As you already know, our Global Coordinator Graham Farmer is retiring from the Food Security Cluster today Monday, 31 March. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank Graham for his time at the Food Security Cluster -- he has been a key force in making the Cluster operational, leaving a strong legacy -- and wish him all the best for his future.

At the same time, we would like to introduce Cyril Ferrand, the new Global Coordinator, who will start in his new position on 1 April 2014. Welcome aboard!

Cyril is a French citizen who has been working for the Emergency and Rehabilitation Division of FAO since 1999.  He has covered major humanitarian crisis, including Kosovo, Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, Somalia and the occupied Palestinian territory.

Cyril's humanitarian career started in 1994 in France in support of economic and humanitarian refugees and continued overseas in 1996 when he joined Action Contre la Faim (ACF) as a food security expert until 1999, covering Burundi, Russian Federation – North Caucasus and Cambodia.

Cyril holds an University degree in Natural Sciences and  advanced University degrees in Agronomy, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), a part of the University of London. His life is enriched by his wife, Alina, and his daughter Nadia.

•  WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin visited CAR 18-20 March to keep the plight of the population on the radar of the international community as well as to raise awareness of the regional dimension of the conflict.
• Needs for food assistance and nutrition programmes are increasing, which calls for an expansion of assistance ahead of the lean season. Prepositioning efforts need to be undertaken soon, ahead of the April-November rainy season. The provision of agricultural inputs to crisis-hit farmers is crucial to resume agricultural production and to avoid a deterioration of food insecurity.
• In March, WFP has assisted 131,776 beneficiaries with 1,174 mt of food (as of 24 March).
• FAO is finalizing the purchase of 1,800 tons of seeds in CAR, DRC and Cameroon. Cluster partners will distribute these agricultural inputs countrywide starting from mid-April. Partners continue to coordinate distributions to ensure that populations receiving agricultural inputs also benefit from food support (protection rations).
• Insecurity along the main roads and underfunding remain critical factors which continue to limit humanitarian assistance.
• The FSC has approved a Cluster Plan of Action for 2014. 
• The Cluster is currently undertaking a lessons learned exercise.
• On behalf of the FSC, the Cluster Coordinator requested the Humanitarian Coordinator to authorise a special allocation of the Common Humanitarian Fund  to save the agricultural campaign 2014. Operational partners have faced considerably increasing operational costs, in particular regarding logistics.

WFP, in collaboration with the Food Security Cluster in North Kivu and the Ministry of Agriculture, conducted a survey on food insecurity vulnerability-based targeting in displacement sites in North Kivu in February 2014 :

• 36% of households on all UNHCR / IOM lists are in a dubious situation (absent or present but without identified physical dwelling), the average household size is 5 persons, 74 % are women-headed household, 62 % of households have been in the camps/sites for more than one year, 30% of households have been there for over 3 years, 50 % of households plan to return to the places of origin within the next 3 months;
• 27% of households are very vulnerable, 37 % are vulnerable, 34% moderately vulnerable and 2% less vulnerable. The proportion of highly vulnerable and vulnerable households is higher in sites outside Goma than in Goma (68% against 59%) ;
• There is apparently no close relationship between how long households have been living in displacement sites and their level of vulnerability. The vast majority of households have been present in the sites for at least one year.

In conclusion, WFP is committed to assisting the most vulnerable households at the assessed displacement sites in North Kivu and to continuing food assistance to the newly displaced. It is important that the entire humanitarian community defines a joint assistance strategy for the camps and to support people willing to return to their areas of origin (where the contribution of actors such as FAO would be important in terms of agricultural support).

• Preliminary results of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) have been presented to FSAC partners: all areas which were directly hit by Typhoon Yolanda were at least phase 3 or 4. While the results are still to undergo further validation, the FSAC is recommending that partners immediately start on implementing livelihood activities including support to small scale vulnerable coconut farmers and fishers.
• The latest figures from the Department of Agriculture indicate that there is need for FSAC partners to complement Government efforts to meet the needs/targets for coconut intercropping; available resources from Government will only cover 13% of the nearly 420,000 hectares. With respect to timber removal, including from farmlands, most stakeholders agree that the tools available (chainsaws, sawmill) will not be able to accomplish the clearing of around 33 million fallen trees.
• Results of the FAO Rice post-distribution Report, following the distribution of seeds package to farmers in Dec/Jan, have been shared with the FSAC. Find the results here.
• Thanks to the support from gFSC, the FSAC Philippines team has started the process of data collection (outputs and outcomes) in preparation of the Strategic Response Plan second reporting cycle due in early May 2014.

• As of 20 March, cluster partners had reached about 461,200 people under the emergency operation in conflict-affected states. Food assistance was also provided to 335,700 other food-insecure people, including refugees and displaced people in areas not directly affected by violence.
• WFP began tasking one aircraft (Ilyushin-76) with airdrops in Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity States.
• Over 7,200 families in Central Equatoria and Warrap have received emergency livelihood kits
• Working with national authorities, the cluster is conducting Food Security Monitoring System  surveys in the seven states where there are no active hostilities. Data collection is completed and data entry has begun.
• Emergency Food Security Assessments (EFSAs) are being conducted in the three states worst affected by crisis.
• The resumption of food production by displaced communities is vital to improve food security.
• The crisis has increased insecurity along commercial supply routes causing private sector actors to flee the country, market fragmentation, and food and fuel price inflation making availability and affordability a challenge.
• Access constraints, including insecurity, require a flexible approach to delivering assistance, focusing on rapid distributions and pre-positioning in strategic but accessible hubs.

• New study from ALNAP "'Learning from disaster" explores how national disaster management authorities and other state actors learn and improve their humanitarian response activities with a view to identifying current practice, challenges that impeded learning and improvement and ways in which collaboration with others has assisted in overcoming these.
• IFPRI’s 2013 Global Food Policy Report reviews major food policy developments and trends from the past year, documents emerging issues, examines key challenges and opportunities,
  describes the rising political commitment to food and nutrition security, and sets an agenda for action for 2014 and beyond. In particular, it calls for ending hunger and undernutrition by 2025.
• Synthesis of Guiding Principles on Agriculture Programming for Nutrition from FAO summarizes the main messages emerging from the guidance on improving nutrition impact through agriculture, describes gaps that were identified through the stakeholder consultation, and analyzes how the recommendations compare ith conclusions from major reviews of the scientific literature. It concludes with suggestions to strengthen knowledge, commitment, and action to make agriculture work for nutrition.
• Guidelines on “Agreeing on causes of malnutrition for joint action” from FAO