Bridging Relief and Resilience in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands

This operation has been revised as per budget revision 4 (see below).

Food insecurity is a continuing challenge in Kenya. The main drivers are weather shocks, high food and fuel prices, conflicts over resources, and crop and livestock diseases. Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands are at high risk of severe drought, which has severe impact as a result of their low adaptive capacity. Livelihoods, nutrition and health in these areas remain precarious. 

This protracted relief and recovery operation will support fundamental policy shifts in Kenya. Since Kenya has attained lower-middle-income status, greater government commitment to address food and nutrition insecurity is anticipated and devolution of many central functions to new county governments should enhance accountability. But it will be some time before new structures reach full capacity to prevent and respond to food emergencies.

The operation focuses on: i) harmonizing relief and nutrition support with emerging government safety nets, including nutrition interventions; ii) building the capacities of county governments to provide emergency assistance; and iii) enhancing partnerships to build resilience, increase sustainability and prepare for hand-over.

The number of people receiving WFP general food distributions is expected to decrease significantly. Most acutely food-insecure households will be transitioned from general food distribution to resilience-building. Through partnerships with the Government, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Bank and others, WFP will also begin to graduate beneficiaries from resilience activities. For relief and resilience, WFP will scale-up cash transfers in line with market assessments, beneficiary and government preferences, and donor commitments.

The strategy complements WFP’s country programme and its focus on capacity development. It is based on consultations with beneficiaries and communities, cooperating partners, all levels of government, development partners and donors. It is also informed by evidence of the transformative potential of resilience-building activities, the appropriateness of cash transfers, the need for capacity development and the rationale and timing for graduation and hand-over.

The specific objectives of protracted relief and recovery operation 200736 are to: save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies; reduce risk and enable people, communities and counties to meet their own food and nutrition needs; and reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger.

Capacity development will focus on preparedness, early warning, livelihood-based planning and the management and budgeting of supplementary feeding. This operation is aligned with WFP Strategic Objectives 1, 3 and 4, and Kenya’s United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2014–2018).

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Budget revision 4 to PRRO 200736 is to: (i) respond to increasing food and nutrition insecurity in Kenya; and (ii) align the duration of the PRRO with the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) planned to start in July 2018. The budget revision will increase the overall costs of the operation by USD 29.5 million.