Northern Karamoja Growth, Health and Governance (GHG) Project

Funded by USAID/Food for Peace (FFP) Quarter 7 Report: January 1 – March 31, 2014

COUNTRY CONTACT HEADQUARTERS CONTACT PROJECT SUMMARY Name: Sean Granville-Ross Name: Nate Oetting Award No. AID-FFP-A-12-00006 Country Director Senior Program Officer Start Date July 19, 2012 Plot 1102 Nsambya 45 SW Ankeny End Date July 18, 2017 PO Box 32021 Clock Tower Portland, Oregon, USA Report Date Jan - March 2014 , Phone: +256 414 501 014 Phone: +1(503) 796-6800 Total Award $ 52,116,900 Fax: +256 414 501 011 Fax: +1 (503) 796-6844 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

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1. Program Overview

The 1.2 million inhabitants of the Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda face a slow crisis produced by the breakdown of their traditional agro-pastoralist livelihood strategy, repeated climactic shocks and ongoing insecurity from cattle raiding. The decay of social norms and institutions, such as elder authority and the meaningful, active role of young men and women in tribal culture, inevitably accompany the crisis, as does malnutrition for children, high rates of gender based violence, and gender inequality. It is difficult to overstate the challenges facing the Karamojong.

Those challenges are, however, matched by opportunities for long-term development with the potential for significant impact on the food insecure. Since 2010, four successive large harvests have filled village granaries in many areas, and the security situation is improving thanks to successful military and NGO disarmament and peacebuilding efforts. Although pockets of severe food insecurity persist (particularly in ), in recognition of the sub-region’s overall development, emergency humanitarian efforts are scaling down, leaving a gap for more development-focused interventions to fill. There is a peace dividend waiting to be realized in Karamoja.

The Northern Karamoja Growth, Health and Governance (GHG) project was designed to capitalize on this pivotal moment through a range of economic, health, and governance initiatives that will cement the gains from increased security and build a foundation for broader self-sufficiency, while well targeted food aid for pregnant and lactating women and children under the age of two hastens the process of transition from decades of food aid by filling nutrition deficits in highly food insecure households. GHG’s geographical focus includes the northernmost three Karamojong districts of Kaabong, and Abim, home to approximately 540,000 individuals.

The GHG consortium pulls several complementary capacities into one coherent, unified approach, embodied in the facilitative approach that pushes local actors out front to sustainably provide the products (e.g., seeds and energy) and services (e.g., land opening, animal husbandry, transport, security, finance and healthcare) that make life productive and meaningful in the 21st century. As the consortium lead, Mercy Corps takes overall responsibility for the development of GHG’s facilitative strategy as well as the quality of all programming implemented by the project. Mercy Corps also implements all economic programming and employs a fulltime Gender

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Advisor to ensure that an understanding of Karamoja’s complicated gender dynamics are incorporated into all activities. World Vision Inc. (WV), with its robust commodity management and public health qualifications, is leading supplementary feeding activities, community-level public health initiatives, and water, sanitation and hygiene programming. An extraordinarily knowledgeable local partner, Kaabong Peace and Development Agency (KAPDA), constitutes the spear tip for GHG’s conflict management and governance activities, working primarily through local formal and informal authority structures to bolster local systems for conflict reduction and government service improvement. Lastly, Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center (FIC) is charged with performing annual impact evaluations using its community-focused Participatory Impact Assessment methodology that will help the rest of the consortium partners understand the impact (or lack thereof) of their work.

2. Updates by Strategic Objective

a. SO1: Pro-Poor Market Development

Financial Access In an effort to improve the financial service landscape in Karamoja, Mercy Corps has partnered with Uganda Cooperative Savings and Credit Union (UCSCU) and jointly developed a detailed action plan to build the capacity of seven SACCOs. During the first round of trainings, UCSCU focused lessons on credit management, which reached 20 people (7 women, 13 men). The training provided SACCO management (chair person, managers, and loan committees) with a good understanding of credit management policy, development of loan approval authorization matrices, delinquency management, process of lending and loan data recording system to efficiently run and improve SACCO performance.

