India Country Strategic Plan (2019-2022)

CSP approved at EB November 2018 session.

Revision 01 approved by the ED in June 2022.

In the past couple of decades, India has made tremendous progress as measured by important indicators of economic growth, poverty reduction, self-sufficiency in food grains and the adoption of technologies. Despite significant drops in malnutrition rates, however, the progress has not been adequate for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Government of India has undertaken many reforms of the country’s social safety nets in order to improve delivery on nutrition and food security targets, launching ambitious schemes such as the National Food Security Act, the National Nutrition Strategy and the National Nutrition Mission, which have the aim of promoting convergent approaches1 that reflect the multidimensional nature of food and nutrition insecurity, and addressing inequalities related to gender, age, disability, income, caste and region. In a positive policy environment, supporting the Government’s efforts to address malnutrition and food insecurity has the potential to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2.

This country strategic plan is based on recommendations derived from a road map for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, a situation analysis and a mid-term review of the current country strategic plan (2015–2018),2 incorporating feedback from intensive consultations with the Government, civil society, the private sector and development partners.

Through this country strategic plan, WFP seeks to support India in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17 by capitalizing on its investments. With a gender marker code of 3, the plan has three strategic outcomes and four activities, which are aligned with Strategic Results 1, 2 and 5 of the WFP Strategic Plan (2017–2021) and Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17:

Strategic outcome 1: The most vulnerable people in India are better able to meet their minimum food and nutrition needs all year:

• Activity 1: Provide policy inputs, advocacy and technical assistance aimed at enhancing the efficiency, targeting, service delivery and supply chain of government programmes for improving access to food.

Strategic outcome 2: People at high risk of malnutrition in India, especially women, children and adolescent girls, have improved nutrition by 2025:

• Activity 2: Support state and national governments in improving and integrating nutrition policies and programming, including through enhanced quality, advocacy and gender-transformative, systematic approaches.

Strategic outcome 3: National and state institutions have enhanced capacity to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 2 and related targets, and collaborate with regional and global partners towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2:

• Activity 3: Strengthen institutional capacities at various levels in generating, sharing and using evidence for coordinated planning, roll-out and monitoring of actions for attaining Sustainable Development Goal 2.
• Activity 4: Facilitate the efforts of the Government of India and other countries to share food security and nutrition knowledge and expertise and provide disaster risk management services for the region.

WFP will build on and expand its role as a catalyst in order to become a facilitator and convenor of collaboration among ministries engaged in the fight against food and nutrition insecurity, with an increased focus on convergent actions, empowering communities, generating evidence and sharing knowledge for informing the formulation of gender-transformative programmes with the engagement of multiple partners. By 2030, this role will evolve into that of providing gender-transformative options for working towards the establishment of efficient food systems for the remaining vulnerable populations and people in urban settings; sharing policy options for a more mature economy with a view to facilitating South–South and triangular cooperation; and gradually ensuring the enhanced sustainability of these efforts.

WFP will work with a wide range of actors to deliver these strategic outcomes. While its primary partner in India is the Government, WFP will also collaborate with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UN-Women, research and academic organizations, multilateral partners, civil society, the private sector and media organizations.