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Country: Kenya

Food Security & Nutrition

Situation

The Government supported by WFP and other partners,

conducted food security assessments in arid and semi-

arid lands (ASAL). Assessments analysed the impact of the short rains season (October to December 2013) on

food security, taking into account the cumulative effects of the previous seasons. The assessments found that the

situation remains stressed in many parts of Kenya, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase

Classification (IPC). Some pockets in Marsabit and

Turkana counties were in ‘crisis’, indicating a more food insecure situation. The causes of food insecurity at

household level include poor rains performance, intercommunity-conflicts and a gradual seasonal increase

in dependency on the market for food. Compared to

August 2013, the population facing food shortages due to recent shocks increased from 850,000 to 1.29 million

people.

The percentage of children `at risk’ of malnutrition, with a mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of less than

13.5cm, remained stable and below-average nationally.

Admissions to supplementary feeding programmes were lower than the seasonal average. Nevertheless, areas of

concern include Isiolo, Marsabit, Mandera, Turkana and West Pokot.

The assessment identified short- and long-term multisectoral interventions that should be implemented

to meet immediate needs and build the resilience of the households in combating climatic shocks. Most

recommended interventions are in crop farming, livestock, water, health and nutrition and education. The

full assessment report can be found at www.wfp.org/

kenya.

The forecast for the ongoing long rains season (March-May) is positive. The rains started in a timely manner,

and are expected to have a normal to above-normal

distribution in most parts of the country with the exception of Marsabit and Mandera, where low rainfall is

expected.

This report covers the first quarter of 2014. The beneficiary numbers shown in the table below (and in annex 1) indicate the highest number that WFP reached during the reporting period.

Highlights in numbers

Number of food insecure Kenyans accord-ing to the latest assessments for April-September 2014

1.29 million

Number of drought-prone Kenyans who received WFP food assistance in January-March 2014

892,000

Number of refugees provided with WFP food assistance

479,000

Number of new asylum seekers from South Sudan who had arrived in Kakuma by end of March

32,000

Number of school children in food-scarce areas in Kenya and in the refugee camps provided with hot meals

888,000

Number of women and children reached

through supplementary feeding pro-grammes (prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition)

134,000

Number of smallholder farmers linked to markets through Purchase for Progress

15,000

Funding required to meet WFP shortfalls over the next six months

US$62 mil-lion

2

Building Resilience to Food

Security Shocks

WFP, together with national and county

governments, will continue to respond to the needs

of the most food-insecure people mostly through food assistance for assets (FFA) as part of

interventions that support resilience of communities and households to food security shocks. Where

hunger is acute and no FFA activities are on-going, WFP and the Government will provide short-term

support to fill the food gaps and protect livelihoods

through general food distributions.

WFP is studying and assessing the contribution of FFA towards strengthening resilience of poor rural

households. The study will propose an approach to

evaluating households or communities that have attained significant levels of food security and could

be ready to graduate or to be phased-into other longer-term development programmes. Data was

collected in four counties in the marginal agricultural livelihood zone: Kilifi, Kitui, Kwale and Taita Taveta.

WFP and the World Bank have been exploring possible areas of synergy and opportunities for

graduating FFA beneficiaries to longer-term development projects. As a start, two FFA groups in

Kwale were awarded loans from the World Bank-

supported Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP). KCDP has trained the project committee

members on procurement and financial management.

The ASAL donor working group is preparing joint

programming documents on key themes (including

sustainable livelihoods, human capital, and disaster risk reduction) in the drought-prone areas of Kenya.

The common programme framework aims to align programmes, policies and funding with national and

county priorities as outlined in the second medium

term plan (MTP2) of Vision 2030. The working group is an informal partnership of development partners

in Kenya that is striving to improve coordination,

coherence and alignment of multi-sector investments

in the ASAL. It is supporting the Government’s resilience-building agenda in a process that started

after the 2011 drought crisis in the Horn of Africa, when governments and development partners

pledged to work differently to end drought

emergencies.

Capacity Strengthening of National & County

Governments At the request of the Turkana County Government, WFP and 10 other United Nations agencies joined

the county government in planning and conducting a rapid assessment on development projects and

programmes in the county. The assessment teams visited the seven sub-counties between 13 and 17

February. The mission reviewed secondary sources

of information to generate baseline data and held community consultations to guide planning and

investments. The mission concluded that there was a need to revise the County Integrated Development

Plan to include the people’s aspirations, and to

ensure coherence with MTP2. Turkana is one of the driest, poorest and chronically food-insecure

counties in Kenya, lagging behind in almost all human development indicators. However, the county

has huge growth potential from recently discovered

natural resources - oil and water. The United Nations hopes to develop joint programming for Turkana.

