Burundi country strategic plan (2024–2027)

CSP approved at EB February 2024 session

Burundi is experiencing successive climate-related shocks and other stressors that affect agricultural production and livelihoods, hampering its capacity to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security and economic growth. Improvements in its gross domestic product are insufficient to keep pace with its population growth rate, which is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Weak food systems and gaps in social protection and disaster risk reduction undermine the Government’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives set out in its national development plan.

The prevalence of chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women is critical. Food and nutrition security are constrained by poverty, poor diets, population growth, land and environmental degradation, climate-related shocks, broken food systems, gender inequality in access to resources, inflation and the global food and climate crisis.

WFP will support the Government in pursuing its vision of improving living conditions and reducing inequalities, with the aim of fostering sustainable and equitable economic growth based on well-performing food systems, strong human capital and better management of the environment and disaster risk reduction activities.

Saving lives is a high priority in this country strategic plan and will be achieved through emergency response operations and interventions designed to strengthen the capacity of the Government to implement shock-responsive and climate-adaptive social protection while strengthening pathways towards achieving and sustaining progress on food systems. WFP’s on-demand services will enable a more efficient humanitarian and development response, and emergency response will be linked to resilience-building activities and social protection systems.

Work under the “changing lives” agenda will seek to contribute to better nutrition and human capital development for Burundians through the promotion of healthy diets, particularly targeting vulnerable groups such as children, women, adolescents, and malnourished and food-insecure individuals, including in hard-to-reach locations, through interventions that will support food systems transformation in a sustainable and equitable way. WFP will address food system challenges with a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, in order to enhance their links to markets through home-grown school feeding and nutrition programmes, including support for supply chains for fortified foods. Resilience building activities will be gender-transformative and sensitive to nutrition, climate and aiming at strengthening social cohesion. WFP will support capacity strengthening at all levels in the areas of systems development and coordination mechanisms.

WFP will reinforce and expand partnerships with the Government, development partners, international financial institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other key actors. Collaboration with other United Nations entities, especially the other Rome-based agencies, remains a top priority.

WFP will implement a four-year plan based on Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17 and the WFP strategic plan for 2022–2025. The country strategic plan is aligned with “Burundi Vision Emerging Country in 2040 and Developed Country in 2060”, the national development plan for 2018–2027, the 2023 humanitarian response plan and the 2023–2027 United Nations sustainable development cooperation framework.

The country strategic plan sets out five outcomes:

➢ Outcome 1: Shock-affected populations in targeted areas, Burundi returnees, internally displaced persons and refugees in camps can meet their basic food and nutrition needs all year round.

➢ Outcome 2: People in Burundi have improved nutrition, health and education outcomes that contribute to human capital throughout the year.

➢ Outcome 3: Food-insecure and risk-prone populations in targeted areas, especially women and young people, smallholder farmers, farmer-based organizations and value chain actors, have improved and more sustainable livelihoods all year round through resilient, efficient and inclusive food systems.

➢ Outcome 4: Government and national actors in Burundi have strengthened capacities, systems and services to plan, design, implement and monitor food and nutrition assistance, food systems, school meals and social protection policies and strategies, by 2027.

➢ Outcome 5: The Government and humanitarian and development partners have access to reliable common services and expertise that enables them to reach vulnerable people and respond to needs and emergencies throughout the year.

These outcomes are designed to mutually reinforce each other, based on existing programmes, partnerships and opportunities to achieve the intended goals through a combination of integrated interventions.