The Kyrgyz Republic suffers from food insecurity caused not only by a series of climatic and economic shocks, civil strife and inter-ethnic conflict, but also by underlying structural problems that stifle agricultural production. Among these is extremely poor agricultural infrastructure that negatively impacts agricultural productivity.
WFP is committed to improving food security in the Kyrgyz Republic to ensure the country has a sustainable foundation for development through a three-fold strategy: to prevent hunger in the most severely food insecure communities; to help communities to develop a more food secure future; and to support the government in better monitoring and addressing food-insecurity.
In 2011, WFP in the Kyrgyz Republic launched a Protracted and Relief Operation (PRRO) targeting more than half a million people that aims at improving food security nationwide through three main interventions:
Seasonal food assistance, Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) provides fortified food rations to vulnerable, food-insecure households in rural communities throughout the country during the winter and pre-harvest spring lean season. This helps to ensure that the poorest and most food-insecure people can feed their families without engaging in harmful coping strategies that could negatively impact health or livelihoods.
Food-for-Assets (FFA) and Food-for-Training (FFT) offers vulnerable households with temporary employment opportunities that include restoration and rehabilitation of community assets, and disaster mitigation and environmental protection projects. In addition to receiving fortified food rations in remuneration for their work, participants and their beneficiaries benefit from improved, more resilient infrastructure that can enable sustainable improvement of their food security situation.
Lastly, WFP is supporting the Kyrgyz Government in developing a Food Security Monitoring System that will help it to better anticipate and address food security needs. Training of government counterparts is based on the methodology of the EFSA and Vulnerability Analysis Mapping (VAM) — both time tested tools which are applied in WFP Country Offices worldwide to predict trends in food security as well as for beneficiary targeting and programme development.