Kenya - Recent

Storyline:
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it has started shifting from providing refugees with homogeneous support to a "needs-based" approach that aims to improve the efficiency and impact of assistance to refugees.

This new strategy will provide food assistance based on the food security and socio-economic status of each family. Currently, the WFP is providing the same level of food assistance for 650,000 refugees, including those at the Dadaab refugee camp, one of the world's largest refugee camps in northeastern Kenya.

On the same day, the WFP announced it has secured a contribution of 37 million U.S. dollars to provide critical food and nutrition assistance to refugees in Kenya.

This funding comes at a crucial time as chronic funding shortfalls have previously forced the WFP to reduce food rations to a record low of 40 percent and temporarily stop cash transfers to 580,000 refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma since May 2024.

According to the WFP, Kenya has seen a 60 percent increase in the population of refugees and asylum-seekers since 2019.

The shift to needs-based assistance is part of the WFP's broader strategy to promote refugee self-reliance and aligns with the Kenyan government's policy to transform refugee camps into integrated settlements.

According to the WFP, this approach acknowledges that refugees can significantly contribute to Kenya's socio-economic development when given the necessary support.

Shotlist:
Kenya - Recent:
1. Refugees entering World Food Program (WFP) distribution site;
2. Various of WFP employees at service counter, distributing food;
3. Bag with WFP seal;
4. Various of refugees queuing for food;
5. Refugee carrying bags of food on road;
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Landis, WFP country director in Kenya (starting with shot 5):
"So, what we are trying to do is do an assessment of the population and look at where the most vulnerable, where are pregnant and lactating women, where are the elderly, where are the disabled, and we differentiate and provide them a bit greater assistance than we provide to those who have been there for a very long period of time.";
7. Various of WFP employees distributing food;
8. Refugees carrying bags of food on road;
9. Various of refugees queuing for food;
10. Various of refugees at WFP distribution site;
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Landis, WFP country director in Kenya (starting with shot 10):
"The number of refugees in all of the camps in Kenya continues to grow. I think we are up to about 760,000 refugees, of which WFP provides food to about 650,000 as that number has grown, and I think it's grown maybe 12 percent since the beginning of the year.";
12. Various of employee bottling cooking oil;
13. Various of bottles of cooking oil, refugees.

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