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Source: Food Security Sector	14 August 2014

Lead agencies	FAO and WFP
Sector focal point	Marco Ferloni – marco.ferloni@foodsecuritycluster.net +972 (0) 546773171 Isdud Al Najjar - Isdud.alnajjar@foodsecuritycluster.net +972 (0) 592030026 Hosne Barakat – hosne.barakat@foodsecurityluster.net + 972 (0) 546773161 http://foodsecuritycluster.net/countries/occupied-palestinian-territory
Reporting period	13.08.2014 to 14.08.2014
Report number	25

Highlights

• New 5-day ceasfire might lead to decrease of IDPs numbers.
• MIRA phase-2 scheduled.
• Poultry farmers have been severly damaged.
• Extraordinary food distribution is ongoing.
• Price of eggs is high.

• A new 5-day ceasefire started today and it is allowing better and safer delivery of services.
• Extraordinary food distribution update: 150,000 out of around 730,000 people have been reached.
• Poultry industry heavily hit with and estimated loss of around half of the poultry.
• MIRA assessment phase-2 scheduled for 18^th August.
• Prices of chicken and beef did not significantly change while eggs registered around 40% increase.

• Displacement rate remains high with Around 400,000 people hosted at UNRWA, public schools/shelters and other facilities. They are in need of food and other immediate assistance. Provision of complementary food becomes more relevant as the crisis has now lasted over than a month.
• Almost the entire population of Gaza has been affected by the conflict and need food and other assistance to recover.
• More nutritious food commodities rich with vitamins and minerals should be provided in a more consistent manner to IDPs, in order to better meet their daily intake requirement. These are particularly important for certain groups like infants, pregnant and lactating women, elderly.
• Standard food assistance to 1,150,000 people provided by UNRWA and WFP in collaboration with their partners should continue.
• Around 55,000 livestock head are in need of animal feed and water tanks in order to avoid further loss of livestock and additional erosion of productive assets.
• 1,000 broiler farmers and 220 layer farmers lost their production capacity and are in need of immediate assistance
• At least 70,000 people who will not be able to go back home soon will need food and other assistance for a longer term.
• Humanitarian space to allow provision of food and other emergency assistance to civilian population should continue to allow proper delivery of services to the affected people.

• Food assistance to 1,150,000 UNRWA and WFP core beneficiaries is ongoing. The ceasefire is allowing safer and more efficient delivery of the food parcels.
• IDPs in UNRWA Shelters - around 207,000 people (no update)
• Emergency ready-to-eat food on daily basis to displaced people who take refuge in UNRWA shelters are being provided with by UNRWA and WFP.
• IDPs in Public Schools — around 16,000 people (no update)
• Emergency ready-to-eat food on daily basis to displaced people who take refuge in public schools shelters are being provided by WFP.
• Around 730,000 people not usually reached by UNRWA/WFP food distribution are receiving food parcels to better cope with the situation created by the conflict. So far, around 150,000 people have been reached.
• Complementary food distribution is delivered to IDPs through various funding opportunities, including funds made available by the ERF mechanism managed by OCHA. Food voucher and food packages are delivered to about 150,000 displaced people with host families and in informal shelters by different FSS partners/members and local institutions. Emergency food vouchers are now complemented with water and non-food items buying capacity.
• Patients and Hospital staff — 2,040 people. An additional food ration is being delivered t to hospitals all over Gaza Strip throughout the crisis.
• FAO is aiming at feeding 55,000 small ruminants for 45 days, throughout Gaza. In addition to this fodder distribution, FAO will also distribute 4,000 water tanks of 1 m³ capacity to small ruminant holders, facilitating water availability for their animals. Security conditions might hinder these activities.

Gaps and constraints

• Lack of electricity limits the storage capacity of fresh food for both shops and households.
• Additional funds are required to meet the needs of herders and breeders and avoiding further aid dependency and additional erosion of livelihood.
• The FSS advocates for a permanent cessation of hostilities and the removal of the blockade as well as full respect of IHL by all parties.
• The huge demand of food commodities to be imported into the Gaza Strip requires that crossing points work smoothly.
• Immediate emergency funds to cover food needs of displaced people and returnees are required.

• Overview on the assessment process (on going)
  Multi-Sectorial Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA): Phase-1 has started. Phase-1 consists of
  three inter-cluster teams gathering basic information at the governorates level. The teams will be moving in the field 1 day only (tomorrow, 13^th August) and after 2-3 days initial findings should be made available. Phase-2 will be implemented once a more solid and continuous ceasefire deal will be agreed upon. Phase-2 consists of five inter-cluster teams visiting key informants in 23 locations across the Gaza Strip for around 3-4 days. Findings will be made available around 2 weeks after the exercise will be started. No date is actually set for starting Phase-2. The MIRA process is led by OCHA and is performed by teams that are composed of representatives of every cluster/sector. The FSS is in contact with partners who have made available their staff to be part of the teams.
  >MIRA update: phase -1 field visits to 5 governorates have been carried
  out between 13^th-14^th August. Three teams with representation from all clusters/sectors have met with various key informants at the governorate level. If your organisations has nominated staff for the MIRA process and FSS team has not contacted them for phase-1, please don't be surprised: as FSS sector we had to provide 3 names (plus 3 reserves) out of 44 names we have received.

  > MIRA phase-2 scheduled for Monday 18^th: FSS team is working in order to form the team and assure proper representation in all the 20 teams. At the moment we have enough staff being nominated by the various FSS partners to cover the 20 teams. FSS team will finalise the team formation by Saturday and contact the interested organisations.

• Emergency Food Security and Agriculture damages Assessment (EFSAA): this is a collaborative assessment effort in the Food Security Sector. The process is jointly led by FAO and WFP in coordination with other relevant agencies like UNRWA and carried out by a consultancy company that will provide a report on global overview of agriculture damages and losses, and on changes in the Food Security situation. This process will start after the MIRA survey and findings will be available in around 6-8 weeks.
• In Depth Agriculture Sector Assessment: The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) will collect data on damages and losses at the farm level based on a longer term intervention. FAO provides technical support to the MoA and collaborates with UNDP and WFP to ensure a proper exchange of data with other data management systems in place.
• Any other assessment being carried out by FSS has to take into account to avoid overlapping with the above mentioned initiatives. As some organisations is going to perform specific assessment based on their specific expertise, please be sure that your assessment is providing an added value to what has been planned and detailed above. FSS will be glad to receive any findings from any additional assessments in order to shares the results with FSS partners. In particular, it will be very interesting to share plans for assessments. Please let FSS know details of your planned assessment (where, for whom, to capture what) so that we can share this information too.
• IDPs in UNRWA Shelters — WFP, UNRWA and FSS members are closely coordinating complementary food assistance modalities to displaced families in UNRWA shelters. FSS will create "Needs List" in cooperation with UNRWA to identify what shelters need food and when.
• IDPs non-UNRWA Data Consolidation

• Definition of activities

• Cross-Checking of Beneficiaries

• The Logistic Cluster led by WFP, can facilitate the entrance of food and other commodities into Gaza Strip. Activities related to food security commodities will have to be strictly coordinated through the FSS. The Logistic Cluster provides its services to all the clusters and organisations are requested to coordinate their activities with the relevant cluster/sector in order to facilitate the work of the Logistic Cluster. Link to the Log Cluster is available at the FSS website.
• FSS webpage - FSS in oPt webpage is published within the global Food Security Cluster portal: http://foodsecuritycluster.net/countries/occupied-palestinian-territory

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