Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Bangladesh + 1 more

WFP Bangladesh Country Brief, December 2017

Attachments

Highlights

• The WFP Level 3 Emergency Response for the refugee crisis in Bangladesh-Myanmar has been extended until 21 March 2018.

• An estimated 655,500 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence broke out in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State on 25 August 2017.

• WFP is providing food assistance to the influx through the provision of a general food basket to families and SuperCereal to pregnant and nursing women and children under 5 years.

• About 90,000 refugees are receiving food assistance through e-vouchers. This assistance modality will increasingly replace in-kind distributions.

Operational Updates

• The WFP Level 3 Emergency Response for the refugee crisis in Bangladesh-Myanmar has been extended until 21 March 2018.

• An estimated 655,500 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence broke out in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State on 25 August 20172 .

• WFP has reached 829,400 Rohingya refugees with food assistance. Rations have been increased from the seventh round to 30kg rice, 9kg lentils and 3 litres of vegetable oil to provide 2,100 kilocalories per person per day. Families with 1 to 3 members now receive rations once a month, households with 4 to 7 members twice a month and households with over 8 members receive two rounds of double rations per month.

• For the October 2016 influx of undocumented Myanmar nationals, WFP has completed the second monthly cash-based transfer of Bangladesh Taka (BDT) 757 per person to 55,342 refugees.

• As part of the northwest flood response, WFP has transferred the third and final monthly unconditional cash entitlement of BDT 4,000 per household to 9,607 households through mobile banking. Currently, WFP is conducting post distribution monitoring and providing follow-up support to the people assisted.

• The WFP School Feeding Programme has reached 487,330 students with micronutrient fortified biscuits and 16,450 children with school meals.

• For phase II of the Forecast-based Financing (FbF) initiative, WFP has partnered with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC), the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) and the German Red Cross (GRC) Bangladesh to set up beneficiary selection criteria and to design impact-based assessments.

• Under the Nobo Jatra project, WFP transferred conditional cash entitlements of BDT 2,200 per individual to 9,340 pregnant and nursing women for better nutrition and BDT 1,000 per individual to 6,608 women graduating from the livelihoods programme. A one-day training for 577 Village Development Committees was organized to support the local disaster management committees.

• Along with other development partners, WFP copartnered with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to organise a nutrition-sensitive social protection symposium. WFP chaired the “Lessons Learned – from Evidence to Policy” session which concluded with a note to intensify the integration of behaviour change communication on nutrition in government safety nets to achieve nutrition outcomes.