UCSCU’s continued support has also helped SACCOs to have a fully functioning operational structure. For the first time, all partner SACCO records are updated with different ledgers such as savings, cash, loans and members’ ledgers. Likewise all appropriate management structures are in place and accountable to their members.

Case Study Mr. Eliah Longole, Manager Nakapilimoru SACCO, said that they were on the verge of collapsing as their portfolio at risk was nearly 100% and members were starting to drop out. However, their partnership with GHG and particularly the capacity building support they received from UCSCU significantly turned things around. In the past one month alone, default rates reduced to 32 percent and savings increased from UGX 8 million to UGX 14,069,700UGX. Operational self-sufficiency also increased to 78 percent from 0 percent, according to GHG’s internal capacity rating, which now helps them to cover their operational expenses. This progress has renewed confidence among members of the SACCO who have begun to save again. In addition, the SACCO has recruited 22 new members. Currently membership is at 210.

“This is really an impressive start and with continued support from UCSCU and GHG we are confident that we can fully stand by our feet and become one of the strong financial service sectors in the district.” –Mr. Eliah Longole

Equity Bank visited the seven SACCOs to look for possible partnership opportunities. If this partnership is realized then it will lead to accessibility of financial services to the unbanked and poor communities in which GHG is operating.

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Agricultural inputs With the rainy season fast approaching, the agro-input team has continued to engage with retailers to help link them with UNADA and build their capacity on basic business skills needed to run agro-input related businesses. At the time of writing this report, 24 business people received a five-day training on business management. The training is delivered by UNADA and is expected to enhance capacity of retailers to have good understandings of business planning and management skills.

Fifteen input retailers have established their own agent networks to help them aggregate demand at the grassroots level. On average, each retailer has four agents and in total GHG has facilitated the establishment of 59 agents in the distribution network. In addition to aggregating demand, some of the agents can be considered as model farmers as they will establish demo plots useful for learning purposes for a wider community. In this reporting period, eight retailers out of 15 have placed orders with national seed companies to procure different varieties of improved seeds that are suitable to the Karamoja agro-ecology zone. These retailers mobilized UGX 7.5 million and ordered a total of 2.2MT of assorted seeds form NASECO and PEARL national seed suppliers. Several agro input shops – selling improved seed varieties to small-holder farmers – were opened during the reporting period, the first of their kind in Karamoja. Despite a relatively small quantity of improved seeds procured by retailers for this agricultural season, it is a positive sign, and indication of significantly more sales in the future. For this season we estimate that over 5,500 farmers will buy improved seeds from retailers to cover over 8,000 acres of land. Exact information on numbers of beneficiaries and hectares cultivated will be reported in the next quarter. Among the many challenges confronted by the ago-input activity, ongoing free handouts of seeds by other actors have discouraged retailers from ordering large volumes of inputs for fear of lower demand.

Animal Health During the quarter representatives from Norbrook (U) Ltd, the largest supplier of animal vaccines and medicines in Uganda, visited Karamoja and met with local businesses, CAHWs and livestock owners. That visit and the provision of essential market information by the GHG animal health team convinced Norbrook to jump at the opportunity to serve the Karamojong livestock market, and as a result, Norbrook made its first delivery of veterinary medicine to two drug distributors/retailers in northern Karamoja with a UGX 10 million credit extension and at factory price payable in one month. JICAHWA drug shop (Kotido) received supplies worth UGX 8,923,879. Of this, UGX 5,923,879 was on credit while UGX 3 million was cash on delivery. The other agrovet partner, Sago Vets (Abim) received veterinary medicine worth UGX 4,793,789 on credit.

