World Food Programme in the Philippines

Updated March 4, 2021

Transcript

Emilia Herdes

March 04, 2021

Second fastest growing economy in Asia
Struggle to use this to their advantage
Poverty rate = 19.8 percent (2020)
Natural hazards, COVID-19 and man-made conflicts are currently contributing to food insecurity rates in the country
Severe chronic food insecurity is caused by poor food consumption quality, quantity and high level of chronic undernutrition
The Philippines have been struggling with a food deficit for years
One of the world's most disaster-prone countries
Ranked 3rd of 171 countries on the 2015 World Risk Index
Ranked 4th of 188 countries on the 2016 Global Climate Risk Index
Experiences ~ 20 typhoons a year, 5 of 20 are expected to cause major damage and trigger floods and landslides
The earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and climate change-related phenomena, such as drought increase the country's vulnerability

Mindanao

Second largest island in the Philippines
Around 20 million inhabitants (2018)
Region has suffered with armed conflict in the past four decades, which has led to strong food insecurity
Other causes/factors in the most chronic food insecure people tend to be:
landless poor households
indigenous people
population engaged in unsustainable livelihood strategies such as farmers
unskilled laborers
forestry workers
fishermen etc.
as these occuptations provide inadequate and often unpredictable income.

The typhoons, earthquakes and political situation have resulted in high food insecurity
54.9 million Filipinos (~64% of the population nationwide) are classified as chronically food insecure
This is broken down into: 39% mild, 17% moderate and 8% severe chronic food insecure populations.
Around 22 million people account for the moderately and severely food insecure populations
The provinces Lanao del Sur, Northern Samar, Occidental Mindoro and Sulu have been classified IPC-Chronic Level 4 (Severe Chronic Food Insecurity), which inhabit 658,000 people.

Between 2000-2010, over 40% of families have been displaced at least once because of the violence & overall deterioration of living standards

They show significantly lower rates of primary-school completion and stunted growth, brought on by chronic malnutrition, in children under five

Poverty is at 19.8 percent in 2020, due to COVID it has increased this even more and caused mroe food shortages and insecurity
The WFP therefore started to support to the Philippine's Government in its emergency response to natural hazards and armed conflicts
They started to work in the Philippines in 1968, but re-established their presence in 2006 as the Government requested support with the ongoing peace process in the Mindanao region
The WFP's main goal in the Phillipines is to provide strategic measures to increase long-term food and nutrition security while assisting people and communities to build resilience to allow them to be better prepared for the consequences of disasters
They also aim to rehabilitate undernourished children and provide skills enhancement leading to higher income opportunities for the rural poor
WFP also supports the Government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger which goal is to end hunger by 2030
This is in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger)

WFP created a country strategic plan (2018-2023)
Total requirement: 48.59 million USD
Strategic Result 1: Everyone has access to food
Strategic Outcome 1: Crisis-affected people in the Philippines are able to meet their food and nutrition needs during and immediately after an emergency
Focus area: Crisis response
Activities: Provide unconditional food and nutrition assistance through the governments’ safety net or partners to crisis-affected communities following natural disasters or human-induced shocks and disruptions

Strategic Result 2: Capacity Strengthening
Strategic Outcome 2: Vulnerable communities in Mindanao have improved food security, in support of government targets by 2022.
Focus area: Resilience
Activities: Support the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and local governments to address the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) needs of all segments of the population (activity category: 9, modality: CS/food/cash) to further consolidate and enhance existing peace and development plans

Strategic Result 3: End malnutrition
Strategic Outcome 3: Women, boys, and girls in provinces prioritized by the Government have adequate and healthy diets to reduce malnutrition in line with government targets by 2022
Focus area: Root Cause
Activities: Provide direct and technical assistance to boys, girls, women and care providers as well as technical assistance to government, build evidence and advocate to ensure nutrition specific and sensitive multiple sectorial responses lead to adequate and healthy diets during the critical times of development.

Strategic Result 4: Capacity Strengthening (part 2)
Strategic Outcome 4: National and Local Government have enhanced capabilities to reduce vulnerabilities to shocks by 2022.
Focus area: Resilience
Activities: Support national and local capacities for disaster risk reduction and management as well as climate change adaptation & to strengthen and augment government and partners’ emergency preparedness and response capacity to include supply chain and ICT

Emergency response: December 2020 Bicol region experienced severe typhoons
WFP's solution: rollout of cash-based transfers to support typhoon-affected families
WFP then decided to continue its cash distribution through Western Union.
In January, WFP reached 3,217 families (16,085 individuals) in the provinces of Albay and Catanduanes in the Philippines.
Each family received 52$ (PHP 2,500) to support their food and nutrition needs, basic shelter repair, and other essentials
Government of Australia made a contribution that allowed the WFP to reach 252 families (1,260 individuals) in January in the municipality of San Miguel in Catanduanes
This brought the total to 2,443 families (12,215 individuals) since the start of the cash distribution in December 2020
WFP supports the Government’s COVID-19 and disaster recovery operations through transportation and allocation of pre-positioned logistics equipment.
In January, WFP mobilized 24 trucks to transport 17,626 hygiene kits, 10,000 Family Food Packs, and 4,500 kitchen kits to Iloilo, Northern Samar, Davao City, Benguet, Leyte, and Zamboanga.
WFP also allocated one mobile storage unit to the Office of Civil Defense to serve as additional storage space for various relief items.