SAVING LIVES CHANGING LIVES Congo Annual Country Report 2019 Country Strategic Plan 2019 - 2023 Table of contents Summary 3 Context and Operations 6 CSP financial overview 8 Programme Performance 9 Strategic outcome 01 9 Strategic outcome 02 10 Strategic outcome 03 12 Strategic outcome 04 13 Cross-cutting Results 15 Progress towards gender equality 15 Protection 15 Accountability to affected populations 16 Environment 16 South-South Cooperation in RoC 18 Data Notes 18 Figures and Indicators 21 Beneficiaries by Age Group 22 Beneficiaries by Residence Status 22 Annual Food Transfer 22 Annual Cash Based Transfer and Commodity Voucher 23 Strategic Outcome and Output Results 23 Congo | Annual Country Report 2019 2 Summary In 2019, WFP Republic of Congo began the first year of its five-year Country Strategic Plan (CSP), adopting a long-term, nationally driven strategy to support zero hunger. The CSP enables WFP to continue its assistance through targeted in-kind food assistance and cash-based transfers, and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) treatment for shock-affected groups, including internally displaced persons, returnees, and refugees from the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. WFP also addresses the underlying causes of vulnerability through school feeding and resilience-building initiatives at national and community levels. WFP expanded its successful use of a digital ID and transfer management platforms, recording more than 101,000 new registrations in 2019. The system has been beneficial to data and information management processes for targeting, compilation of distribution lists, and the delivery of in-kind food and cash-based transfers. In support of government efforts to increase access to education, WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, provided school meals to more than 73,000 school-age children (48 percent girls) during the school year 2018–2019. Priority was given to schools for indigenous children in the north, whose access to education is challenging, and where a strong collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) exists. WFP also continued to promote Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF), which links food purchases for school feeding to local agricultural development. For the first time in the Congo, five pilot schools in the Pool department now receive vouchers to buy local products from the markets. Moreover, WFP helped smallholder farmers sell their produce to these schools, and cooks were identified to prepare nutritious meals for the school children. WFP will scale up the HGSF initiative to 17 schools in 2020. In collaboration with the Government, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), WFP continued to tap into local procurement opportunities with agribusiness and smallholders for its food-based programmes. In 2019, WFP purchased 142 mt of pulses from smallholder bean farmers, up from 79 mt in 2018. WFP is now applying this model to the value chain of cassava, which is the country's most cultivated crop. WFP, FAO and IFAD are working together to strengthen the capacities of smallholder cassava producers, including through South-South cooperation. As part of this initiative, the Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (CDTA), and experts from Cote d’Ivoire and Benin under the Regional Excellence Center Against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) conducted trainings in production and processing techniques for smallholder farmers. WFP, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Humanitarian Action, and the Food Economy Group, carried out a livelihood zoning exercise in 2019. The exercise produced the first livelihood map for the Republic of the Congo. The zoning and profiles are now helping stakeholders develop robust evidence-based targeting criteria to inform relief and resilience efforts. In October 2019 the Congo experienced its worst flooding in almost 20 years as a result of recurring heavy rainfall that swelled the Oubangui and Congo rivers. About 180,000 people were affected in the departments of Likouala, Cuvette, Plateaux and Sangha. At the request of the Government, the UN launched an inter-agency humanitarian response. Thanks to its operational presence in the north, WFP was able to immediately respond in mid-November, assisting nearly 80,000 flood-affected people. WFP Republic of the Congo received 70 percent of its USD 40 million need-based plan requirements in 2019. The United States remained the biggest donor to WFP's operations in the country, with China and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) also providing much-needed funding. Under the CSP, WFP reinforces its commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), as well as SDGs related to health, education, gender equality, climate