Enhancing the resilience of chronically vulnerable rural, urban and refugee populations and reducing undernutrition in Djibouti

Despite Djibouti’s classification as a middle income country, food insecurity affects 60 percent of the rural population. Agricultural production is minimal: only 4 percent of the land is arable and imports represent 90 percent of the national food source.

The root causes of food insecurity and undernutrition in Djibouti include insufficient access to water for agro-pastoral activities, exacerbated by climate change and lack of basic services such as health and education. Djibouti has a national wasting rate of 18 percent and stunting of 33 percent, with over 40 percent children stunted in the rural areas. 

Consistent with the Djibouti Country Strategic Plan (2015-2017), WFP aims to achieve the following strategic results by 2017: i) Vulnerable refugees targeted by WFP for food assistance have adequate daily caloric intake and dietary diversity, ii) Access to adequate food of communities supported by WFP is improved and iii) Reduced undernutrition rates in the most vulnerable areas targeted by government social safety nets.

Complementary partnerships are at the heart of WFP’s vision and strategy in Djibouti and will optimize WFP’s added value and impact. WFP will work closely with the Rome-based agencies to increase resilience to shocks of rural food insecure populations and in moving forward the resilience agenda. Partnerships with UNICEF, UNHCR and others will also be key to improving nutrition, safety net interventions in urban areas, and increasing selfsufficiency in refugee populations.

The PRRO is aligned with the timing of the Djibouti Country Strategy, the UNDAF (2013-2017), and WFP’s corporate Strategic Plan, which all run through the end of 2017. The PRRO programme components will help to make progress towards the targets of the SDG 2 to end hunger, framed around the Zero Hunger Challenge - primarily the pillars on food access and nutrition.

This PRRO is also aligned with the Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 4 and 5 and WFP Strategic Plan (2014–2017).