Targeted Food Assistance to Victims of Armed Conflict and other Vulnerable Groups

This operation has expired in December 2015.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to suffer from armed conflict, massive population displacement – 2.6 million people have been displaced since 2009, predominantly in the east – and a persistent economic crisis. The national capacity to respond to crises is reduced by weak governance and corruption. Despite great agricultural potential and plentiful resources, 70 percent of the country’s 73.6 million people remain poor, and 6.4 million are acutely food-insecure. Global acute malnutrition ranges from 6.5 percent to 14.9 percent, well over the 15 percent threshold in some areas.

The prevalence of stunting averages 40 percent. Net primary school enrolment is 75 percent, with significant disparities among provinces and between urban and rural areas; areas with large population displacements have the highest percentages of out-of-school children. Determinants of food insecurity include poverty, lack of infrastructure, poor utilization of food and limited access to markets. Markets in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are well integrated and supplied with a variety of foods throughout the year, indicating the potential for using cash and voucher transfers.

In line with a country strategy review in 2012, the objectives of this protracted relief and recovery operation are to: provide life-saving food assistance for internally displaced people and refugees in crisis-affected areas (Strategic Objective 1); reduce the prevalence of acute malnutrition through nutrition support for children aged 6–59 months and to pregnant and lactating women (Strategic Objective 1); facilitate access to markets and education, and provide nutrition services for returnees, refugees and food-insecure communities to support early recovery (Strategic Objective 3); increase the resilience of severely food-insecure communities against further shocks (Strategic Objective 2); and enhance national capacities to design and manage food and nutrition programmes and disaster preparedness (Strategic Objective 5).

These objectives support the Government’s poverty reduction strategy (2011–2015) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2013–2017), and contribute to Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 4, 6.

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Budget revision 1 to PRRO 200540 is required to: a) align the food and cash & voucher (C&V) requirements, the related transport costs, and other direct operational costs (ODOC) with the revised proposed programme of work from 1 April 2014 to 31 December 2015; b) adjust staffing costs to reflect a reduction in workforce resulting from the closure of six sub-offices and a Staffing Review Exercise (SRE) undertaken in November 2013, partially counterbalanced by increased unit staff costs due to an increase in fixed term salaries; and c) realign PRRO 200540 to the new WFP Strategic Plan and Strategic Results Framework (SRF) for 2014 – 2017.