Delivery of veterinary medicines at factory/whole sale prices has advantages to both local drug shops (JICAHWA and Sago Vets) as it helped to significantly cut transport costs which otherwise would have been absorbed by them. As a result of this deal, JICAHWA immediately cut its retail prices by 30 percent (without a single dollar of GHG subsidy) while Sago Vet, a new enterprise, dramatically expanded its outreach to animal owners in Abim.

As of the reporting deadline, JICAHWA had fully repaid Norbrook’s loan, and Dr. Sam had kept his shop’s debt repayment to UGX 1.2 million for the month of March.

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To promote their market and attract more clients, local drug shops have managed to hire and train distribution agents. In this reporting period, Sago-Vets worked with six CAHWs in Abim [five men and one woman (trained but inactive, under mentorship)]. JICAHWA works directly with six male CAHWs and a network of over 30 indirect agents and DOCAHWA tasked to select and submit their agents by the end of April 2014. Furthermore, to help drug shops properly capture sales records, the livestock health team assisted in designing and developing data capturing tools and shared with all the 3 drug shops and their agents. The tools will enable them to capture sales, purchases, operational expenses and profit margins. Also, beneficiary tracking tools were circulated to agents (to capture number of farmers reached/accessing drugs and other vet services at reduced prices).

After GHG’s encouragement, the National Drug Authority (NDA) recruited two staff each for Kaabong and Abim to support a crackdown on illegal drug sellers. All required positions within the NDA are now filled. The NDA Lira regional office fulfilled their promise of visiting the Karamoja region once per quarter. The NDA staffing and regular supervision will be an important incentive to veterinary drug shops as it will help to control counterfeit drug sellers on open market.

Livestock Marketing In an effort to strengthen the livestock marketing sector, an exposure visit in which kraal leaders, livestock traders and local government officials participated was carried out in this reporting period. The exposure visit provided an opportunity for 45 participants (of which five were women) to come together and discuss a range of issues that hamper smooth operation of the livestock marketing sector. One of the key challenges identified by participants is the lack of reliable and timely market information. To address this, four kraals (two in Kaabong and two in Kotido) and a few traders have been identified to work together and pilot livestock price information sharing using mobile technology. Doing so would enable kraal leaders and livestock owners to receive timely and reliable information which in turn might trigger them to supply more livestock to the market. Implementation of information sharing via mobile technology and its impact will be reported in the next quarter. Overall, participants of the exposure visit agreed to work hand in hand to turn challenges into opportunities for an efficient livestock marketing system.

Early Warning Response System In recognition of Karamoja’s vulnerability to climatic uncertainties, Mercy Corps in conjunction with varied actors has continued to strengthen district-level Disaster Management Committees (DMCs). The DMCs with support from partners are currently working on the development of district level contingency plans for Kotido and Kaabong districts. Respective district councils will review/approve the contingency plans at which point the document will be ready for implementation by the different stakeholders and agencies when needed or in times of emergency.

Commodity Trade Sector Market prices for staple food commodities tend to increase dramatically during the lean season (March to July) thereby leaving poorer households, all of whom purchase far more food than they produce, at a greater risk of food insecurity.

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A total of 121 business operators attended business to business linkage and networking meetings organized by the GHG commodity team, held in Abim, Kotido and Kaabong districts. Major produce dealers from rural and small urban trading centers participated in the meetings which were intended to open local traders to external market opportunities at East African Breweries Limited (EABL) for trading in white sorghum. This translates directly into market opportunity for the poorer smallholder households who rely on farming to earn a living.

The six most active local food commodity traders (out of 19) have conducted inter-district trading, which served to stabilize food supply to areas with acute supply shortages, with the help of small aggregators in extremely remote areas. This has happened for instance in Usake and Kamion sub-counties of Kaabong.

The team facilitated sharing of market information with four trader associations and one women’s group by capturing, processing and disseminating market prices of different food commodities. It resulted in increased commercial transactions, locally and externally with the neighboring Acholi region.