Refugees

By the end of March, 32,000 asylum seekers had been received in Kenya from South Sudan since

violence erupted in mid-December, bringing the total in the UNHCR register in Kakuma to 148,000.

UNHCR and the Government are still negotiating

with local communities for a new camp site 70 km north of Kakuma. In Dadaab, there were 357,000

refugees in UNHCR’s registration database. There was a difference between the number of refugees in

the registration database and those receiving food

from WFP in March (133,000 in Kakuma and 339,000 in Dadaab). This is because food ration cards are

invalidated for households who do not turn up to collect food for three consecutive distribution cycles.

Refugees can re-activate their cards at the food distribution centres or the UNHCR field offices if they

are physically present.

WFP and UNHCR continued capturing the

fingerprints of all new arrivals not yet fully registered, and set up biometrics at the temporary

food distribution centre in Kakuma camp 4. Refugees

not fully registered use tokens to collect food: fingerprinting token-holders ensures that each

household receives only one token and prevents

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A maize farm in Kilifi in the coast region where poor farmers were taught how to harvest

rain water and conserve soils through FFA. PHOTO/WFP

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already-registered refugees from posing as new

arrivals. Linking unaccompanied children’s fingerprints to their tokens means no-one else can

collect food on their behalf, thereby reducing the risk that they will be exploited or have their tokens

stolen.

WFP is conducting an external evaluation of its operation assisting refugees in Kenya. The evaluation

will serve the dual and mutually reinforcing objectives of accountability and learning to inform

decision-making. The final report with findings and

recommendations is expected in mid-2014.

UNHCR and International Organization for Migration are conducting a comprehensive ‘return intention

survey’ in Dadaab. The purpose is to understand the

needs and concerns of Somali refugees and to prepare for eventual interests in voluntary returns.

In late March, the Ministry of Interior & Coordination

of National Government designated the refugee camps in Dadaab and Kakuma as the only areas

where refugees in Kenya should reside and directed

all refugees to return to the camps, immediately closing all registration centres in urban areas. The

majority of the urban refugees are from Somalia, making it more likely for them to return to Dadaab

rather than to Kakuma, meaning there is less risk of

the directive causing increased congestion in Kakuma.

Nutrition Support In Kakuma, nutrition screening of new arrivals by the end of February showed a Global acute malnutrition

(GAM) for the children was about 13 percent and that 3 percent of the pregnant and lactating women

had a MUAC of less than 21cm. International Rescue

Committee, WFP’s partner for nutrition activities in Kakuma, plans to conduct a mass MUAC screening in

the camp area where the new arrivals have settled to identify children who may not have turned up in

health centres after being referred at reception

centre. WFP continued providing emergency food assistance to the new arrivals at the border

point, reception centres and in the settlements. This included high-energy biscuits at the border and

specialised nutrition products, such as Super Cereal

Plus, for all children aged 6-23 months at the camp.

For WFP Kenya nutrition activities generally, WFP participated in a ‘Vitamin A Supplementation

Behaviour Change and Communication Strategy’ workshop convened by nutrition unit at the Ministry

of Health. WFP plans to roll out micronutrient powder

supplementation for children aged 6-23 months and schoolchildren. The workshop helped WFP to assess

the overlapping synergies in the methods used for behaviour change communication in the roll out of

vitamin A supplementation.

In 2014, WFP is targeting 3,000 people affected by

HIV by providing a monthly ration of Super Cereal. WFP is supporting the Government to revise nutrition

guidelines for people living with HIV, scheduled to be completed 2014. WFP is also supporting the

Government to conduct a national nutrition

vulnerability profiling survey and the survey report is being finalized.

School meals

The new school year started in January. WFP

continued to provide hot school lunches to 770,000 children in 10 arid counties under the regular school

meals programme. The meals not only as serve as an incentive for children to enrol, attend and

complete school, but also to improve their dietary

intake. This included the 40,000 pupils in Isiolo County that received meals through the use of cash

transfers to schools; this is part of the handover process, using improved business systems and

processes for the government home-grown school meals programme (HGSMP). The HGSMP, which was

started in 2009, has already taken over most of the

schools in marginal agricultural (semi-arid) areas, currently supporting 760,000 children.

