World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The drought crisis that ravaged much of northern Kenya in 2011 eased following reasonably good short rains during the final months of last year. According to the most recent Short Rains Assessment Report, the number of people needing food assistance has decreased from 3.75 million at the height of the emergency to 2.2 million people. However, recovery is fragile given that last year’s short rains were preceded by three successive seasons of drought. Affected pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities remain vulnerable.

While nutrition levels have improved considerably in northern districts, malnutrition rates in some areas are still higher than the World Health Organisation’s 15 percent emergency threshold.According to surveillance reports, some 10 percent to 33  per cent of children under 5 years of age in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas are at risk of malnutrition. 

WFP continues to support nearly 550,000 refugees in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. Recently, Kakuma refugee camp has experienced an increase in newly arriving refugees, most of who are coming from South Sudan. To prevent worsening malnutrition, WFP is providing blanket supplementary feeding to some 80,000 children under the age of 5 in the Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya. Children aged six months to 5 years are given a ration of SuperCereal Plus, a highly nutritious blended food that is fortified with extra protein and essential micro-nutrients. Children who are moderately malnourished are also receiving Plumpy’Sup, a nutrient-fortified ready-to-eat food supplement aimed at treating malnutrition, 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 some 630,000 pre-primary and primary school children in the northern arid districts, as well as in the slums of Nairobi. 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 to encourage their enrolment and attendance. In the semi-arid regions of the country, government, through the Ministry of Education, is feeding another 650,000 school children through the Home Grown School Feeding programme. These schools previously fell under the WFP programme but have been handed over to the Government in a gradual handover strategy. WFP is building the capacity of the government in various areas such as procurement and monitoring and evaluation to ensure a smooth transition.

WFP is gradually transitioning from short-term interventions to recovery activities such as Food-for-Assets and Cash-for-Assets. Through these, WFP, in collaboration with the government, is helping communities to improve their resilience and adaptability to climate change while encouraging them to invest in their future. This year, some 950,000 people will benefit from these projects, about half of them through food distributions and half through cash. Read more… http://www.wfp.org/food-assets   http://www.wfp.org/cash-and-vouchers. 

In addition, WFP is providing a market for small-scale farmers through the Purchase for Progress programme, known as P4P. WFP, working with partners, also builds the capacity of smallholder farmers in the areas of procurement, food storage and warehouse management, quality control and record-keeping.
Read more… http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress.

Kenya is a low-income, food-deficit country with a GDP per capita of about US$775 (World Bank, 2010) and a Gross National Income (GNI) of US $1,492 (UNDP, 2011). The 2011 UNDP Human Development Report ranked Kenya among the “low human development” countries of the world, placing it 143rd out of 187 countries.
WFP operations in Kenya support the government's efforts in implementing all eight Millennium Development Goals and Kenya’s Vision 2030, Kenya’s national development blueprint.