Circuit Roads Mercy Corps continued with an Environmental Impact Assessment since the planned circuit road will be located near an ecologically sensitive area in Kotido and Napak districts. The final EIA report has been submitted to the National Environment Management Authority of Uganda for their approval.

The USAID Environmental Mission Officers visited the road sites in this reporting period. Their overall feedback was positive and they provided constructive comments for improvement in several areas.

b. SO2: Nutrition among Children under Five Improved

Public Health Care Sector During the previous quarter, Mercy Corps signed an MoU with the relevant District Health Offices (DHO) and set performance benchmarks that each district must meet in order to trigger the release of infrastructure and equipment investment pledged by GHG. Two of the major benchmarks for improving quality of services in the health system are the reform of the districts’ use of the Health Management Information System (HMIS) and the Health Unit Management Committees (HUMC). Accordingly, DHOs have continued to provide ongoing mentorship to health facilities on HMIS data accuracy, report completeness, and utilization. In this reporting period alone 32 health facilities (10 Kotido, 4 Abim and 18 Kaabong) have benefited from the mentorship exercise.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) provided five-day trainings on the newly revised HUMC guidelines. A total of 14 people (8 MC staff and 6 DHOs) were represented. The training provided an opportunity for participants to thoroughly discuss the challenges that HUMCs are currently facing and collectively designed a mechanism on how to effectively rollout the new guideline at all levels. As part of this process, reconstitutions of HUMCs have been effected for

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51 health facilities, and training of HUMCs on the new guideline is underway. Female representation on HUMC accounts for 45 percent, 45 percent and 34 percent for Kaabong, Kotido and Abim Districts respectively.

Despite an impressive effort to meet set benchmarks, most of DHOs failed to fully achieve (100%) the targets as agreed in the MoU and timeframe (deadline was end of March). Taking this into account, MC and DHOs have agreed to extend the timeframe until June 2014 while maintaining the performance standards at their agreed levels. Once the DHOs hit agreed benchmarks then MC will be in a position to kickstart the construction of health infrastructure and procurement of essential equipment to strengthen the capacity of health facilities and in turn ensure quality health service delivery, expected to take place in September, following USAID approval of the ensuing Pipeline and Resource Estimate Proposal.

MCHN, WASH & Supplementary Food Distribution GHG continued implementation of MCHN, WASH and supplementary food distributions in all the target sub-counties during the reporting period. Following the foundation trainings conducted during the past quarter, the program was able to roll out a number of MCHN and WASH activities targeting VHTs, mother care group members and beneficiaries. The first VHT quarterly review meeting and mentorship session was held where 435 VHTs (201 female and 234 male) participated and provided updates of their work and challenges. Additionally, 156 mother care group volunteers from 14 care groups in Alerek Sub-County in received training on the care group methodology. In January 2014, a Nutrition Learning Tour organized by USAID and WFP on WFP-funded MCHN programs and USAID-funded GHG and RWANU programs was conducted in selected districts where national level and field-based staff had an opportunity to conduct learning field visits to witness supplementary food distributions first hand and interact with beneficiaries, health center workers and local leaders. The purpose of the learning tour was to create a platform to discuss how to more effectively use resources available to address the nutrition challenges in Karamoja as well as coordination of efforts, targets and reach, program quality and learning, intervention designs and delivery mechanisms and program monitoring.

Two cycles of supplementary food distributions (January and February 2014) were conducted in all 36 FDPs where 489.885 MT was distributed to program beneficiaries bringing the total tonnage handled to date to 1,907.787 MT, representing 82 percent of all commodities received for FY13. However, GHG canceled all March distributions due to a food pipeline breakdown occasioned by negative laboratory results which showed that CSB is not suitable for human consumption. Construction of foundation and erection of two rubhall structures in Kotido and Kaabong was undertaken and successfully completed during the quarter.

