Country Programme-Madagascar( ) Standard Project Report 2016

Transcription

1 Fighting Hunger Worldwide Project Number: Project Category: Country Programme Project Approval Date: February 09, 2015 Start Date: March 01, 2015 Actual Start Date: March 01, 2015 Project End Date: December 31, 2019 Financial Closure Date: N/A Contact Info Laurence Degraeve, Donor Relation Officer Country Director Moumini Ouedraogo Further Information SPR Reading Guidance Country Programme-Madagascar( ) Standard Project Report 2016 World Food Programme in Madagascar, Republic of (MG)

2 Table Of Contents Country Context and WFP Objectives Country Context Response of the Government and Strategic Coordination Summary of WFP Operational Objectives Country Resources and Results Resources for Results Achievements at Country Level Supply Chain Implementation of Evaluation Recommendations and Lessons Learned Project Objectives and Results Project Objectives Project Activities Operational Partnerships Performance Monitoring Results/Outcomes Progress Towards Gender Equality Protection and Accountability to Affected Populations Trust Fund for a pilot project on stunting prevention Figures and Indicators Data Notes Overview of Project Beneficiary Information Participants and Beneficiaries by Activity and Modality Participants and Beneficiaries by Activity (excluding nutrition) Nutrition Beneficiaries Project Indicators Resource Inputs from Donors Madagascar, Republic of (MG) Country Programme

3 Country Context and WFP Objectives Country Context Madagascar is a low-income country located in the Indian Ocean, which faces significant challenges in terms of development and addressing the food security needs of its people, around 80 percent of its 23 million population live below the international poverty line (World Bank 2012, a threshold of USD 1,90). Madagascar has experienced a rise in absolute poverty, limited economic growth, political instability and natural disasters which have negatively affected the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable communities. It is estimated that 78 percent of Madagascar's population live in rural settings. Despite efforts made by the authorities and other actors present in the country, Madagascar ranks 154th out of 187 countries on the 2015 Human Development Index. In addition to profound structural issues and political instability the Government's institutional capacities, economic growth and the overall socio-economic development of the country has also been affected. Several years of consecutive crises has reduced the populations' access to basic quality social services, such as education and healthcare, undermining their ability to cope with and recover from shocks. According to the 2016 Global Hunger Index, Madagascar has a score of 35.4 and its food and nutrition situation is classified as alarming as the country ranks 5th on the list of the most food insecure countries. While the southern regions suffer from recurrent droughts, particularly aggravated in 2016 by the global El Niño climatic event, the eastern coastal areas suffer from cyclones and flooding. Due to three consecutive years of failed harvests as a result of drought, the food security situation in southern Madagascar significantly deteriorated in According to the projections of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification for October and November 2016, over 1.4 million people were estimated to be food insecure, representing more than 80 percent of the population living in the Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 3 Country Programme

