Liberia Transitional ICSP (January 2018 - June 2019)

T-ICSP approved in August 2017. Revision 01 approved by EB by correspondence in December 2018.

Liberia is a least developed, low-income, and food-deficit country. According to the 2016 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report, it was ranked 177th out of 188 countries, falling within the category of countries with low human development. The socio-economic conditions are stark, with some 54 percent of the population living below the global poverty line, a third of which live in extreme poverty. An estimated 18 percent of Liberians are food insecure (Liberia Food Security Assessment, 2015), of which about 52,000 households (2 percent of the population) are severely food insecure. In addition, undernutrition remains a serious public health and socio-economic problem affecting mostly children and women (Liberia Demographic and Health Survey, 2013). According to the 2016 Liberia National Nutrition and Mortality Survey, national prevalence of stunting is 32.1 percent, considered “serious” by the World Health Organization classification.

As a response to Liberia’s myriad challenges, the Government has crafted a long-term strategy dubbed Vision 2030: Liberia Rising in which it has outlined plans aimed at lifting Liberia to middle income status by 2030. Aspects of these plans are further elaborated in the Agenda for Transformation (AfT, 2012), a five-year plan that lays out the Government’s medium-term development priorities. The AfT has identified enhanced food security and improved nutrition within the Liberian population as two priority interventions, which are detailed in two main strategy documents: the Liberia Agriculture Transformation Agenda (LATA 2016) and the National Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (2008). The core of these strategies is to ensure food access and availability, to promote better food utilization for improved nutritional status, and to strengthen national capacities for the development of sustainable agricultural value chains.

In alignment with the Government’s strategy and WFP’s commitments on accountability to affected populations, communities will be at the centre of all action, ensuring equitable participation and ownership by men, women, boys and girls for activities to be incorporated into local development plans and structures.

This transitional Interim Country Strategic Plan (T-ICSP) includes WFP assistance to Liberia for the year 2018 through an updated CP portfolio. The operation will be extended to 31 December 2018. This will allow for the finalisation of the Zero Hunger Strategic Review and the subsequent preparation of a fully-informed Country Strategic Plan (CSP). The T-ICSP aims to contribute to the following strategic outcomes:

• Refugees and other crisis-affected populations are able to meet their basic food and nutrition needs during and in the aftermath of crises across the country.
• School-aged children and populations affected by HIV/Tuberculosis in targeted areas have access to adequate, safe and nutritious food all year round.
• Targeted populations (children 6 to 23 months) have reduced malnutrition, including reduced stunting rates in line with national targets by 2025.
• Food-insecure smallholders and communities in targeted areas have enhanced livelihoods to better meet food security and nutrition needs by 2030.
• National and sub-national institutions have strengthened capacity to manage food security and nutrition policies and programmes by 2025.
• Humanitarian and development partners have access to common services throughout the year.