Table 1: Summary of commodities distributed. Beneficiary Category Tonnage Distributed from Tonnage Handled during Total Tonnage April 2013 to December 2013 the Quarter Distributed (Mt) (Mt) (Mt) Children Under 2 Yrs 99.296 32.467 131.762 Pregnant Women 119.153 42.179 161.332 Lactating Mothers 110.568 27.432 137.999 Protection ration 1088.886 387.808 1,476.694 Total Mt 1,417.903 489.885 1,907.787

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The cumulative number of beneficiaries reached with supplementary food commodities during the quarter was 139,658. The maximum number of beneficiaries reached per month (January 2014) was 70,780 beneficiaries comprising of 9,434 children under 2 years, 2,368 pregnant women, 1,283 lactating mothers and 57,695 protection ration beneficiaries.

Table 2: Summary of beneficiaries served. Primary Beneficiaries Protection Ration Beneficiaries CU2 Pregnant & Lactating Women 3 Yrs and above Month Boys Girls Total Pregnant Lactating Total Male Females Total Grand Cycle Women Mother Total Jan-14 4,424 5,010 9,434 2,368 1,283 3,651 30,030 27,665 57,695 70,780 Feb-14 4,553 4,706 9,259 2,265 1,655 3,920 29,617 26,082 55,699 68,878 Mar-14 ------Total 8,977 9,716 18,693 4,633 2,938 7,571 59,647 53,747 113,394 139,658

Cumulatively, 42,582 children under 5 years were reached during the quarter in the 36 Final Distribution Points. The maximum number of children reached per month (January 2014) was 21,396 comprising of 10,180 boys and 11,216 girls.

Table 3: Summary of Children under 5 years reached Primary Beneficiaries Protection Ration CU5 CU2 Children 3 - 5 yrs Month Boys Girls Total Boys Girl Total Boys Girls Total Jan-14 4,424 5,010 9,434 5,756 6,206 11,962 10,180 11,216 21,396 Feb-14 4,553 4,706 9,259 5,780 6,147 11,927 10,333 10,853 21,186 Mar-14 ------Total 8,977 9,716 18,693 11,536 12,353 23,889 20,513 22,069 42,582

Under the WASH component, the team was able to conduct post CLTS triggering follow ups in villages to check progress towards implementation of resolutions reached during the CLTS triggering exercise. They also monitored functionality of five boreholes drilled in FY 13, which are all in good working order, as well as identified target communities and schools to benefit from new water points (boreholes) and latrines respectively. Out of 13 communities identified as potential beneficiaries for new water points, 10 communities (5 in Kaabong, 2 in Abim and 3 in Kotido District) were approved after satisfactorily demonstrating their buy-in for the development of the infrastructure and meeting the six critical requirements for Community Based Management System set by the program.

Lastly, other programmatic activities accomplished during the quarter include training of 19 staff on perma-gardening and market system development as well as refresher training for Food Management Committee members of their roles and responsibilities during food distributions. The MCHN team conducted growth monitoring of all children receiving supplementary food where 389 children were found to have Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and later referred for institutional feeding or therapeutic feeding program

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managed by Community Action for Heath (CAFH), a partner NGO involved in a therapeutic community nutrition intervention supported by WFP.

c. SO3:Reduced Incidences of Intra-Ethnic Armed Conflict

As reported previously PPF was terminated from the GHG consortium mainly because of failure to comply with organizational and donor policies and procedures. In an effort to cover the gap and continue peace building initiatives in Kotido district, GHG through a competitive process has recruited two youth groups, each having a membership of 35 people. The youth groups will work closely with traditional authorities and local level government officials to increase involvement of marginalized youth and women in local government planning and address violence against women, gender-based crimes and other harmful traditional practices. The scope of work and detail work plan for youth groups are completed and service contracts will be signed with them in the next quarter.

