Kyrgyz Republic Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation “Support to food insecure households”

This Project Document has been revised as per Budget Revision 4 (see below)

Over the past several years, the Kyrgyz Republic has faced a succession of severe shocks including: extreme climatic conditions; economic shock; high food prices; civil strife; and inter-ethnic conflict. In 2009, at the Government’s request, the World Food Programme established a presence in-country to provide targeted emergency food assistance. In 2010, the Government was toppled and inter-ethnic conflict led to large-scale displacement in Osh and Jalalabad and precipitated a humanitarian crisis. 

The political and security situation in the country remains extraordinarily fragile. The country is highly dependent on imports of food and energy and therefore extremely vulnerable to volatile commodity markets. The economy has been contracting and there is little fiscal space to mitigate the impact of successive natural, political, and economic shocks on the most vulnerable swathe of the population. WFP’s February 2011 emergency food security assessment found that a quarter of severely food-insecure households used negative coping strategies which entail risks for the health and nutritional status of the most vulnerable members in the short- and medium-term. 

With increased social pressure and food inflation, weak social safety nets, and erosion of food security, due to frequent exposure to natural disasters, all compounding the political and economic shocks, crisis-affected populations will continue to require assistance over the next two years, as the country recovers from these shocks. 

WFP, under this Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, aims to improve the food security situation of the affected population through three main interventions. Firstly, the operation will continue to provide targeted food assistance to vulnerable food-insecure families during the winter- and pre-harvest lean seasons. Secondly, WFP will assist selected target beneficiaries through food-for-work (FFW) and food-for-training (FFT) activities that enable more sustainable improvement of their food security situation. Finally, WFP will provide support to the Government to strengthen food security monitoring as a way to better anticipate and manage food shocks in view of the increased risk faced by the most vulnerable.