August NEWSLETTERGLOBAL FOOD SECURITY CLUSTER
FAMINE ALERT
The Global Food Security Cluster released in April a Statement on averting famine: we have reached a critical time for action. Read the gFSC Statement
LATEST UPDATES STORIES FROM THE FIELD
The Cash and Markets Working Group collected a series of partners’ case-studies from the field. The stories explain how a joint marketing initiative by REACH in South Sudan, Action Against Hunger's fresh food voucher programme for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, a livelihoods initiative by Premiere Urgence Internationale in Nigeria, and a digital cash revolution by Oxfam in Vanuatu have helped families increase their food intake, improved diets and nutrition, boosted resilience and encouraged beneficiaries’ ownership over their food choices. Read how they did it despite COVID-19 restrictions, highly unstable economic environments and lack of humanitarian access. ANNUAL REPORT
The gFSC 2020 Annual Report showcases the life-saving work of in-country FSCs and partners around the world, as well as the impact of the generous support from our donors. In a year of extraordinary challenges, food security coordination helped millions of vulnerable people to not only survive food crises, but to recover and build back with resilience. We hope you enjoy reading about the results of this dedication and commitment along our collective path to reaching Zero Hunger.
Read the FSC Annual Report here. GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN OVERVIEW 2021 - Food security component
The gFSC produced a dashboard on the Global Humanitarian Overview, covering January-March 2021 numbers of people in need, targeted and reached for food security response, as well as funding statistics for the first half of 2021.
COX'S BAZAR - From April to June, 28 food security partners reached over 865,000 Rohingya refugees and 330,000 Bangladeshis in host communities with life-saving food assistance and resilience programmes.
- Ensured coordination with key sectors and technical working groups to support integrated food security interventions.
- Facilitated
training opportunities on nutrition, accountability to affected populations and gender for over 100 staff from partner organizations.
- Extended a de-duplication exercise among partners, providing cash assistance to beneficiaries in host communities to avoid overlaps and support targeting.
- The food security and WASH sectors in Cox’s Bazar released a new joint guidance note to help partners limit contamination from
waste in displacement camps during emergency contexts, available here.
NIGERIA (Covering only Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states) - Food security sector (FSS) partners are currently reaching about 2 million people with emergency food assistance (as of June 2021). Despite plans to scale up support, this still leaves a gap of around
1.3 million people who are not receiving assistance and are in dire need of food during the peak of this lean season, mainly due to funding gaps. FSS partners were only able to reach some 500,000 people out of a targeted 3 million with agricultural livelihoods assistance.
- Due to funding gaps, rations for vulnerable people receiving the minimum required food assistance have already been reduced by 30% for over 220,000 people from the start of the lean season. Partners are running out of contingency stocks and cannot take in more recommendations of beneficiaries, including high-risk protection cases referred for emergency assistance.
- Published the June Inaccessible Areas Famine Monitoring System Bulletin, which reports four areas of Borno State at high risk of famine (Bama, Gwoza, Kukawa and Magumeri).
- Due to soaring food prices, the FSS spearheaded an increase in food transfer values, leading the June MEB to be 20% higher than in September for vulnerable households and allowing them to meet their minimum daily needs.
- To strengthen preparedness and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local coordination during the lean season, the FSS in coordination with OCHA and the Protection Sector delivered a coordination training to the LGA food security focal points.
SYRIA
The northwest Syria Cluster- South Turkey Hub launched Voices From the Field, a series of stories from beneficiaries of food security projects in the region. They offer a glimpse into how some of the most at-risk people are trying to make ends meet, and how food security and livelihoods (FSL) Cluster partners are helping them do so. There's a new story every week and five out so far: check out the latest here. - From March to May 2021, FSL partners distributed food baskets to more than 2.1 million people in northwest Syria.
- From January to May 2021, the FSL Cluster supported 249,886 beneficiaries through agriculture and livelihoods programmes. This is remarkable progress on reaching internally displaced people and host communities, who were able to resume crop cultivation thanks to funds released by UN agencies and other donors.
GLOBAL PARTNERS MEETING, MAY 2021 - Report
The gFSC global partners meeting was held in May over 3 days and attended by more than 200 participants from UN organizations, international and national NGOs and academia. Daniele Donati , Deputy Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience and Brian Lander, Deputy Director of WFP Emergencies Division, opened the meeting and welcomed participants. Day 1 saw presentations from the field (Madagascar, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic), day 2 was structured around the gFSC Strategic Plan Mid-Term Review, and day 3 covered working groups activities and discussions. Watch the recording or read full report here.
HUMANITARIAN PROGRAMME CYCLE
From 29 to 30 June, the gFSC organized its first Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) 2022 webinar, focusing on the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and aimed at FSC Coordinators and Information Management Officers (IMOs) in the field (88 participants in total). The first day was in collaboration with WFP – VAM unit, FAO – OER and IPC GSU and focused on food security indicators and analysis. The second day covered assessments, the FS HNO chapter and people in need calculation, and the Joint Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF). 5Ws REPORTING
The gFSC IM team launched a webinar series aimed at sharing ‘best practices’ among country Clusters to ensure the quality of FSC IM products. The first webinar explored 5Ws reporting, with a focus on ‘who’ reports to the Cluster, along with the various pros and cons of different approaches to reporting and proposed solutions. Consistent and reliable 5Ws reporting is fundamental to avoid duplication on FSC data between and within organizations.
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