Moreover, through a competitive process GHG identified a local NGO named Abim Women Together in Development (AWOTID) for a subgrant to work on land conflict mitigation in Abim, to be supported by a separate small grant to the Uganda Land Alliance (ULA), which will work at the legal and policy level to support legally sanctioned land registration for poor smallholders. Land conflict has lately become a serious concern in Karamoja, particularly in the district of Abim and households move back into previously inaccessible areas, and preliminary assessments revealed that women have been disproportionately affected by land disputes. To address this and improve GHG’s capacity to influence the direction of local land policy, GHG’s partnership with AWOTID and ULA play a paramount role as both have a tremendous amount of experience in this regard. The partnership arrangement with AWOTID and ULA was submitted to USAID for approval under a blanket request for approval of subgrants under USD 30,000.

3. Cross-Cutting Gender Programming

The creation of a gender-friendly work environment continues to be a priority for the GHG team and for the organization at the country level. In the last quarter, the gender advisor traveled to Gulu University to speak with faculty heads about Mercy Corps' affirmative action policies and to source qualified female candidates for upcoming vacancies. Some of the referrals from the university were shortlisted for positions on GHG and Mercy Corps’ USDA-funded RAIN program. In the end, two women were hired for GHG and four for the RAIN program. A database was also developed, with the resumes and contacts of young female professionals, with experience in monitoring and evaluation, business, agriculture, gender etc. who will be considered for future positions.

In January, Mercy Corps' global gender advisor, Sahar Alnouri visited the Mercy Corps' Uganda offices and the GHG program in Northern Karamoja. Sahar came to provide technical support and to conduct interviews with staff so that she can write about gender mainstreaming approaches in systems projects. A cade study on gender and the GHG program is expected sometime in May and will be shared with donors and internally, within the agency.

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Fourteen additional HUMCs were reconstituted during the last quarter in Abim, Morulem, Alerek and Lotuke sub-counties. The team worked hard to convince appointing committees of the importance of women's participation on these bodies and the election results showed significant improvements. Prior to GHG's research and advocacy work, women's representation on Abim HUMCs in the target areas was around 34 percent, but subsequently rose to 46 percent. In March 2014, HUMCs fulfilled their commitment to organize and hold refresher trainings on the formation and management of these community level bodies, and included a module on gender sensitive planning and implementation of health programs.

During the reporting period, a household level survey, designed to understand women's purchasing power in the target area, was conducted. The team worked with a consultant to streamline the content of the survey questionnaire, which aims to quantify household spending in 14 categories and the level of influence and control that women have over these decisions. To prepare for the field research, the Gender Advisor and Economic and Market Development Manager organized and held a three-day training with 14 enumerators and managed incoming data to ensure its accuracy and quality between February 22nd and March 12th. The teams are in the process of hiring a statistician to clean and analyze the data sets. The projected completion date for the written report is the 15th of May. This will be followed by business and consumer level research and advocacy work with businesses.

The financial access team supported a UCSCU-led three-day savings and credit management training with SACCO partners in March. One of the resolutions stemming from this activity was that a "solidarity methodology" would be used to increase their numbers of women clients. In addition, the women-led SACCO, Kitogogong, is now ready to clear its more than 100 acres of land and to purchase inputs for planting. They are expected to work on this with GHG’s private sector partners.

In January 2014, the Gender Advisor facilitated a one-day training on strategies for male engagement in maternal and child health programs. The purpose of the training was to give staff the technical knowledge they needed to design an effective intervention. The training discussed the rationale for involving men in health initiatives, the socio-ecological (systems) approach to change, best practices in male health programs from other contexts (men as clients, partners and agents of positive change, and the importance of addressing masculinity). Outcomes were that the team began to brainstorm ideas for a "good fathers pilot" that will include-- a social network mapping exercise to identify gatekeepers and influencers, masculinity and MCHN training for men, and a voucher program to encourage men and women's use of SRH and MCHN services through private clinics.

On International Women’s Day, the Kawalakol Women’s Anti-Violence group travelled to Kaabong district to perform a drama about domestic violence and to contribute to discussions about district strategies for addressing SGBV and early and forced marriage. Women’s participation in peace structures continues to be high and this group constituted 38 percent of participants in LC1 system trainings organized by KAPDA.

