Annual Country Report 2018: Nicaragua. Country Strategic Plan 2018-2019

Rome (Italy): World Food Programme, 2018.

English

33 p.

ELR2040

In 2018, despite funding constraints and roadblocks, WFP maintained its strong field presence and provided direct food assistance to over 364,700 women, men, girls, and boys; and technical assistance to 1960 smallholder women and men farmers. With WFP’s support, over 165,000 school boys and girls in some of the most remote and poorest areas of Nicaragua, had sustained access to food through the regular school feeding programme in Jinotega and the Northern Atlantic Caribbean Coast (RACCN), receiving at least one nutritious meal per day. WFP also supported vulnerable populations in the Dry Corridor, who were impacted by weather extremes, including women and men farmers and 170,000 schoolchildren through the scale up of school feeding, serving as a shock-responsive social protection programme. WFP’s support to smallholder farmers in 2018 was as important as ever: on the one hand, this helped ensure that farmers continued to improve their management of natural resources and access agricultural inputs, including drought resistant seeds to reduce the impact of climatic events. On the other, WFP provided them with a fair market by purchasing its maize and beans requirements from farmer organizations. Additionally, women farmers’ engagement and sales continued to increase, defying the structural gender gap in the agricultural sector. Finally, WFP provided humanitarian assistance through general food distributions to 29,000 people, who had been severely impacted by floods at the end of 2017; and continued to strengthen national capacities in emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction.

Electronic ed.

ELR 2040

eng

MON-127851