Nicaragua country strategic plan (2024–2029)

CSP approved at EB June 2024

In recent years, Nicaragua has faced several multidimensional crises that threaten the country’s achievement of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A succession of climate shocks, such as hurricanes Eta, Iota and Julia and the El Niño climate phenomenon, combined with global challenges, including the rising costs of food, agricultural inputs and fuel, have highlighted the vulnerability of food systems. This in turn affects the food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable people: with 18 percent of the population unable to meet their food needs, the rising cost of food is further limiting access to a healthy diet.

Against this backdrop, this country strategic plan builds on lessons learned, evaluation recommendations and evidence from the previous plan. It introduces strategic shifts aimed at strengthening and interlinking national systems and enhancing national ownership. Based on WFP’s comparative advantages, it is in line with the priorities of the national plan for combating poverty and promoting human development (2022–2026).

The country strategic plan will prioritize nutrition-sensitive social protection programmes that include school feeding initiatives linked to the provision of support for sustainably building the resilience of smallholder farmers, integrated disaster risk management aligned with national priorities, and the provision of logistics services and operational support at the request of eligible entities.

Those priorities for the period 2024–2029 are articulated in four interrelated outcomes:

➢ Outcome 1: Populations affected by or exposed to crises in Nicaragua meet their food, nutrition and other urgent essential needs in an inclusive way during shocks, stressors and protracted crises, and benefit from the strengthening of capacities and systems for integrated disaster risk management by 2029.

➢ Outcome 2: Girls, boys and adolescents in schools and their families in priority areas of Nicaragua benefit from a strengthened social protection system, including a comprehensive school feeding programme with fresh, nutritious and locally produced food that will positively contribute to their nutrition, health and education outcomes by 2029.

➢ Outcome 3: Smallholders and key food systems actors in prioritized areas of Nicaragua, especially women, are resilient with sustainable and climate adaptive capacities that improve their access to healthy diets and markets, particularly the institutional market of home-grown school feeding, by 2029.

➢ Outcome 4: National institutions and United Nations entities receive operational support services from WFP in an effective, efficient and reliable manner in Nicaragua, enabling them to assist people affected by or exposed to crises until 2029.