The World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday launched its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) aimed at providing a framework to align relief, recovery and development interventions, while upholding its commitment to prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable people in support of the 2030 agenda.
Speaking at the launch of the plan, which was held at the Finance Ministry in Monrovia, WFP Country Director, Mr. Bienvenu Djossa, said the process of developing the CSP started in the last quarter of 2016 with the holding of several broad-based consultations, including the national Zero Hunger Strategic Review which was held in 2017.
He said the process continued in 2018 following the Government’s completion of consultations leading to the definition of the various pillars, outcome areas and results framework of the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).
According to him, all the various consultations confirmed that the proposed strategic repositioning as articulated in the CSP is relevant, realistic and leverages WFP’s comparative advantages in Liberia.
Djossa pointed out that the CSP strongly contributes to the PAPD Pillars 1and 2 which state that Power to the People as well as the economy and jobs creation.
He also said that the CSP focuses on capacity building for Government counterparts and partners both at national and local levels.
According to the WFP official, the CSP also maintains a contingency strategic outcome on crisis response to be able to quickly respond to emergencies that may occur in the country throughout the implementation of the CSP.
The WFP Country Director noted that CSP is In line with the Zero Hunger Strategic Review which recommends Home-Grown School Feeding as a critical flagship activity to spur economic growth in Liberia, and this CSP is designed around the Home-Grown School Programme as a multispectral platform for the delivery of an interlinked set of activities covering the agriculture, education, health and nutrition, and social protection sectors.
He stressed that while the CSP is been launched at a time when funding for development activities is a challenge globally, WFP is of the conviction that activities articulated in the CSP and their intended outcomes are convincing enough to attract the interest and hence the support of the Government, donors and development partners to source funding support for this 4.5 years intervention.
He noted that this cost is put at US$50.1 million, adding that the intervention targets 175,000 direct beneficiaries, including school children, smallholder farmers, vulnerable persons affected by disasters as well as capacity strengthening initiatives for national and local institutions.
Dojossa said that the CSP response strategy is anchored in two of WFP’s corporate Strategic Results areas, including Access to Food links and Capacity Strengthening, which is linked to SDG 2 .1 and 17.9 respectively.
He noted that the launch fully articulates the Government’s priorities for addressing Liberia’s critical challenges for the attainment of the SDG targets and the government plan of lifting one million people from poverty by 2023 through a range of social protection interventions.
LINA
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