Food Assistance Programme

Food Assistance Programme (FAP) is designed to ensure food security for some 75,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) settled in five districts, namely Barda, Mingachevir, Sheki, Tartar and Yevlakh, in western Azerbaijan. The project is funded by World Food Programme and commenced on 1 August 2006. This is achieved with timely and effective delivery of pre-determined food rations to beneficiaries. The food is distributed to the recipients through 45 distribution points and covers around 96 communities. The distribution process is undertaken in close collaboration and cooperation with the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs and other relevant government institutions.

The project successfully completed its start-up phase finalizing major recruitment and office set-up processes in early August 2006. So far, 3 rounds of general food distribution and 2 rounds of ‘Food for Education' (FFE) have been implemented by IOM/FAP project team.

 
The direct food distribution is implemented by 6 teams, each composed of one team leader, one observer, two distributors and the truck driver. Every distribution round provides food assistance for approximately 75,000 IDPs and is completed in 32 working days as per the preliminarily prepared distribution plan. On a daily basis, each team manages planned provi-sion of food to 100 families on average. 

A designated food ration in all target districts per person is as follows:

• White flour - 12 kg
• Vegetable Oil - 1.2 kg
• Sugar - 0.9 kg
• Salt - 0.3 kg

The FFE component of the project aims to encourage and maintain higher school attendance of IDP youth. The distribution arrangement for FFE envisions the distribution of pre-determined food rations twice in each school year. Students need to have 90 percent and higher attendance level in each semester to be eligible to receive their food rations. 

FFE covers around 38 schools in three districts that are Mingachevir, Sheki, and Yevlakh. Total number of schoolchildren receiving food assistance within the FFE project is 1374.

Food Management Committees (FMCs) represent an important piece of the FAP project. They are designed to ensure active involvement of target communities in the distribution process for transparency and accountability of the process. An FMC has been formed for each of the 45 distribution points. Community representatives actively involved in the FMCs’ works thus significantly adding to the accountability of the project approach.