WFP LESOTHO Monthly Report November 2014

Overview

RESULTS: Total beneficiaries reached: 321,526

Produced by WFP Lesotho Send comments to wfp.maseru@wfp.org Page 1

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy Validation: The National School Feeding Policy was validated on 18 November. It was developed by the Ministry of Education and Training with the technical support from WFP. The new Policy will promote a “Home-Grown” school feeding programme that will put em-phasis on a multi-sectoral participation and local food purchase. The local purchase will promote food production and processing in Leso-tho, and help stimulate the development of the rural economy.

Memorandum of Understanding: On 19 November, the Ministry of Education and Training and WFP signed an MoU that will facilitate the temporary take-over of the entire school feeding programme by WFP between 2015-2017. Over this period, the Government of Leso-tho will fund the programme while WFP will be the implementer. WFP will also assist in developing the capacity of the government for the latter to be able to sustainably run the programme after the hand over at the end of 2017.

Logistics: A total of 1,860 mt of food for WFP’s Country Programme and School Meals Programme was delivered throughout the country by the end of November. Under the Country Programme, WFP assisted with food 25,000 people under the Disaster Risk reduction, 50,000 pre-school children under the Early Childhood Care and Development, 46,526 people under Nutrition and Health and 200,000 pupils under the School Meals Programme.

Collaboration: WFP has agreed to engage the University of British Columbia to conduct a Formative Research on Micronutrient Powders for three months. The research is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2015. It will make way for the Micronutrient Powders Pilot, aimed at addressing stunting among children below the age of two and malnutrition among children below the age of five in the Thaba-Tseka District in 2015. The Irish Aid will support the pilot, which will target 2,050 children aged between 6-23 months and 2,200 mal-nourished children aged between 23-59 months.

ECHO Funding: The Cash and Voucher Advisor from the Regional Bureau visited the country to assist on how to manage and implement the Cash and Voucher activities. This follows the US$ 580,686 contribution from ECHO, which will support Cash and Voucher activities in Mohale’s Hoek District under the Disaster Risk Reduction component of the WFP Country Programme.

Rainfall Outlook: The Lesotho Meteorological Services reported that average rainfall was experienced in the most parts of the country in November. Early frost was also experienced in the mountainous districts. The frost negatively affected maize, bean and pumpkin crop. Heavy losses were reported in the districts of Mokhotlong and Quthing.

Anthrax Outbreak: The Vulnerability Assessment Committee reported an outbreak of anthrax in Mohale’s Hoek District. An unspecified number of livestock was affected. The Department of Livestock in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has quarantined the af-fected areas to prevent the spread of the disease.

In November WFP continued working with various partners in its programme activities. Collaboration paid off in November when the Min-istry of Education and Training, WFP and other partners validated the National School Feeding Policy. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security which also participated in the validation process, recognised the sector’s critical role in the success of the envisaged “Home –Grown” school feeding programme. Senior officials in the Ministry committed to promoting agricultural innovations that will increase food production. With the signing of an MoU between the Ministry of Education and Training and WFP, the latter will take on more responsibili-ties from 2015-2017. During the transition period, WFP will assist in developing Government’s capacity to ensure its preparedness for the take over by end of 2017. While the developments in the School Meals Programme dominated the last quarter of 2014, WFP is also look-ing forward to the new activities under Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) component. The community-based participatory planning taking place in Mohale’s Hoek District, will facilitate the implementation of Food For Assets through cash and food transfer in 2015.

WFP Country Director Mary Njoroge and the Chinese Ambassador to

Lesotho, Hu Dingxian, admire some of the vegetables produced at

Mejametalana Farm..

*School Meals and Pre-School figures are consolidated quarterly due to the remote locations of supported schools. Therefore planning figures are reflected in the above table.

**The nutrition output report was not available at the time of releasing this report, therefore planning figures are provided.

2014 Allocated Funding Per Programme

School Meals Total (USD)

South Africa/DIRCO 5,379,000

Total Received 5,379,000

Shortfall 10%

November Output Results

Programme Project Beneficiaries Reached

(individuals)

Food Delivered

(metric tons)

Country Programme

(CP 200369)

Nutrition and HIV 46,526 333

Enhancing Resilience and Responsiveness (DRR) 25,000 517

Support to Education (ECCD/Pre-Schools)* 50,000 209

School Meals Programme School Meals* 200,000 801

Country Programme Total (USD) South Africa DIRCO 4,564,057

Japan 3,752,003

Russia 1,000,000

World Bank 490,000

Curry Me Home 3 228

Total Received 9,809,288

Shortfall 60%

WFP Country Programme (CP200369)

WFP has aligned its programmes with Government’s National Strate-gic Development Plan (2012–2017), The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) (2013–2017) and the Millennium Development Goals. Objectives of the Country Programme are to:

i) Improve food security through measures that reduce risks associat-ed with disasters; II) Support human and increase pre-primary enrol-ment; and III) Invest in people’s physical wellbeing in order to re-duce the care and economic burden associated with chronic illness; and improve the nutritional and well-being of vulnerable groups.

Nutrition Results

The results of a Nutrition Baseline Survey conducted last year in Thaba-Tseka, Berea, Qacha’s Nek and Mokhotlong have shown that 44 percent of children between 6-59 months are affected by stunt-ing while 10 percent are underweight. Two percent of the pregnant women were found to be malnourished and 19 percent of women, not pregnant, obese. The survey was conducted by the Food and Nutrition Coordinating Office on behalf of WFP.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The School Feeding Unit embarked on a data collection in randomly sampled primary schools. The data collected will measure the pu-pils' retention rate as part of evaluating the impact of school feed-ing.

Enhancing School Feeding

In its efforts to support school gardens, WFP procured 280 rakes, 250 digging forks, 260 spades and 250 watering cans for various schools throughout the country. WFP is supporting the gardening concept to promote dietary diversity in schools. A variety of cook-ing utensils for the further enhancement of school feeding were also purchased.

Mejametalana Farm On 19 November, WFP was part of a delegation that visited Meja-metalana Farm in Maseru. The aim of the visit was to see how the protected agriculture production enterprise was progressing since it

started operating under a new management in August 2014. Mejametalana Farm produces 36 varieties of vegetables in both open agriculture and in greenhouses.

Some representatives of the Chinese Embassy, the Government of Lesotho, farmers and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) were part of the delegation.

Local Purchase Review

In November WFP started conducting a Local Purchase review in view of the upcoming “Home-Grown” school feeding. The outcome of the review will inform preparations of the Local Purchase Guide-lines. A Home-Grown school feeding programme will support local agricultural production, provide a predictable market and stimulate the development of the rural economy.

The School Meals programme (DEV200199) Under the School Meals Programme (DEV 200199) WFP in 2013 aimed to reach 200,000 pupils. As from the third quarter, WFP was able to reach its 200,000 pupils target in 1,020 schools.

Some of the delegates who visited Mejametalana Farm, leading the group is the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Hon-ourable Litsoane Litsoane and behind him, the Chinese Ambassa-dor to Lesotho, Mr Hu Dingxian.