JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS:
In January 2014, food partners continued to upscale food assistance operations to meet the needs of vulnerable refugees and other affected populations through the provision of food parcels, electronic cards (e-cards), vouchers and cash transfers. Through the e-card programme, WFP provided assistance to 552,466 registered refugees.
To ensure those most in need are receiving assistance, WFP and partners are working on fine-tuning the targeting. More than 29,000 households were visited to verify how they are coping with meeting their needs and 23% of the visited households have so far been re-included for food assistance. In January, the first round of e-card distributions for re-included households took place in South Lebanon. In parallel, Food Security Sector partners have increased their monitoring efforts.
Due to escalating violence within Syria, various humanitarian actors have also been engaged in contingency planning discussions and coordination efforts to respond to any possible influx in the near future.
As part of its DFID-funded livestock vaccination programme, FAO held a three-day training to improve the trans-boundary diseases (TADs) surveillance system in Lebanon considering the increasing threat coming from Syria where veterinary services have been severly disrupted. The aim of the programme is to reduce the number of dying/malnourished animals in order to preserve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable Lebanese and refugees.