4 drought affected areas. While the National Development Strategy was elaborated by the new government in 2014, governance issues continue to create obstacles to increas investments in the private sector and international aid. During the Madagascar Donors and Investors Conference which was held in December 2016 in Paris, USD 6.4 billion was announced in support of the country's development. However, financial partners expect increased engagement and concrete actions on behalf of the government. Madagascar figures among the ten countries in the world which are most vulnerable to natural disasters such as droughts, cyclones, and floods. A quarter of the country's population, or some five million people, live in highly disaster-prone areas. Due to their adverse impacts on agriculture and livelihoods of rural populations, these natural hazards are a major threat to food security. Climate change, deforestation and poor land management exacerbate these risks and further increase household vulnerability to shocks and related food insecurity and malnutrition. In rural Madagascar, livelihoods rely on subsistence agriculture, fragile pasture lands, timber and fuelwood, and small scale fisheries. Nevertheless, these smallholder producers are rarely connected to markets, which reduces their opportunities for income generation. The impact of the El Niño climatic phenomenon on rain-fed agriculture has been particularly severe in the southern regions of Madagascar. The main harvest of May-June 2016 largely failed, with up to 90 percent crop loss, depriving households of food stocks, roughly one month after the harvest period and the lean season began as early as June 2016 (compared to October during a normal year) after a third consecutive year of below average food production in the region. Staple food prices increased rapidly, negatively affecting the purchasing power of households, in a context of high poverty levels, limited employment opportunities and degraded infrastructure. A significant proportion of the population living in drought-affected areas suffer from serious macro and micro-nutrient deficiency due to prolonged inadequate nutritional intake. In these areas, families adopted negative coping strategies such as selling household productive assets including livestock and land, consuming seed stocks, prioritizing food expenditures over other basic needs (in particular health) and migrating. Madagascar has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, with almost half of children under five years of age affected (47 percent). The average national global acute malnutrition (GAM) prevalence is 8 percent, while anaemia affects 35 percent of women aged years and 50 percent of children under five years of age. The closure of a significant number of primary health-care centres during the protracted political crisis, coupled with insufficiently qualified healthcare staff, has caused a decrease in health service attendance, raising concerns about maternal and child health. Child and maternal mortality remain high at 56 per 1,000 and 440 per 100,000 respectively and an estimated 60,000 individuals develop Tuberculosis (TB) every year. The education sector in Madagascar experienced deteriorated socio-economic conditions, with poor indicators and declining trends observed over the past years. Net enrolment in primary education decreased sharply from 96 percent in 2006 to 69 percent in Enrolment rates were significantly lower in the southern regions of the country (53 percent in Atsimo Andrefana, 42 percent in Anosy and 40 percent in Androy). The political crisis negatively affected disposable income, especially among the underprivileged population in urban areas, resulting in increased school drop-outs for boys and girls, and forcing families into adopting negative coping mechanisms such as the abandonment of children, child labour and sex work. Madagascar featured among the countries that were not able to meet any of the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, the elaboration of the National Development Plan reflects the Government's willingness to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and head towards and inclusive and sustainable growth profiting the entire population. Current contextual risks include political instability, adverse climatic conditions, and natural disasters, as well as the limited capacity of public institutions, insecurity, and corruption. Response of the Government and Strategic Coordination WFP's programmes in Madagascar are aligned with the Government's National Development Plan ( ), which focuses on three main areas: improving governance; fostering economic recovery and; expanding access to basic social services. The WFP Country Strategy ( ), which forms the basis of WFP operational projects in Madagascar, aims to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) 2 and 17 and has been formulated in close alignment with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF ). The Country Strategy strongly focuses Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 4 Country Programme

5 on technical assistance to the government and capacity development to ensure the sustainability of interventions and supporting fragile state institutions during their transition towards development. In this regard, WFP established different strategic partnerships with key national ministries and institutions to support the elaboration of national plans and policies, the evaluation of existing capabilities, and the strengthening of operational capacities of public institutions, especially in the areas of school feeding and nutrition. With the technical assistance of WFP, the Ministry of Education (MoE) developed a national school feeding policy which was endorsed by the Government in September WFP and the MoE have agreed to proceed with the joint implementation and monitoring of the school feeding programme, and continued technical support to ensure a progressive transition to national ownership. In 2016, in close collaboration with the MoE, WFP initiated the development of a capacity-strengthening plan to progressively hand over the monitoring of the school feeding programme to the decentralized services of the MoE. The direct implementation of the school feeding programme by the MoE in the capital Antananarivo and the launching of a Home-Grown School Feeding Model in 80 schools of southern Madagascar planned during the first months of 2017, are concrete steps which are being taken in this direction. WFP provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the National Nutrition Office (ONN), for the development of a national stunting prevention approach, through a pilot project called the Miaro demonstration model or through the national food-by-prescription protocol for TB and HIV patients suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, both feeding into the next national nutrition action plan ( ). The partnership with the ONN also focused on the strengthening of capacities for its operational branch, the National Programme for Community Nutrition (PNNC), particularly in the treatment of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). In 2016, WFP closely collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture in the framework of the Purchase for Progress component. Capacity development sessions including training and workshops were organized in addition to coordination meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture, IFAD and NGOs from five regions in Madagascar in order to develop new partnerships and design a joint action plan to support smallholder farmer organizations. Capacity development initiatives aimed at enabling smallholder farmers to increase the quantity and quality of their yields, reduce post-harvest losses and improve the storage, transport, and handling of their crops. A task force chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture was created to monitor the implementation of this action plan. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between WFP and two regional directorates of trade to ensure food control for WFP local procurement. This control system will support the Government in the implementation of the Home Grown School Feeding model. Furthermore, strategic partnerships with other UN agencies, and particularly FAO, were consolidated and expanded throughout the year. The successive partnership between WFP, FAO and IFAD in the framework of Integrated Actions in Nutrition and Food (AINA) project was recognized as the winner of the 2016 United Nations Rome-based Agencies (RBA) Award of Excellence for country-level collaboration. In the context of the emergency response to the El Niño-induced drought, WFP and FAO further collaborated by jointly planning to reduce food consumption gaps and rebuild livelihoods of affected households, through complementary activities, which combine agricultural and livelihood support provided by FAO with WFP's food assistance and nutrition interventions. Summary of WFP Operational Objectives WFP has aligned operational with the National Development Plan and supports sectoral national strategies and policies, WFP is responsible for implementing two main complementary set of programmes: A development-oriented Country Programme and; a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation. While the Country Programme targeted the root causes of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition, the Relief and Recovery Operation focused on emergency assistance following natural disasters or climatic shocks, recovery and resilience building, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation. Country programme: CP ( ), approved budget USD 69 million has three main components and objectives: i) support to the national school feeding programme by providing micronutrient-fortified hot meals for primary school children; implementation of the essential package of activities, and technical assistance for the government; ii) improve nutritional outcomes for vulnerable groups by strengthening national operational capacities for stunting prevention, prevention, and treatment of acute malnutrition interventions, as well as for the food-by-prescription programme for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV patients suffering from moderate acute malnutrition; and iii) increase access to markets for smallholder farmers through technical assistance, support for value-chain development and improved market information. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 5 Country Programme

