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Eswatini

WFP Eswatini Country Brief, May 2018

Attachments

In Numbers

  • 64 mt of food assistance distributed

  • US$1.13 m six months (Jun-Nov 2018) net funding requirements, representing 47% of total

  • 35,548 people assisted in May 2018

Operational Context

Despite its status as a lower middle-income country, 63 percent of Swazis lives below the national poverty line. Eswatini has a very high HIV prevalence, affecting 26 percent of the population between the ages of 15-49. Life expectancy is 49 years, and 45 percent of children are orphaned or vulnerable.
Chronic malnutrition is a main concern in Eswatini: stunting affects 26 percent of children under the age of five. Eswatini is vulnerable to drought in the south east. An estimated 77 percent of Swazis rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods.

WFP’s strategic priorities in Swaziland are to improve food security and livelihoods of the most vulnerable people affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. WFP assists the Government in providing nutrition assessment, counselling, and support to people living with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and pregnant and nursing women, while also supporting their families.

Operational Updates

HIV and Nutrition:

WFP provides assistance to people living with HIV and TB through the Food by Prescription programme. WFP and the Government aim to improve treatment and recovery outcomes by mainstreaming nutrition into HIV and TB support services. The programme offers nutrition assessments, counselling and support services to malnourished clients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), treatment for TB, or the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) services, as well as support to their families through a monthly household ration.

Due to lack of funds, the project has been halted indefinitely leaving 24,000 people without vital support, including 4,000 clients who receive specific nutritional support needed to sustain treatment. The project previously received funding from the Global Fund through the Government of Eswatini.

Following the recent drought, WFP is the implementing partner for a USAID PEPFAR project which focuses on nutrition intervention targeting people living with HIV/AIDS and orphans and vulnerable children. In May, WFP completed monitoring and close of project activities.

Social protection for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC):

WFP provides a social safety net for young orphans and vulnerable children in the form of nutritious onsite meals reaching around 55,000 orphans and vulnerable children under eight years of age who attend neighbourhood care points (NCPs), many of whom live with relatives or in child-headed households.

NCPs provide a safe place for boys and girls to equally access food and basic social services, such as early childhood education, psycho-social support and basic health services.

WFP also trains caregivers at the NCPs on commodity management and good nutrition practices, as well as messaging on gender and protection issues.