WFP releases report on Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo.– The Dominican Republic has experienced economic growth and stability during the past decades. However, the food security situation has been affected by inequalities in income distribution, poverty, and lack of dietary diversity.

Persistent micronutrient deficiencies and increasing overweight and obesity remain major concerns. The country suffers
from recurrent natural shocks, which affect food systems. The country’s food security priorities are clearly highlighted in numerous national policies.

The country’s socioeconomic landscape has been severely impacted by COVID-19 containment measures. The Government declared a state of emergency in March 2020 and continued to extend it throughout the year. WFP’s assessment on the food security situation estimates that some 287,000 people (2.7 percent of the population) are severely food insecure as of end 2020, while 3.7 million people (35.5 percent) are in moderate food insecurity.

WFP work in the Dominican Republic focuses on strengthening capacities to achieve food security, improve nutrition, promote sustainable food systems, as well as increasing capacities, preparedness, and programme focus areas on crisis response. WFP has been present in Dominican Republic since 1969.

Operational Updates

• Dominican Republic’s First Lady received WFP to advocate and to raise awareness on the Food Security and Nutrition situation in the country, and WFP’s mandate to provide technical support on humanitarian assistance and disaster risk reduction.
• WFP’s Country Director and the technical team held high level meetings with the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Agriculture, Customs and Port Authorities, to activate the mechanisms of the Humanitarian Corridor to deliver assistance to Haiti.
• WFP was invited to the National Congress of Agriculture and Smallholders. WFP Country Director and Regional Nutrition Advisor presented WFP’s analysis on COVID-19’s impact, highlighting challenges and opportunities in working together on the links between climate change, food security and food systems.
• WFP and the Social Protection Programme, Supérate, hosted a high-level and technical meeting to discuss the development of a pilot to improve social protection mechanisms that are nutrition sensitive, and include adaptive mechanisms to climate shocks and emergencies, and a strong monitoring and evaluation component.
• WFP hosted a regional training with the National Social Registry Institution (SIUBEN) to improve their technical capacity on web mapping with the improvement of data management and visualisation. The workshop concluded with the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between both organisations to continue the support to SIUBEN, particularly for the implementation of the Digital Agenda.
• WFP’s Country Director participated as a speaker at the second WFP Global Meeting on South-South and Triangular Cooperation to present Dominican Republic’s experience and lessons learnt in the two phases of the project implemented during 2021.
• WFP supported the National Consultation for the reform of the legal and institutional framework for disaster risk management led by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development.
• WFP technical teams received on-site training to improve local skills in supply chain, food procurement, and technological skills to implement cash-based transfer (CBT) mechanism by using the corporate tool SCOPE.