6 Relief Operations: PRRO ( ), approved budget USD 30 million, Budget revision 2 USD 112 million focused on three main objectives (i) respond to immediate food security and nutrition needs and protect livelihoods of populations affected by natural disasters (relief and early recovery component); (ii) strengthen resilience of the most vulnerable men and women in food insecure communities facing recurrent shocks in the south-western, southern and south-eastern regions (resilience component); and (iii) enhance capacities of the government, cooperating partners and communities to prepare for, monitor, detect and respond to emergencies. WFP assistance supports the Government to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with a particular focus on SDG 2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, SDG 17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development as well as the Zero Hunger Challenge framework. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 6 Country Programme

7 Country Resources and Results Resources for Results Given the deterioration of the food security situation due to El Niño induced drought in the southern regions of Madagascar and in order to respond to the basic food needs of disaster-affected populations, WFP conducted a budget revision in November 2016, with the aim of increasing the scale of relief operations in the region. The operation was scaled-up towards the end of 2016 and resources mobilized by WFP allowed for the distribution of half rations of unconditional food and cash. The non-earmarking of contributions received from some donors, allowed WFP to adjust its assistance to better meet the needs of vulnerable communities and to expand cash-based activities where markets were functioning and accessible. Due to the regional context of the El Niño induced drought and despite the significant support from donors to the drought emergency response, WFP faced difficulties in mobilizing resources for the Country Programme. As a result, the Purchase for Progress and nutrition (stunting prevention) components remained under-funded in Despite fewer resources for the Country Programme, measures were taken to mitigate the negative effects of low funding levels on the objectives of the Country Programme. One of these measures included the prioritization of resources for the school feeding programme to provide continuous and uninterrupted food assistance to children during the entire school year. School meals constituted a safety net for vulnerable households and a complementary activity to the emergency response. The Government supported WFP's activities by providing resources for the school feeding activity through the Global Partnership for Education window, as well as funding for the treatment of acute malnutrition activity. Furthermore, the Government contributed through the exemption of custom clearance taxes on food commodities imported by WFP. WFP will continue its advocacy efforts on mobilizing multi-year contributions, such as the one received for the school feeding programme, allowing for more predictability and facilitating the establishment of long-term partnerships and capacity development initiatives. Given the extent of needs and existing capacity gaps, multi-year funding is expected to contribute to achieving sustainable outcomes and greater value for money. Achievements at Country Level In 2016, WFP was able to proactively respond to the drought emergency in southern Madagascar which emerged as a result of three consecutive years of failed harvests and further aggravated by the El Niño climatic event. Through the significant scale-up of lifesaving unconditional food and cash-based assistance, WFP was able to meet the basic food needs of severely food insecure and drought-affected populations. Given the alarming rates of malnutrition in drought-affected areas, WFP also expanded both its Moderate Acute Malnutrition preventive and curative components, to address the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups such as young children and pregnant and lactating women. As well, WFP's school feeding programme provided a safety net to vulnerable food insecure households, in the form of daily hot meals for schoolchildren. These achievements at country level were reached despite a challenging logistical and operational context. Throughout the year, WFP continued to support the Government through technical assistance for the development and strengthening of national policies, such as the School Meals National Policy which was adopted in September 2016, paving the way for a progressive transition to the national ownership of the WFP supported school meals programme. WFP continued to strengthen the capacity of the National Programme for Community Nutrition branch of the National Nutrition Office (ONN) to plan, coordinate and implement Moderate Acute Malnutrition Treatment programme at their community nutrition sites. Under the nutrition component, WFP also provided technical assistance to the Government and nutrition stakeholders through the Cost of the Hunger study, an analysis of context-specific determinants of undernutrition to assess households' access to nutrients. This analysis enabled a better national understanding of the challenges households face in meeting nutrient requirements. WFP in collaboration with UNICEF also provided support to the Government for the Cost of Hunger (CoHA) study, which estimated that Madagascar is losing the equivalent of 15 percent of its GDP due to child undernutrition. This study was coordinated by the Prime Minister's Office and involved the ONN and 12 ministries and national institutions. The results were launched by the UN secretary General Ban Ki Moon in May and the reports were officially handed to the Prime Minister in December The main findings of the study will contribute to Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 7 Country Programme

