EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document ¨Strengthening capacities in Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean: Analysing the past, building the present, and looking to the future¨ shows a less known part of WFP’s work, which goes beyond its traditional role as a reliable partner that purchases, transports, and distributes food in conlict and other emergency situations; or in the context of chronic crises. In the region, WFP has become a relevant player in the area of Capacity Development (hereinafter, CD) and has proiled itself as an actor that helps to reinforce national strengths in the ield of Food Security and Nutrition (hereinafter, FSN).
Over the past years, the CD provided by WFP has covered a large variety of topics, ranging from technical support to institutionalize national school feeding programmes, to the strengthening of disaster preparedness and response, including activities fostering community resilience to climate change. Similarly, CD has encompassed efforts to develop the capacities of smallholder farmers, making them better equipped to commercialise their crops in the formal market. CD activities have also endeavoured to include a nutritional dimension in national poverty reduction programmes.
Finally, as part of the CD activities conducted in the region, it is worthy to mention the joint efforts that have been undertaken between WFP and national entities to enhance the provisions for supply chain management.
The overarching objectives of this compilation include its contribution to organisational learning and accountability, through the demonstration of recent results of WFP’s CD work in the region. Beyond providing a mere description of the work that has been undertaken, parts of the document enter into an analysis regarding the scope, the opportunities and the challenges of CD; and identify lessons learned from WFP’s support to FSN under this modality of work. In doing so, this document intends to enhance strategic and operational design of future CD activities, to allow for further consolidation of WFP’s alliances with governments and other partners.
This document reconstructs the work undertaken, including its relevance and the implementation arrangements that were applied. It also analyses the role that WFP has played in order to offer the reader an impression of the impact of the CD work referred to. The compilation has been developed using mixed methodologies, based on primary and secondary data that have been collected as part of a consultation exercise.
Although the timeframe of the document covers the years between 2011 and 2015, the processes described in it have been reconstructed and analysed by bringing in data from before that period. It is noteworthy to mention that despite the retrospective character of the document, its content is predominantly descriptive and therefore is not to be considered an evaluation.
In terms of its structure, this compilation has been divided into four thematic chapters. The first introductory chapter is followed by a second one, entitled ¨Capacity strengthening in Latin America and the Caribbean: a process underway¨ which offers an overview of the background and milestones that originated WFPs CD portfolio and the exogenous and endogenous factors that condition and shape it. The two main sections of chapter three read ¨Strengthening disaster preparedness and response and community resilience¨ and ¨Consolidating social protection systems and production processes¨ respectively, and tackle the four thematic components of Emergency Preparedness and Response, School Feeding, Nutrition and Purchase for Progress-P4P (beneiting smallholder farmers and local markets). These components incorporate cross-cutting themes such as CD inputs developed by the agency’s VAM and M&E Units.Inside the four components, key experiences are described using the 5 dimensions of the corporately used Hunger Governance Capacity Index. The index constitutes a core reference in other parts of the report as well.