Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Burundi

April 3, 2013

Food Security Situation

CIA World Factbook

• According to International Food Policy and Research Institute’s (IFPRI) 2012 Global Hunger Index, Burundi has an extremely alarming level of hunger including high levels of undernourishment, child underweight, and child  mortality.

• According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), households will face minimal to no acute food insecurity through June 2013. However, returnees living in rural villages, refugees living in camps, and poor households living in warm lowlands and highland areas will be stressed at times during the next six months.

• The December 2012 closure of the Mtabila refugee camp in Tanzania is expected to lead to the return of over 35,000 Burundian refugees who may need emergency food assistance. 

Food Assistance Programs

• The Office of Food for Peace (FFP) partners with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to target up to 280,000 refugees, returnees, and host community members in Ngozi, Ruyigi, Muyinga, Makamba, Bururi, and Rutana provinces.  Additionally, FFP partners with WFP to provide supplementary feeding to approximately 23,000 moderately malnourished people and emergency school feeding to approximately 85,000 children.  Finally, FFP partners with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to ready-to-use therapeutic food to address severe acute  malnutrition.

• FFP partners with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Ruyigi and Cankuzo provinces and focuses on children during their first 1,000 days of life and their mothers (50,000 mother/child pairs) and seeks to improve access to health services, introduce behavior changes that promote better health and nutrition, and increase access to nutritious food.

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

Fiscal Year 2013 Contribution Breakdown:

Food Security Situation information provided by IFPRI, FEWSNET and WFP as of April 2013.

Country Specific Guidance:

• Burundi and Guatemala: Preventative Measures for Children Under Two Approach

• Response to Comments from PVOs on PM2A Guidance