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Newly arrived refugees from South Sudan being served meals in Kakuma. PHOTO: WFP/

Rose Ogola

Children in Atan Primary School taking lunch. This is one of the schools in Isiolo that received

cash from WFP to purchase food from local traders. PHOTO: WFP/ Rose Ogola

4

WFP and the Ministry of Education, Science and

Technology conducted an evaluation of HGSMP. The evaluation aimed to showcase progress made and

provide an objective assessment to determine whether the programme is achieving its intended

objectives. Preliminary results presented to

stakeholders in March indicate that HGSMP is highly relevant in Kenyan context where poverty, food

insecurity, malnutrition and insufficient agricultural production are prevalent. The evaluation will inform

the Government, WFP and other stakeholders on areas that require further capacity development and

the kind of investment necessary to make the

HGSMP more effective and efficient. A comprehensive report is expected in April 2014.

WFP hosted a delegation from The Gambia,

comprising the Government of The Gambia and WFP

staff, to learn about the HGSMP in Kenya as part of South-South learning. Specifically, the Gambian

delegation sought to: understand programme management

processes in Kenya, stakeholders’

involvement, roles and responsibilities;

study the linkage between Kenya’s school

feeding programme and local agricultural production and how this process is

coordinated; have a better understanding of the value

chain around the production of food for school feeding, local procurement models and

mechanisms being used in Kenya; and learn best practices in financing, production,

processing, marketing, storage and logistics of

linking school feeding to local agricultural

production.

The lessons drawn from the visit will be used to inform a local procurement feasibility study and

home-grown school feeding pilot in The Gambia. South-South learning has been recognised widely as

an important capacity development tool through

sharing experiences and arriving at solutions to shared development challenges.

In the refugee camps, WFP provided school meals to

120,000 children in Kakuma (20 schools) and

Dadaab (31 schools). A temporary school for newly arrived children in Kakuma is being set up. WFP

continued to support food-for-training by providing lunch to vocational learners from refugee and host

communities attending courses such as dress making and computer lessons.

Linking Smallholder Farmers to

Markets

WFP is supporting 15,000 farmers through the

Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative in Kenya. In February, WFP issued tenders for farmer

organizations and small-scale traders to supply 1,695

mt of maize worth US$680,000 (KES 58 million) for WFP’s Forward Purchasing Facility. The contracts will

directly benefit smallholder farmers in four counties in the North Rift region by providing a market for

their produce. Being immediately after the harvest,

this should be the right period to purchase from local farmers. WFP and quality assurance companies

trained contracted groups on stacking, sorting, cleaning, grading, and storage in order to improve

the quality of the grains. WFP will continue to invest in capacity building of farmer organizations to access

structured markets and also meet the quality

standards demanded. WFP will continue to support farmers to sell surplus produce to HGSMP schools

and other structured markets.

One of the biggest achievements of P4P has been

bringing together diverse partners to assist

smallholder farmers improve production and engage formal markets. WFP is exploring a possible

partnership with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), one of the leading agricultural

research organizations in Kenya. WFP hopes to engage KARI to hold on-farm demonstrations on

new farming technologies and seeds to smallholder

farmers in the semi-arid areas to cushion them against heavy losses incurred because of low and

erratic rainfall, land degradation and water depletion.

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Dried foods being sold by small-scale traders in a market in Eldoret town, one of the high

potential farming areas in Kenya where WFP is supporting small holder farmers and small-

scale traders to engage in formal trade

PHOTO: WFP/ David Orr

5

Donor Missions to WFP Operations

During the first quarter of 2014, several donors

visited WFP operations, as follows:

On 11 January, a joint technical mission from the

embassies of France, Switzerland and Sweden as well as the EU’s Humanitarian Aid & Civil

Protection (ECHO) visited Dadaab refugee

camps.

On 24 January, the Canadian High Commissioner

to Kenya, together with Assistant Deputy

Ministers Lise Filiatrault and Nadir Patel visited small holder farmers organizations in Machakos

County, who have been assisted by WFP through

Canada’s financial support.

On 3 February, the Swedish Ambassador to

Kenya H.E. Mr. Johan Borgstam, Finland

Ambassador H.E. Mrs From-Emmesberger and the South African High Commissioner H.E. Mr.

Ratubatsi Moloi visited Dadaab refugee camps.

Officials from the Swedish and Finland embassies were also part of the mission.

On 7 February, the United States of America’s

Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Mr. Robert F. Godec visited Stara Rescue Centre and School in Nairobi

accompanied by staff from US State Department

of Agriculture. The purpose of the visit was to celebrate 50 years of Kenya-USA partnership and

10 years of support to school feeding in the Kenya.

Between 11 and 13 February, a delegation from

Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFTAD) visited Isiolo, where

WFP is piloting cash transfer to schools. Another mission from DFTAD visited Turkana (including

with Australia for the Kakuma section of the

mission) between 10-13 March.