change and sustainability. The CSP contributes to the Congo Republic's national development priorities as defined in the National Development Plan (PND 2018–2022). Through the UN system, WFP contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF 2020–2024), which is aligned with PND 2018-2022, and is the main channel for implementing international commitments to the SDGs. The UN's interventions revolve around three pillars: strengthening governance; reform of the education system; and diversifying the economy. Congo | Annual Country Report 2019 3 60% 40% 328,763 female male Total Beneficiaries in 2019 Beneficiaries by Sex and Age Group Female Male 6,923 6,440 60+ years 60+ years 2,464 2,467 27,692 25,921 18-59 years 18-59 years 97,879 33,691 483 483 12-17 years 12-17 years 13,216 10,049 34,776 34,776 5-11 years 5-11 years 72,457 74,142 6,440 6,440 24-59 months 24-59 months 6,545 5,820 5,313 5,313 0-23 months 0-23 months 5,191 4,842 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 Planned Actual Planned Actual Beneficiaries by Residence Status 0 IDP 0 32,200 Returnee 29,687 48,300 Refugee 31,548 80,500 Resident 267,529 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 Planned Actual Total Food and CBT 6,155 mt US$ 2,969,111 total actual food transferred in 2019 total actual cash transferred in 2019 of 6,471 mt total planned of $US 6,798,600 total planned Congo | Annual Country Report 2019 4 4,000 Annual Food Transfer 4,202 3,520 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 419 Rice 124 113 Value Voucher Cash Canned Fish 576 Planned Corn Soya Annual Cash Based Transfer and CommodityBlend 0 Voucher 10 0 High Energy 72 Biscuits Actual 0 Planned Ready To Use 96 Supplementary 120 Food 379 Iodised Salt 605 Actual Vegetable Oil 60 1,131 2,000,000 98 1,102 0 2,263,267 Beans Split Peas 4,000,000 6,000,000 6,798,600 Congo | Annual Country Report 2019 705,843 5 Context and Operations Although a middle-income country, the Republic of Congo faces crucial socio-economic challenges. Its economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues. After the deep economic crisis the country experienced after a fall in oil prices in mid-2014, the Congolese economy was back on a better trajectory in 2018. After two years of contraction, real Gross Domestic Product grew 1.6 percent in 2018, and 2.2 percent in 2019[1]. Despite this improvement, however, the Congo continued to face economic stagnation. It ranked 138 out of 189 countries in the 2018 Human Development Index [2]. Some 47 percent of the population is estimated to be living below the national poverty line, and income inequality is pronounced. Gender inequality remained a major challenge, with the Congo ranking 145 out of 162 countries in the 2018 Gender Inequality Index[3]. The country's socio-economic situation is aggravated by recurring conflicts, both internally and in neighbouring countries. Congo | Annual Country Report 2019 6 The displaced populations caused by the armed conflict in the Pool department in 2016 started to return to their place of origin following the ceasefire signed in December 2017. In May 2019, assessments revealed an alarming prevalence of food insecurity among returnees, with more than one in two households affected by food insecurity (59.5 percent in Kidamba district). Displaced households headed by women were worse off (54.4 percent) than those headed by men (32.5 percent). In December 2018, following renewed inter-communal conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, approximately 11,500 people fled to the Plateaux department in the Republic of Congo. Meanwhile, despite an increased number of voluntary repatriations, 13,000 refugees from the Central African Republic were living in Likouala by the end of 2019. The Republic of Congo is heavily reliant on food imports, with national food production covering only 30 percent of its needs. Findings from the Zero Hunger Strategic Review point to considerable disparity between consumption trends and local agricultural production, leading to a high dependence on imports[4]. It ranked 106 out of 117 countries in the 2019 Global Hunger Index, its nutrition situation one of “serious” concern[5]. Approximately 38 percent of the population is undernourished, 21 percent of children aged 6–59 months are chronically malnourished, and 8.2 percent suffer from acute malnutrition. At more than 5 percent, mortality among children under five remained a critical concern. WFP’s activities in the Congo in 2019 were conducted through a Country Strategic Plan (CSP 2019–2023). In alignment with humanitarian priorities in the country and with the National Development Plan (PND 2018–2022), they fall under the focus areas of crisis response (Strategic Outcomes 1 and 4), root cause (Strategic Outcome 2) and resilience-building (Strategic Outcome 3).