8 strengthening government advocacy for nutrition as they show that investments in eradicating malnutrition and hunger are necessary to reduce poverty and economic losses. As part of the nutrition component, WFP continuously provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in order to build capacities for a national Food by Prescription (FbP) programme. The Minister of Health endorsed the national protocol for the treatment of malnutrition in tuberculosis and HIV patients in September WFP continued to strengthen the ONN and the Ministry of Health capacities, by providing equipment and training needed for the prevention, screening and treatment of malnutrition. In 2017, WFP is planning to support the Government to implement the FbP approach in eight treatment centres for 2,200 people living with tuberculosis in order to test, evaluate, analyze the cost and benefits and generate learning to improve the model. Smallholder farmers were also assisted with the aim of improving their access to markets in Madagascar, increasing productivity levels, strengthening capacities for commercialization, supporting the value-chain development and improving market information. The capacity development of smallholder farmers in these domains aimed at enhancing their food security, nutritional status, and income, thereby contributing to their economic empowerment. Smallholder farmers were also assisted to improve their capacity to engage in formal agricultural trade. Throughout 2016, the country office applied innovative tools such as SCOPE, an electronic platform for the registration of beneficiaries that aims to establish a comprehensive and effective beneficiary management system and avoid the duplication of assistance. Annual Country Beneficiaries Beneficiaries Male Female Total Children (under 5 years) 175, , ,365 Children (5-18 years) 261, , ,993 Adults (18 years plus) 198, , ,611 Total number of beneficiaries in , ,373 1,310,969 Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 8 Country Programme

9 Annual Food Distribution in Country (mt) Project Type Cereals Oil Pulses Mix Other Total Country Programme 4, ,510 Single Country PRRO Total Food Distributed in , , ,075 18, , ,584 Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 9 Country Programme

10 Cash Based Transfer and Commodity Voucher Distribution (USD) Project Type Cash Value Voucher Commodity Voucher Single Country PRRO 4,012, Total Distributed in ,012, Supply Chain WFP Madagascar has four major warehouses located in Toamasina, Toliara, Ampanihy, and Amboasary, comprising a total capacity of around 10,000 mt. There are an additional two smaller warehouses in the antennas of Bekily and Tsihombe, which are almost exclusively used as direct handover points for partners in the respective areas. The main port of Madagascar, Toamasina, located on the eastern coastline, was not considered a strategic point of entry for the import of WFP food commodities in 2016 as it is far from the intervention zones mostly concentrated in southern parts of the country. The preferred ports of entry were those of the southern coastal cities of Toliara and Fort Dauphin, with the main WFP warehouses in relatively close proximity - the disadvantage of using these ports are that they are less frequented by international shipping lines and thus, lead times are longer and discharge capacities are lower. The major challenge for supply chain operations, in particular during the Level 3 emergency in the second half of 2016, has been the low commercial transport capacities in the south. Due to difficult road conditions and underdeveloped market activity, the pool of available transporters in WFP's main zones of intervention was very limited. Although an extensive review of transport capacities was completed prior to the onset of the emergency, deliveries between warehouses and implementing partners were hampered by the lack of available transport capacity during the peak of the emergency. In addition, WFP traditionally faces long commodity lead times for international procurement, which usually takes more than 4 months from contribution confirmation to commodity receipt in the country. The long lead time linked to international procurement renders short-term augmentation of interventions and the coverage of immediate pipeline breaks extremely difficult in Madagascar. Despite these difficulties, WFP was able to deliver 17,822 mt in 2016 to partners under the WFP's school feeding programme provided an extra safety net, in the form of daily hot meals for schoolchildren under the Protected Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO), which is more than double the quantity delivered under the same project in In 2016, WFP significantly increased the quantity of food procured from local markets, with a total of 8,577 mt of commodities sourced locally (main commodities were composed of rice, maize, and pulses). Local procurement was the preferred means of procurement for WFP, taking into consideration the limitations of the local market and commodity type availability. The usual lead time for local procurement was estimated at 4-6 weeks from contribution to commodity receipt, a significant advantage over international procurement. In the realm of local food procurement and capacity development, WFP continued to provide support to smallholder farmer organizations one of the components of its Country Programme. Post-delivery commodity losses in 2016 were held at a minimum and were recovered from either transporters or cooperating partners. WFP and the National Disaster Management Office (Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes BNGRC) co-lead the Logistics Sector Working Group in the country, which is a forum for information exchange and coordination, especially in the preparation of the cyclone season. Madagascar has been identified as a high-risk country in terms of proneness to natural disasters by the Global Logistics Cluster and is consequently part of a pilot project aimed at increasing Disaster Preparedness of the national supply chain. Annual Food Purchases for the Country (mt) Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 10 Country Programme

