Mali Crisis - Emergency Food Assistance - WFP 2013

October 2013 – The United Nations reports that 3.4 million people in Mali are affected by food insecurity or lack of access to safe nutritious and sufficient food. An estimated 1.4 million people in Mali are in need of immediate food assistance in order to survive. In the north violence and ongoing insecurity continue to disrupt markets and cut people off from their livelihoods. The most vulnerable households particularly those that remain displaced from their homes within Mali are also still struggling to recover from the food and nutrition crisis that affected the entire West African Sahel region last year. With the support of Canada and other donors the World Food Programme (WFP) is providing emergency food assistance to 564 000 conflict-affected and food-insecure people. Project activities include: (1) providing emergency food rations; (2) providing supplementary rations to prevent and treat acute malnutrition; and (3) operating emergency school feeding programs for primary school children in northern regions.

The expected outputs for this project include: (1) food assistance is provided through designated distribution sites; (2) supplementary feeding and nutritious supplementary foods are provided to vulnerable groups including children pregnant and lactating women and female-headed households; and (3) emergency school feeding is provided to primary school children in targeted areas. The expected intermediate outcome is reduced vulnerability of crisis-affected people especially women and children.