4. Commodity Update

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Commodity Receipt: No commodities were received from the port during the quarter.

Transfers of commodities from Lira hub to district rubhalls: Transfer of commodities from the Lira warehouses to the rubhalls in Kotido and Kaabong continued throughout the reporting period, with 636.680 MT dispatched. A total of 285.030 MT was dispatched to the Kotido rubhall while 351.651 MT was dispatched to the Kaabong rubhall.

Commodity Donation: USAID through Mercy Corps authorized GHG to donate 350 MT of CSB and 38 MT of vegetable oil to WFP DRC. Excess commodities had Best If Used by Date (BUD) of February and March 2014. However, after further negotiations with WFP DRC, the tonnage to be donated was later reduced to 100 MT of CSB and 38 MT of vegetable oil due to WFP’s inability to utilize the commodities before the expiry of the BUD. Commodities were handed over to WFP DRC at Lira warehouse in January 2014. An over estimation of beneficiary figures during the design of the program was the cause of the excess commodity. Beneficiary figures used to determine target beneficiaries were derived from population projections provided by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). During registration and subsequent food distribution the program realized less than targeted beneficiaries for all categories leading to revision of the target figures downward.

Table 4: Summary of target beneficiaries for FY 14 Description Children Pregnant & Protection Total Under 2 Yr Lactating Ration Women Proposal design figures 16,018 18,562 92,810 127,390 Revised figures for FY 13 9,116 5,158 53,041 67,315 % of Original Design Figures 57% 28% 57% 53%

Losses: No commodities were lost during the quarter. Commodity Fumigation: Fumigation of all three warehouses was completed at the beginning of the quarter as follows; • Lira Warehouses – January 13 – 20, 2014. • Kotido Warehouse – January 27 – February 03, 2014. • Kaabong Warehouse – January 27 – February 03, 2014.

The next fumigation will be done at the beginning of April before the receipt of new consignment of FY14 commodities.

Commodity Transfer for Laboratory Test: 0.279 MT of CSB and vegetable oil was dispatched to Mercy Corps office in Kampala for onward forwarding for laboratory analysis to determine usability beyond the Best If Use by Date (BUD). Results of the CSB samples taken for laboratory test showed that peroxide value and iron do not conform to WFP standards and have un-pleasant taste, hence further distribution of CSB and other supplementary food was halted after consultation with USAID. Mercy Corps has sent a formal request to USAID for approval to dispose of the suspected CSB for animal use. Letters to inform district leaders, sub-county officials and beneficiaries about pipeline break of two months were distributed during the month

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of March 2014. Staff also visited the FDPs and verbally explained the pipeline break to the beneficiaries on top of letters already distributed.

Table 5: Summary of commodities sent for laboratory analysis Commodity sent for Lab Test CSB Split Veg. Oil Corn Total Green Meal Peas 14-Jan 0.075 - - - 0.075 14-Feb 0.2000 - - - 0.200 14-Mar - - 0.004 - 0.004 Total 0.2750 - 0.004 - 0.279

Identification of Final Distribution Points: No new distribution points were established during the quarter.

Commodity Distribution: Distribution of supplementary feeding was implemented on a monthly basis in all 36 established Final Distribution Points during the January and February distribution cycles. During the February 2014 distributions, two FDPs (Opopong and Oretha) from Abim and six FDPs (Kamoru West, Lomokori, Loposa North, Loposa South, Rikitae 1 and Rikitae 2) from Kotido District could not be completed before the close of the month hence were reported in March 2014. March 2014 distribution cycle was cancelled due to food pipeline breakdown. In an attempt to ensure that commodity distributions continue un-interrupted, the program, through USAID, requested a commodity loan from WFP to cover the two months deficit. After internal consultation within USAID regarding food pipeline held by WFP, USAID informed GHG program it was not possible to get a loan from WFP since their food pipeline was funded through a different funding stream. Following confirmation that the program could not secure the commodity loan, letters were sent to inform district leaders, sub-county officials and beneficiaries about the pipeline break of two months. Staff also visited all the FDPs and held face to face meetings with beneficiaries where they verbally explained the reasons why we are going to have the pipeline break. Generally beneficiaries understood the situation and have been calm. In order to ensure that there is no pipeline breakdown in the future the program, the program put in a call forward for commodities to cover supplementary food distributions from February 2014 to February 2015. Initial calls forward included 2,020 MT and 330 MT respectively.

