The Sun – Fighting Food Insecurity: Pam's vouchers to support vulnerable households



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Thanks to US $ 1 million in financial support from the US government, 22,000 people will be assisted in the Matam region during the lean season. This United States support to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is part of the Senegalese government's emergency food security operations in the north of the country.

With this envelope from the US government, it is a big support for the World Food Program (WFP), which has already done a tremendous job on the ground. Indeed, thanks to the financial resources it has already mobilized, more than 66,000 people, affected by the negative effects of climate change in the Saint-Louis and Matam regions, have started receiving food assistance from Pam. It is a targeted assistance to cover the food and nutritional needs of the most vulnerable people during the lean season. Following the results of the harmonized framework of March 2018, the departments of Podor and Matam were declared very vulnerable to food and nutritional insecurity.

"In order to support the Government of Senegal in the implementation of its Emergency Plan for Food Security (Pusa) for the most vulnerable populations in the regions of northern Senegal, the WFP has defined a support plan based on cash transfers, nutritional support and the creation of sustainable community assets. These activities will help to better fight food insecurity, malnutrition and build the resilience of affected communities in these two departments, "said a statement from the Pam, copy of which has reached us. According to Lena Savelli, director and representative of the Pam in Senegal, thanks to the generosity of the United States and other donors such as Denmark, France and Canada, the assistance of the Pam comes at the right time to relieve the living populations in this part of the Sahel.

"Together with the Government of Senegal, we intend to work in synergy for greater efficiency in order to provide affected populations with the means to cope with climate shocks," she said. To reach 130,000 people, including 50,899 in Podor in the Saint-Louis region and 79,701 in the Matam department at the end of operations, the Pam is counting on the availability of additional financial resources. Pam's response plan is based on the distribution of food stamps and nutritional products to the most vulnerable households in the Matam and Podor departments. Thus, the WFP continues its efforts to mobilize resources to cover the gap of 64,000 beneficiaries. It is a question of distributing food vouchers to affected households by providing them with food vouchers worth FCFA 5,000 to CFAF 40,000 depending on the size of the household.

Furthermore, the document explains that "food assistance will be combined with targeted distribution of nutritional products for the treatment of malnutrition among 7,000 children aged 6 to 59 months and 2,500 pregnant women and mothers of children under 6 months of age. In these same communities, a cover diet will also be distributed to 23,000 children aged 6 to 23 months and 25,000 pregnant and lactating women to avoid a deterioration of their nutritional status. In order to help people cope with climate shocks, Pam also planned to distribute food stamps in the Matam area for the benefit of community interest participants to help build resilience.

This approach aims to assist the same communities with an integrated package of social protection, nutrition and resilience, "says document

Oumar FEDIOR

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