The Congo Country Programme (2015-2018)

The Congo is a middle-income country that imports 75 percent of its food needs and has an underdeveloped agriculture sector. Food insecurity affects 14 percent of households; 24 percent of children under 5 years of age are chronically malnourished. Access to health and education services is limited, particularly in rural areas. The country is extremely vulnerable to flooding.

Country programme 200648 will be 60 percent government-funded and will be implemented in partnership with government agencies in all departments except Sangha and Cuvette-Ouest, which are sparsely populated and difficult to access. Its aims are to: promote access to education by ensuring that primary schoolchildren have a balanced diet based on local produce; support the Government in setting up a social safety net for vulnerable households; provide nutrition support to people living with HIV or tuberculosis who are on treatment and malnourished, a supplement for pregnant and lactating women and a supplement for children aged 6–23 months to prevent stunting; and provide technical support to the Government to strengthen disaster and risk management.

As recommended by the country portfolio evaluation in 2013, the country programme merges development projects 200211 and 200144. WFP will seek to develop partners’ capacities and build resilience in vulnerable populations and communities by providing social protection, combating malnutrition, supporting agriculture and managing risks and disasters, with a view to the sustainable hand-over of responsibilities to the Government.The school feeding programme will provide a daily school meal in partnership with the Government. The social safety net will use voucher transfers, which have the advantages of preserving beneficiaries’ anonymity, enabling better monitoring of beneficiaries’ consumption and ensuring maximum nutritional impact by providing access to a variety of foods. The nutrition component will be based on specialized nutritious foods tailored to objectives and the needs of targeted beneficiaries.

The country programme is in line with the National Development Plan (2012–2016), the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2014–2018) and the WFP Strategic Plan (2014–2017). Its development took into consideration the country strategy for 2014–2018, which is the outcome of lengthy consultations with the Government and partners. It also contributes to achieving Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.