11 Commodity Local Regional/International Total Beans 1,049-1,049 Corn Soya Blend Maize 1,783 8,349 10,132 Micronutrition Powder Peas Ready To Use Supplementary Food Rice 5,177 3,673 8,850 Split Peas - 1,062 1,062 Vegetable Oil Total 8,577 13,937 22,514 Percentage 38.1% 61.9% Annual Global Commodity Management Facility Purchases Received in Country (mt) Commodity Total Corn Soya Blend 506 Peas 391 Ready To Use Supplementary Food 103 Rice 2,173 Vegetable Oil 400 Total 3,574 Implementation of Evaluation Recommendations and Lessons Learned The evaluation of the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) conducted in 2016 included both strategic and operational level recommendations. The strategic recommendations of the evaluation supported a combination of food assistance for resilience building activities with seasonal transfers to assist the most vulnerable during the lean season, elaboration of a resilience strategy, and an enhancement of the integration of nutrition activities with other components. Operational recommendations focused on the strengthening of the monitoring of nutrition activities and capacity building of nutrition partners on monitoring, conducting capitalisation exercises on beneficiary targeting methods, the creation of a beneficiary feedback system and the carrying out assessments on the national potential for local purchases in order to improve the effectiveness of the operations. WFP Madagascar has taken steps to integrate the recommendations of the evaluation in the formulation of the Interim/Country Strategic Plan (I/CSP) which is part of the Integrated Roadmap process of WFP. WFP intends to integrate both seasonal conditional and/or unconditional transfers in resilience building activities during the formulation of the CSP formulation. Other elements include access to water and water management, livelihoods diversification, food diversification, income generation, agriculture adaptation to climate variability, intensification and diversification and access to markets, Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 11 Country Programme

12 Although in 2016 WFP emphasized its efforts on the drought emergency response to affected populations through a combination of food and cash-based transfers (CBT) during the lean season, the development of a resilience strategy is one of the Country Office's primary objectives. Throughout the year, considerable efforts were made to integrate nutrition activities with other stakeholders, which are reflected in the implementation of the Miaro project highlighted in the Country Programme At an operation level, WFP is progressively strengthening the capacities of staff members from the National Nutrition Office (ONN) and its provincial branch to improve the monitoring of nutrition activities. However, as resources are allocated to the partner at the central level, it has been observed that in some situations, the transfer of financial resources from the centre to the branches is not effective. Concrete step have also been taken to strengthen beneficiary targeting methods and the creation of a beneficiary feedback mechanisms, in addition to existing community-level complaint committees. WFP proceeded with expanding the CBT modality for relief food assistance given the flexibility and advantages the modality presents in terms of timeliness, relevance and also its potential to stimulate local markets and production. WFP worked with a service provider responsible for transferring beneficiary entitlements using mobile phones. There were several challenges identified in the implementation of the modality with the vendor, including an insufficient amount of cash at distribution points which caused long waiting times for beneficiaries, not all beneficiaries possessing mobile phones for the insertion of SIM cards and cases of blocked cards. The roll out of SCOPE, WFP's newly established beneficiary and transfer management platform, was also introduced in This new platform will enable the management of beneficiary information as well as supporting WFP's distribution cycle from beginning to end. The platform allows for beneficiary registration, creation of distribution lists, payment lists, and distribution reporting. The food assistance through e-vouchers (small cards containing beneficiary biometric data and beneficiary entitlement) programme will be launched in Following the droughts affecting the 2015 and 2016 cropping season, ad hoc emergency food security and nutrition assessments were carried out to assess the extent of the assistance requirements and to enable geographical targeting. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) was conducted in September to October 2016 by the multi-sectoral IPC Technical Working Group (TWG), which was coordinated by the National Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis Committee (NVAC) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Over forty experts from national institutions, UN Agencies, as well as international NGOs participated in the analysis. In order to facilitate the activation of an early response to this type of emergency in the future, the institutionalization of a new early warning system within the National Disaster Management Office (Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes) recommended by the humanitarian community. However, due to funding constraints, this initiative did not materialise in 2016, however, is planned for Processes such as the Cost of Hunger study and Fill the Nutrient Gap were important opportunities for the Government to advocate for resources in nutrition and discuss policy and programme content when aiming to increase nutrient intake. These tools emphasized the need for multi-sectoral collaboration to improve nutrition outcomes. In particular the development of joint approaches with social protection and agriculture sectors as important barriers to adequate nutrient intake due to the generalized poverty context and insufficient availability of cheap nutrient-dense foods. The efforts of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) platforms are to be pursued including joint advocacy and multi-sectoral strategies, to support the priorities of the government in the area of nutrition. Leveraging the discussion on nutrition by engaging the Prime Minister's Office in the Cost of Hunger process was found to be effective to maintain nutrition high on the political agenda. A joint and participatory review of the Purchase for Progress (P4P) component was held in April 2016 to lead discussions on achievements and results. As part of this review, the effectiveness and quality of interventions, the adequacy of the support provided to the farmers' organizations, the handover strategy, institutional and organizational development as well as constraints which affect the program were thoroughly analyzed. The review also emphasized the need to reinforce the existing platform for better coordination and information-sharing and simplification of the purchasing process. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 12 Country Programme

