The Government of Guinea-Bissau has recently renewed its partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme, launching a new five-year Country Strategic Plan to achieve food security and improved nutrition.

The new strategic plan focuses on helping rural communities to build resilience to climate change and strengthen livelihoods while supporting the government’s effort to establish the building blocks of a social protection system that is inclusive, nutrition-sensitive, and climate shock-responsive.

According to the 2022 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Country Index, Guinea-Bissau is the third most vulnerable country in the world to climate change. Climate shocks have a negative impact on the networks that produce, transform, and deliver food to consumers. 

Joao Manja, the WFP’s Country Director in Guinea-Bissau said, “The Government of Guinea Bissau has made commendable progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, WFP is committed to continuing to support government efforts and forming partnerships to help vulnerable Bissau-Guineans gain access to nutritious food, become more resilient to climate shocks, and tackle poverty and hunger.”

The partners will implement a set of integrated activities to help reduce malnutrition, and they will increase access to education. Working with national NGOs and local communities, they will support and purchase beans and tubers from smallholder farmers to feed school children, stimulating the local agricultural process.

The strategic plan is aligned with the government’s National Development Plan (2020-2023) and the National Strategy for Development, Employment, and Industrial Promotion 2020-2024 also known as “Hora Tchiga”. WFP’s plan also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Guinea-Bissau 2023-2027.

The Country Strategic Plan for Guinea-Bissau was approved in November 2022 by WFP Executive Board in Rome, Italy, and came into effect in January 2023. It has been developed in consultation with the government and other key stakeholders.