Country Programme - India (2008-2012)

Operations Type: Development Operations (DEVs)
The country programme for India (2008–2012) is consistent with WFP’s Strategic Plan (2006–2009), the priorities of India’s 11th Five Year Plan and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2008–2012).
It takes into account lessons learned from previous interventions and the recommendations of the mid-term evaluation of the 2003–2007 country programme.
Strong economic growth continues in India, resulting in a substantial reduction in poverty; but food and nutrition insecurity remain high. India is home to 40 percent of the world’s undernourished children and prevalence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies is among the highest in the world – yet India has some of the world’s largest food-based welfare schemes.
WFP’s assistance in India has shifted from food delivery towards capacity-development to support India’s own schemes to reach its nutritional objectives and the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of underweight children by 2015.
The programme will concentrate on improving the effectiveness of India’s schemes to reach the hungry poor and ensuring that better quality food is provided. A minimal amount of food will be resourced for the purpose of introducing innovative models with defined lifespans in a cost-sharing scheme with the Government.
WFP will continue its advocacy to place food and nutrition awareness at the centre of national development policy. Renewed emphasis will be placed on expanding partnerships and making new ones with a view to integrating food and nutrition security into the context of health and sanitation. Programme components will as far as possible be targeted to coincide in priority districts where the United Nations Children’s Fund and other United Nations partners are present.
The strategic objectives are:
enhanced government capacity to improve the efficiency and quality of food-based safety-net programmes (Strategic Objective 5);
improved nutrition of women and young children (Strategic Objective 3);
improved livelihoods for vulnerable communities that rely on depleted natural resources in degraded environments (Strategic Objective 2).
The proposed budget from regular resources is US$17.8 million to cover direct operational costs for the food needs of 961,500 beneficiaries for five years. The budget based on expected regular contributions covers only part of the needs; WFP will seek additional funding to meet the estimated requirement of US$33.8 million for an estimated 2 million beneficiaries.