Responding to Food and Nutritional Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In a context where food insecurity has worsened due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic this project aims to improve food and nutritional security and to strengthen the resilience social cohesion and means of production of vulnerable populations particularly women youth and internally displaced persons in the regions of Kayes Gao Mopti and Timbuktu. Project activities include: (1) distributing food assistance in kind or in the form of cash transfers; (2) providing training to small producers in marketing and conservation to reduce food losses; (3) providing training to vulnerable populations on good food and nutrition practices; (4) developing community initiatives to increase the demand for high nutritional value foods (caravan radio program community fair etc.); (5) building the capacity of the population on processing conservation and utilization techniques to stimulate consumption of local products; (6) creating or strengthening women's and youth groups to organize community activities; (7) investing in the protection of survival mechanisms and the rehabilitation of community infrastructures such as the installation of boreholes the protection of pastoral areas the development of market gardening or cereal production areas the installation of water storage tanks etc.; and (8) supporting the coordination and governance of the food security sector and the transfer of skills to local actors at the national and decentralized levels. The direct beneficiaries are over 138 000 persons including 60% of women from the regions of Kayes Gao Mopti and Timbuktu.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased food security and secure livelihood protection for vulnerable individuals and households (women men and youth) in the project intervention regions; (2) improved food and nutrition practices for women youth and children (zero to five years old) in households in the project intervention regions; and (3) improved coordination of the response to the immediate needs recovery and social cohesion of vulnerable populations especially women.