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Guinea-Bissau

WFP Guinea-Bissau Country Brief, October 2020

Attachments

In Numbers

US$ 73,000 cash-based transfers made

49.4 mt of food distributed

US$ 3.3 m six months (November 2020-April 2021) net funding requirements

14,372 people assisted in October 2020

Operational Updates

• In October, the UNICEF-WFP social protection project supported 1,011 households (approx. 7,077 people) with mobile cash transfers. The project transfers monthly XOF 40,000 (approx. USD 72) for three months to targeted families in the eight rural sectors with the highest prevalence of food insecurity and urban Bissau. WFP and UNICEF presented, in a workshop with partners, the results of the project’s baseline assessment, which revealed that 40 percent of beneficiary households had inadequate food consumption, significantly higher than the national average.

• WFP in coordination with the Ministry of Education plans to resume the on-site school-feeding programme in early November. The agreement follows the decision by the Government to gradually reopen schools from 5 October onward, after being closed since 18 March due to COVID-19. During the school closure months, WFP distributed take-home rations, supporting over 180,000 schoolchildren from 874 schools in all regions of Guinea-Bissau. As of 15 October, the Ministry reported 839 of the 874 schools had reopened.

• WFP’s implementing partner Humanity & Inclusion (HI) will launch in November an inclusive education project to support children living with disabilities in Oio and Cacheu regions, funded by WFP. In preparation, HI supported the capacity strengthening of the newly created General Directorate for Inclusive Education within the Ministry of Education; identified most vulnerable households with children with disabilities through a vulnerability analysis; procured hygiene kits to prevent COVID-19 spread; and conducted sensitization of communities and stakeholders.

• WFP in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and the National Institute of Statistics (INE) conducted a nationwide survey as part of the Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System (FSNMS). In total, 2,052 heads of households were interviewed through phone interviews (mobile vulnerability assessment mapping or mVAM), using a database of over 12,000 phone numbers collected since 2016 during previous surveys. Results were presented in a virtual workshop with FSNMS stakeholders.

• WFP continued to provide supply chain support to High Commissioner for COVID-19. In October, WFP delivered personal protective equipment, medical equipment, medicines and hospital and lab supplies to health structures around the country. Overall, 215 oxygen cylinders were delivered to three COVID-19 hospitals in the Bissau area. As of 1 November, Guinea-Bissau had recorded 2,414 cumulative cases of COVID-19, including 1,862 recovered cases and 42 deaths.

• Health and nutrition centres in Oio, Bafatá and Gabu regions distributed WFP-provided specialized nutritious foods (CSB++) to 528 children under treatment for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and to 6,767 children for stunting prevention.