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Madagascar

WFP Madagascar Country Brief, March 2017

Attachments

Highlights

  • Tropical cyclone ENAWO made landfall in Antalaha district, in the north-east of Madagascar on 7 March. WFP has responded to the emergency by distributing High Energy Biscuits and food baskets to victims of the cyclone in most affected northeastern, south-eastern districts as well as the capital Antananarivo.

  • In March, WFP continued its drought emergency response to meet the needs of disaster-affected communities through food and cash-based unconditional assistance and nutrition support.

  • Funding requirements for the drought emergency response from April to December 2017 stand at USD 18 million.

Operational Updates

WFP Response to the Drought in the South: In March, 540,019 people from the seven most severely affected districts received unconditional support from WFP through a combination of food, cash-based assistance and nutritional support programmes. Given the deteriorated nutritional status of affected populations, nutrition support (treatment and prevention of moderate acute malnutrition - MAM) was provided to 17,122 children under five years of age and pregnant and breastfeeding women as part of the MAM treatment component and 19,768 children under two years of age the under the MAM prevention component. In March, 215,000 children from 1,066 schools received school meals. A beneficiary feedback hotline and thirdparty complaint mechanisms were also established in order to enable beneficiaries to send their feedback on all the implemented activities.

WFP’s response to ENAWO cyclone On 11 March, following widespread flooding caused by the cyclone ENAWO, WFP, under the coordination of the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) and in partnership with other actors, began unconditional food distributions to disaster affected populations in Analamanga, Atsinanana (east) and Atsimo Antsiranana (southeast) regions, SAVA and Analanjirofo regions. As of 5 April, around 36,890 people had been assisted in cyclone affected regions (Antananarivo, Brickaville, Farafangana, Vangaindrano, Antalaha and Maroantsetra districts) with 10 to 15 day food rations that cover their immediate food needs.

Challenges

Since the beginning of the drought emergency, the international donor community has enhanced its support to WFP operations. While the protracted relief and recovery operation has been well funded, logistics and implementation challenges including the bad state of roads and long commodity lead times, have slowed down the pace of operations. WFP Madagascar’s funding requirement (April – December 2017) for continuing its relief and early recovery assistance until December 2017 stands at USD 18 million.

  • WFP has also encountered challenges for the implementation of unconditional cash-based assistance including technical constraints experienced by service providers. Mitigation measures such as increasing the number of service providers to ensure that beneficiaries receive assistance in a timely manner, have been taken.
    Due to delays in concluding contracts with the new service providers, cash distributions could not be completed as planned in February were but resumed in March. WFP Madagascar established a beneficiary feedback hotline as well as a complaint treatment mechanism involving thirdparty partners.

  • In terms of current operational challenges for the ENAWO cyclone response, an already poor infrastructure was further affected by the cyclone. Despite completion of some rehabilitation works (river ports and bridges), transportation remains a challenge. Lack of cranes and forklifts further delays the unloading of vessels that contain humanitarian (food and NFIs of other humanitarian partners)