resilience and adaptability to climate change while encouraging them to invest in their future. Some 830,000 people are benefitting from these projects. WFP is increasingly using cash assistance and will scale up cash transfers to reach as many as 480,000 people by the end of the year, up from the earlier caseload of 30,000 people.

In addition, WFP is providing a market for small-scale farmers through the Purchase for Progress programme know as P4P. WFP, working with partners, also builds the capacity of holder farmers in the areas of procurement, warehouse management, quality assurance and record keeping.

Kenya is a low-income, food-deficit country with a GDP per capita of about US$759 (2009 World Bank) and a Gross National Income (GNI) of USD 1628 (2010 UNDP). The 2010 UNDP Human Development Report ranked Kenya among the “low human development” countries of the world, placing it 128th out of 169 countries.

WFP operations in Kenya support the Government's efforts in implementing all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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