Pre and post distribution caucus meetings were held in all FDPs (these are brief meetings held between WV staff, FMC and CHD committee members and local leaders) before commencement of the distribution to allocate roles during the distribution exercise and after the distribution to discuss how the distribution went. Messages shared during the pre-distribution caucus meetings include; roles and responsibilities of the FMC and CHDs committee members, commodities in the food basket, target beneficiaries, quantity of food delivered at the FDP, food distribution process. Roles allocated to FMCs and CHD committee members include; at the registry point – verification of names; at the lining point – directing beneficiaries to stacks and monitoring beneficiaries sharing food at the sharing point. One member is allocated at the Complaint Help Desk to attend to complaints raised by beneficiaries.

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A pre-distribution address to the entire beneficiary community was done in all FDPs prior to the actual distribution exercise using the standardized sensitization message developed by the program. Key messages shared by staff include program donors, commodities in the food basket, ration sizes, distribution process and eligibility, operation of the CHD and feedback process. Additionally the following information on nutrition and hygiene was also shared; emphasis on coming with clean containers for receiving food, importance of attending ANC and immunizations at Health Centers and stopping open defecation. After the address beneficiaries were given an opportunity to ask questions and other concerns that they have. WV Field Monitors and Community Mobilizers present at the distribution respond to concerns and questions. Questions or issues that cannot be address at the FDP are noted down and brought to the attention of the Commodity Officers for further clarification and response.

After the distribution, post-distribution caucus meetings were held with FMC and CHD committee members and local leaders. Key messages shared include review of distribution process, review complaints from beneficiaries, and agree on way forward to address concerns of beneficiaries/community members and how to improve the distribution processes in the coming cycle.

The rubhalls that were procured during the previous quarter were constructed in Kotido and Kaabong. Other activities conducted in relation to the new rubhalls construction include; • Construction of drainage channels around the new rubhalls structures. • Installation of 8 x 400 mm culverts in Kotido rubhall. • Pouring murram and compacting in front of new rubhall in Kotido to allow trucks to safely and easily maneuver during offloading and loading. • Construction of 100 pallets for new rubhall in Kotido. Kaabong district will use pallets received from Mercy Corps previous MYAP program. • Procurement of 4 fire extinguishers, 2 for Kotido and Kaabong rubhall respectively. The new rubhalls will increase the total estimated warehouse capacity from 2,322 Mt to 3,102 Mt.

Table 6: Summary of current warehouse capacity No. Warehouse Name Dimension Estimated Capacity (Mt)

1 Lira Warehouse 1 29.4 x 9.4 x 4.2 Meters 430.00 2 Lira Warehouse 2 29.4 x 9.4 x 3.4 Meters 420.00 3 Lira Warehouse 3 21.6 x 9.5 x 3.3 Meters 250.00 4 Lira Warehouse 4 29.4 x 9.4 x 4.2 Meters 442.00 Sub-total 1,542.00 5 Kotido Rubhall 1 10 x 24 x 3.134 Meters 390.00 6 Kotido Rubhall 2 11 x 24 x 3.134 Meters 390.00 Sub-total 780.00 7 Kaabong Rubhall 1 10 x 24 x 3.134 Meters 390.00 8 Kaabong Rubhall 2 11 x 24 x 3.134 Meters 390.00 Sub-total 780.00 Total Warehouse Capacity (MT) 3,102.00

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