On 20 February, a joint mission with H.E Mr.

Tatsushi Terada - Japanese Ambassador to

Kenya, Ms. Tina Dooley-Jones, Deputy Mission Director – USAID Kenya and Mr. Erik Habers,

Head of European Cooperation toured Baringo

County. They visited FFA projects and a health centre, accompanied by senior government

officers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, and National Drought

Management Authority. County government

officials were also part of the mission.

On 28 February, the German Ambassador to

Kenya, H.E Andreas Peschke visited UNHCR and

WFP operations in Kakuma refugee camps.

Between 27 and 28 March, a technical team from

UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and ECHO visited Kakuma refugee camp

for regular monitoring of programmes.

Pipeline & Resourcing

As of 31 March, WFP’s six-month shortfall (through September 2014) for operations in Kenya as

US$61.6 million, as follows:

PRRO 200294 - Drought Recovery operation: the operation has a gross shortfall of US$34

million, including cash transfers, capacity development and outstanding advances. The amount

of Super Cereal available is low and available stocks

are being prioritised to targeted supplementary feeding programme for pregnant and lactating

women. Funds available for cash transfers will only cover needs through April 2014.

PRRO 200174 - Refugee operation: The six-

month funding shortfall is US$18.9 million including outstanding loans. The most immediate

requirements are Super Cereals and vegetable oil. The food stock levels in the camps are low but food

is being delivered. Any logistical constraints due to

poor road conditions as the rainy season approaches could affect food distributions particularly in Kakuma

where there are daily food distributions to newly arrived South Sudanese refugees.

CP 106680 - Country Programme: As of 31

March, the HIV programme had a long outstanding loan of 1,500 mt of food valued at US$1.2 million

which needs to be cleared before the project end in

June.

The new Country Programme (CP 200680) is planned to start in July 2014, after approval by the

WFP Executive Board in June. The shortfalls are as follows: Components 1&3 – US$1.3 million for

capacity development of devolved structures and

smallholder farmers while Component 2 (school meals) has a shortfall of US$6.2 million for the

third school term that starts in September, of which US$724,000 is for cash transfers.

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PRRO 200294: Protecting & Rebuilding Livelihoods in ASAL

Beneficiaries Tonnage (mt) Cash Transfers (US$

Planned Actual Planned Actual Planned Actual

General Food Distribu-

tions (GFD)

Food 347,600 334,235 7,672 5,087

Cash 1,000 998 12,212 6,127

Food Assistance for As-

sets (FFA)*

Food 260,800 176,609 6,255 4,162 2,158,333 8,205,528

Cash 370,000 356,742

Targeted Supplementary

Feeding (TSFP)

Food 26,100 23,656 585 310

TOTAL 1,005,500 892,240 14,512 9,559 2,170,545 8,211,655

*During the reporting period, WFP completed paying off all cash arrears owed to households in marginal

agricultural areas that have been participating in FFA in 2013.This explains why more cash was disbursed to

beneficiaries compared to the plan.

PRRO 200174: Food Assistance to Refugees in Kenya

Beneficiaries Tonnage (mt) Voucher Transfers (US$

Planned Actual Planned Actual Planned Actual

General Food Distributions (GFD) 520,000 479,506 26,208 23,340

Nutrition Support – children aged 6

to 59 months, pregnant and lactat-

ing women (prevention and treat-

ment)

77,500 66,076 1,106 750 321,550 242,400

School Meals Progamme 120,000 120,017 759 717

HIV and TB Clients (including feed-

ing of inpatients)

1,800 2,700 90 30

Food for Training (youth from host

and refugee communities)

1,600 1,503 33 11

Food Assistance for Assets (host

communities)

36,000 13,590 1,426 980

TOTAL (Refugees +Host Com-

munity)

556,000 493,096 29,622 25,827 321,550 242,400

CP 106680 - Country Programme Kenya (January 2009 - June 2014) Beneficiaries Tonnage (mt) Cash Transfers (US$

Planned Actual Planned Actual Planned Actual

School Meals Programme 770,000 768,221 9,853 9,833 392,000 289,000

HIV & AIDS Programme 3,000 2,052 54 37

TOTAL 773,000 770,273 9,840 9,870 392,000 289,000

The Ministry of Education provides termly (not monthly) reports for the school meals pro-

gramme. Because of the expanse geographical coverage and remoteness of the arid region, delays are experienced in receiving consolidated county reports. Actual achievement in the

first school term of 2014 (January to April 2014) have been estimated.

Annex 1: Food and Cash/Voucher Distributions: January-March 2014

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Annex 2: Pipeline summaries - April to September 2014