13 Project Objectives and Results Project Objectives The Country Programme aimed to support the National Development Plan and other sectoral national policies and initiatives, aligned to WFP Strategic Objective 3: Reduce risk and enable people, communities, and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs; and WFP Strategic Objective 4: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger. The programme was designed following a consultative process with national counterparts, United Nations agencies, donors as well as other partners. The three main components of the CP are to: 1. Support to the national school feeding programme by providing micronutrient-fortified hot meals for primary school children; implementation of the essential package of activities and technical assistance to the Government; 2. improve nutritional outcomes for vulnerable groups by strengthening national operational capacities for stunting prevention, moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) prevention and treatment interventions as well as for food-by-prescription programme for malnourished tuberculosis (TB) patients; and 3. increase access to markets for smallholder farmers through technical assistance, support for value-chain development and improved market information. The expected outcomes of the project are: The national ownership of the school feeding programme and nutrition interventions to reduce undernutrition and increase access to education; the reduction of undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 6-59 months, pregnant and lactating women, school-aged children and TB patients; and the economic empowerment of smallholder farmers by increasing their marketing opportunities. Approved Budget for Project Duration (USD) Cost Category Capacity Dev.t and Augmentation 7,063,265 Cash & Voucher and Related Costs 3,494,192 Direct Support Costs 12,454,163 Food and Related Costs 41,510,309 Indirect Support Costs 4,516,535 Total 69,038,464 Project Activities Component 1: WFP supported the national school feeding programme through the provision of micronutrient-fortified hot meals for primary school children in southern districts and some urban areas in Antananarivo, Tamatave and Tulear. The implementation of an essential package of activities included: Nutrition and hygiene education, deworming campaigns; and The provision of technical assistance for the Ministry of Education (MoE) at national, district and municipality (commune) levels. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 13 Country Programme

