Ecuador, located in South America, has a population of 13 million inhabitants. Although an oil exporter, it is still one of the poorest countries in the region. This is mainly because of inequity in the country's distribution of resources.
Twenty-three percent of all children under five years of age nationwide have stunted growth; in rural areas, the figure is 31 percent, and in indigenous communities it reaches 47 percent. The national illiteracy rate is only nine percent, but for rural and indigenous women it is 36 percent. According to unsatisfied basic needs indicators, 61 percent of the population lives in poverty.
Ecuador is going through a transition phase from a food aid recipient country to one with an increasing need to take on responsibility to address the issues of hunger and malnutrition.
Ecuador requires time to be self-sufficient in addressing these problems for the following reasons: i) Lack of operational capacities/managerial knowledge to take on the complex chain of food aid and nutritional interventions; ii) Weakness of the government and its structures due to various political interests, with corruption, among others; and iii) Lack of a necessary legal framework to sustain social feeding programmes.
WFP Ecuador has been working very closely with the Government of Ecuador (GoE) to ensure the GoE’s feeding and nutritional programmes, as well as assistance for emergency operations focusing on the accomplishments of the first millennium development goal.
Since March 2005, WFP Ecuador has been implementing an emergency operation to provide food assistance for the refugee population affected by the armed conflict in Colombia, ensuring them at least one meal a day.
WFP Ecuador stressed its support regarding strengthening GoE’s capacity on the political and operational levels.
On the political front, WFP advocates the inclusion of WFP's mandate of the fight against hunger and malnutrition as a national priority.
On the operational level, WFP is the driving force that facilitates GoE counterparts and partner organisations to improve the quality of feeding programmes through several inter-institutional committees such as: optimal food rations, de-worming campaigns, local food purchases, and the standardisation of food item quality and quantity. WFP Ecuador also insists on the value added by WFP's intervention to improve GoE procurement and logistics operations.
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