Attachments
Overview
In 2022, Cuba made great efforts to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, extreme weather events, high dependence on food imports and limited access to diverse, good-quality and safe foods, severely affecting the domestic economy and households’ livelihoods. As a result, in 2022 the economy saw a slight recovery with a 2 percent increase after the abrupt 11 percent drop in Gross Domestic Product in 2020. However, the decrease in domestic production and imports significantly contracted food availability in the country, further aggravated by the impact of Hurricane Ian at the end of September. Given the challenging context, WFP scaled up its assistance, reaching 789,068 beneficiaries (56 percent women), 10 percent more compared to 2021.
WFP strengthened the school feeding programme as a platform to reinforce nutrition-sensitive activities and catalyse the local economy. WFP delivered 3,412 mt of food commodities to educational centres, two times more than the quantity provided in 2021, despite the increasing global food prices. The total food procured from agricultural cooperatives was USD 135,471. However, agricultural cooperatives' participation in public programmes was limited [2] and WFP will continue supporting the purchase from smallholder farmers in 2023.
WFP strengthened disaster risk management and developed a new microinsurance product for smallholder farmers to be launched in 2023. In coordination with the Ministry of Environment and the National Civil Defence, WFP strengthened national and local capacities to manage extreme weather events such as droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. Furthermore, WFP provided emergency assistance after the impact of Hurricane Ian, delivering in-kind assistance to 509,541 beneficiaries (58 percent women). Additionally, WFP prepositioned stocks of food and non-food items to provide emergency assistance quickly.
WFP sensitized value chain actors on gender equality as part of capacity strengthening initiatives to improve the supply of nutritious food to social protection systems. Moreover, WFP fostered initiatives to promote gender equality in agricultural cooperatives, increase women's economic empowerment and representation in local decision-making entities, and supported the introduction of productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies that generated new employment opportunities for women.
WFP supported national authorities on the path towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger), purchasing USD 10.7 million of rice, oil, flour, cereals, corn soya blend, micro-nutrient powder and related items.
Furthermore, WFP responded to the Government's request by providing powdered milk to be distributed within the social protection programme to children aged 6-23 months [3].
Finally, WFP contributed to SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), with USD 2.7 million in technical assistance and country capacity strengthening interventions, working with 40 national partners on food security and nutrition (SDG-related indicator 17.9)