14 WFP reached 290,992 beneficiaries in 1,134 schools in southern rural districts and 20 schools and 83 youth centres in vulnerable urban areas of Tamatave, Tulear and the capital, Antananarivo. Due to resource constraints and transfer of 21,000 beneficiaries from 60 participating schools to the Governments Home Grown School Feeding programme (HGSF) operating in the Southern regions of the country, WFP did not reach the planned 307,000 beneficiaries. In July 2016, WFP started to phase out its assistance from private youth centres, both due to resource limitations and difficulties in following-up on performance indicators as these centres do not depend on the MoE. Capacity development initiatives including Training of Trainers (ToT) sessions were organized for 73 Ministry of Education staff members, on ZAP (Zone d'animation pédagogique) and CISCO (Circonscriptions Scolaires) in One of the sub-components of the school feeding programme aimed at diversifying the meals of 20 school canteens, through the maintenance of school gardens by community-based associations with parents, in the southern district of Ambovombe, However, the identification of partners to establish these associations and train their members was not possible in Component 2: WFP focused on the prevention of acute malnutrition, the prevention of stunting and the treatment of acute malnutrition. During April-June, stunting prevention activities were substituted by acute malnutrition prevention after assessments found that food consumption was worrying in these communes. However, due to the prioritization of the drought in southern Madagascar, the treatment of acute malnutrition under the Country Programme was replaced by the same activity under the PRRO. WFP was able to implement the prevention of acute malnutrition prevention activities through the provision of supplementary feeding rations to pregnant and lactating women and children from 6 to 23 months during three months, for a total of 90 days, as per international nutrition standards. This intervention ensured the sufficient intake of macro- and micro-nutrients during the lean season for this target group, which was particularly vulnerable to acute malnutrition in protracted food insecurity situations. WFP reached 50,296 of targeted beneficiaries for the prevention of acute malnutrition. The prioritization of communes for the prevention of acute malnutrition (Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme) was based on the findings of exhaustive nutrition screenings undertaken in July 2016 by the Ministry of Health, with UNICEF support, to identify communes with highest global acute malnutrition rates. Communes received complementary interventions, such as food assistance for vulnerable households, were also prioritized in order to reduce sharing or trading of nutrition supplementation. All beneficiaries received three months of nutritional support during the lean season, consisting of 200 grams of fortified flour (Super Cereal) and 20 grams of oil for PLW and 46 grams of Plumpy Doz for children to cover their daily micronutrient needs. The activity was implemented by local NGOs, in collaboration with community health and nutrition workers. The prevention of chronic malnutrition (stunting) was implemented through a Trust Fund from January 2014 to June From July 2016 onwards, the Miaro stunting prevention pilot which was implemented by the Country Programme and integrated into WFP s country portfolio. With the carry-over of nutrition intrants (Nutributter) from the Miaro Project, WFP extended its geographical coverage and an additional 33,276 children under the age of two could be assisted under the Country Programme. Several analyses were undertaken in 2015 to further understand the context-specific determinants of undernutrition. A national analysis of determinants from secondary data, in partnership with the Scaling Up Nutrition platform and an analysis of households access to nutrients (Cost of the Diet). Findings were used to develop strategies to reduce undernutrition through the fill the nutrient gap approach. The recommendations from the study supported the development of six strategic areas to improve nutrient intake in the first 1000 days. The Food by Prescription (FbP) programme aimed to provide nutrition support to TB patients suffering from moderate acute malnutrition while receiving TB treatment was not implemented in 2016 due to resources constraints. Despite these challenges, training on the national protocol for the management of malnutrition was provided to the Government and tuberculosis (TB) treatment centres in December 2016 as part of a preparatory phase for the initiation of FbP programme in January 2017 for 2,200 people. Component 3: In the Purchase for Progress (P4P) component, 34 farmer organizations were supported by WFP, whose activities were complemented by governmental or non-governmental institutions (AROPA, ADRA-Laza Agribusiness and Interaide) who had cooperation agreements with WFP. As part of this activity, farmer organizations capacities were strengthened on pre and post-harvest activities, enabling them to fulfill the WFP production quota. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 14 Country Programme

15 Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 15 Country Programme

16 Annual Project Food Distribution Commodity Distribution (mt) Actual Distribution (mt) Food Transfer-C1- School Feeding Beans Maize 6,446 2, % Maize Meal Micronutrition Powder % Peas Rice 532 1, % Split Peas 1, % Vegetable Oil % Subtotal 8,969 6, % Food Transfer-C2- Nutrition Corn Soya Blend % Ready To Use Supplementary Food % Vegetable Oil % Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 16 Country Programme

17 Commodity Distribution (mt) Actual Distribution (mt) Wheat Soya Blend Subtotal 1, % Total 10,232 6, % Cash Based Transfer and Commodity Voucher Distribution for the Project (USD) Modality (USD) Actual (USD) Food Transfer-C1- School Feeding Cash 156, Total 156, Operational Partnerships In line with the National Development Plan, WFP supported national food or cash-based initiatives for the delivery of education and nutrition-related services by prioritizing governmental partnerships. Operational partnerships were also strengthened with local or international NGOs, where the outreach or the capacity of the government is limited. Component 1: Partnerships played a key role in creating enabling environments which contributed positively to the school performance of children. The school meals component was implemented in strong partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and its decentralized branches at an operational level. This signified the thorough involvement of commune (ZAP), district (CISCO) and regional (DREN) branches of MoE in project activities. WFP strengthened existing partnerships with UNICEF and the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of an integrated multi-year programme which aimed at improving access to quality basic education. In this framework, UNICEF provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Education for quality assurance, ILO supported the construction of adequate infrastructure including classrooms, kitchens, warehouses, canteens and latrines and WFP ensured the provision of fortified hot meals and the provision of the essential package of activities. Component 2: As part of the essential package of activities, operational partnerships were developed with NGOs and government institutions including ONN for nutrition and hygiene education, de-worming and the setting up of school gardens. In 2016, WFP strengthened its support role to the civil society within the framework of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) coordination mechanism. WFP and the international NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF) jointly applied to a multi-partner trust fund to support the constitution of the civil society SUN platform in Madagascar. WFP and ACF built the capacity of national NGO Vohara Salama, to support the coordinating of civil society actions around nutrition. The United Nations SUN platform and the SUN donors platform were combined to improve existing coordination mechanisms. Component 3: As part of the Purchase for Progress component, WFP enhanced food procurement from smallholder farmers by enabling partnerships with supply-side actors and by focusing on capacity building for farmers. The Purchase for Progress (P4P) component supported the strengthening of collaboration between the FAO, IFAD, and WFP while contributing to improving the lives of smallholder farmer associations in the south and providing access to agricultural markets, training, agricultural inputs, and seeds. These existing and new partnerships with UN agencies, NGOs and government support services (AROPA, AD2M, Interaide, FAFAFI, CSA, and PROSPERER) particularly contributed to increasing smallholder farmer capacities on agricultural techniques and structuring in cooperative or association. WFP collaboration with IFAD and FAO included enhanced support to smallholder farmer organizations in the production process, financial management, organizational aspects, equipment, processing, and storage, thus facilitating the production of agricultural surplus. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 17 Country Programme

