Highlights

• A number of important assessments were published by WFP and partners recently on the food and nutrition security situation in the world and in the region, including the study on how conflict has resulted in loss of arable lands and food insecurity in the Liptako Gourma region, early warning analysis of acute food insecurity hotspots, and SOFI Report 2020.

• Budget revisions are ongoing in the region to adapt to increasing needs. The total 2020 needs-based plan for the region consequently increased from USD 1.15 billion in June to USD 1.79 billion in July, with the six months net funding requirements (August 2020-January 2021) amounting USD 532.9 million or 53 percent of requirements.

• Due to the higher urban nature of the COVID-19 response, it is expected that at least 14 country offices in the region will engage in or increase urban programming including both general distributions and nutrition activities. WFP is also be stepping up support to strengthen the Government’s social protection systems in the region, including in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania,
Senegal and Niger.

• Critical relief food assistance to COVID-19 affected populations and food insecure populations is ongoing, through in-kind and cash-based transfers (CBTs) modalities. Of WFP’s additional requirements for direct food assistance, more than half were in the form of CBTs in early July, linked in part to the increasing needs in urban settings amid COVID-19.

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