Highlights
The Government of India and WFP signed a Letter of Intent for a proposal to establish a Centre of Excellence (CENEX) on food and nutrition security. Two working groups were formalized and subsequent meetings are being held to plan next steps.
WFP has been invited to share its experiences on fortification and the results of the fortification pilot as inputs for the potential formulation of a national food fortification policy.
WFP’s support has immense potential to contribute to reducing food and nutrition security in India; limited budget and measuring impact of technical assistance pose a challenge.
Operational Updates
In their first meeting, the steering committee for the establishment of CENEX laid down the work plan and timelines. One of the initial activities agreed is to organize a visit of high-level government officials to Brazil.
In collaboration with the State Government of Odisha, WFP intends to fortify school meals with multiple micronutrients to benefit 200,000 school children aged 6-14 years through the Mid-Day Meals Scheme. With the Government of Kerala, WFP is focusing on reducing micronutrient malnutrition among young children below 3 years of age by providing fortified blended foods as takehome rations through the ICDS scheme. A baseline study for benchmarking was undertaken in partnership with the government medical college.
An agreement was signed with the State Government of Odisha for institutionalising food security analysis and vulnerability mapping in the context of the Zero Hunger Challenge and Sustainable Development Goal-2. To this end, WFP is supporting a government technical agency, the Poverty and Human Development Monitoring Agency (PHDMA), by establishing a Food Security Monitoring Cell. A data source mapping workshop was organized in Odisha with the involvement of all concerned stakeholders and an action plan was prepared.