18 The Purchase for Progress component was implemented in the framework of the Howard Buffet Trust Fund which ended in April 2016 but was extended until December with the agreement from the donor. Performance Monitoring The Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Plan of WFP Madagascar was designed for current programmes as well as for project newly developed with annual updates to feed into the WFP Madagascar s M&E system. WFP s food inventory survey for the school feeding component covered all WFP assisted schools and provided data measuring achievements for the activity. Process indicators aimed at measuring the quality of the programme infrastructure and on the daily provision of meals for the school feeding programmes were also collected. Results were used to inform and support project managers to adjust and improve implementation. The Country Office and Sub-offices designed specific tools to plan the monitoring visits of sites based on actions undertaken by Food Aid Monitors (FAM). While responsible for distribution monitoring, they conducted regular spot-checks during food distributions to make sure that the programme was being implemented according to the plans. WFP outsourced monitoring activities when conducting coverage surveys under the prevention of acute malnutrition activity. WFP explored the in-depth utilization of Open Data Kits by introducing data visualization (ONA) as a platform to visualize monitoring data. The M&E capacity development sessions provided by WFP s regional bureau to the country office were effectively transferred to Food Aid Monitors and monitoring focal points of cooperating partners. The implementation plan was elaborated in 2016 and the roll out will begin with a test phase in early CISCO (School District) and ZAP leaders from DREN Anosy, Androy, Atsimo, and Andrefana were also introduced to new technologies, carry out a stock inventory exercise in order to plan the activities to be carried out at the school level for the following school year. Indicators to measure the performance of national capacity-building activities are under development at the corporate level. The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) workshop conducted in 2014, constituted the baseline for the measurement of national capacities in education. In 2016, WFP supported the Government in the elaboration of national plans and policies, particularly for school feeding and nutrition components to ensure the sustainability of these programmes, in view of ensuring an effective hand-over in the future. As part of the school feeding component, the National Policy for school feeding document was validated in October Results/Outcomes Component 1: Multi-year funding enabled WFP to fill the existing gaps in terms of Non-Food Items (NFIs) through the purchase of fuel-efficient stoves, cooking pots and spoons for the schools assisted, allowing local management committees to improve services. In these committees, women played an important role in managing the cooks, in order to provide food to children in a timely manner. The food inventory sessions conducted at the end of the school year revealed that 96 percent of the schools assisted were able to respect the daily food ration composed of at least four commodities (cereals, pulses, oils and miscellaneous micro-nutrient powder). However, delays in deliveries due to bad road conditions and lack of carriers, coupled with food shortages at the school level, led to a reduced number of feeding days compared to the actual number of school days. Under the school feeding component, the main indicators relevant to children s attendance at schools were: 1. The retention rate of pupils in school including during times of crisis in a given school year, i.e. the percentage of children who are not dropping out of school during a school year. The indicator provides an estimate of the ability of the school feeding programmes to keep children in school. 2. The enrolment rate maintains records on annual change in admission over years. It provides an estimate of the effectiveness of school feeding in terms of attracting children to school. 3. Recording the diversity of diets at schools aimed at establishing an understanding of whether the school meals provided by WFP are fortified and/or diverse; and are able to contribute to the nutritional needs of school-age children. There was a decrease in retention and attendance in the South compared to the previous year and compared to the urban districts. This could be potentially be linked to the Image result for El Niño induced drought. Madagascar, Republic of (MG) 18 Country Programme