2021 COVID-19 Opportunity Fund Projects (Photo courtesy of WFP China COE )

In 2021, a total of eight countries – Armenia, Burundi, El-Salvador, Guinea, Madagascar, Libya, Zambia and Ethiopia – were included in the Opportunity Fund. The thematic areas forthose countries were divided into four main areas, which are e-commerce, value chain, post-harvest loss management and climate resilience. 

The Ethiopia Multigrain Fortified Noodle Workshop was held on 24 September jointly by WFP Ethiopia CO and WFP China COE, looping in experts from NWAFU, HAUT as well as the private sector in China to help Ethiopia CO with up-scale production of fortified noodle from sorghum-wheat mixed flour. Chinese experts shared with WFP colleagues from Ethiopia as well as interested businesspeople nutrition facts and industrial process for sorghum-wheat noodle. The endeavour was to address the food security issues among refugees in Ethiopia; besides, it also linked the noodle business practitioners from both countries.

Responding to the need of WFP Armenia CO, COE is helping with Armenia's solar-based poverty reduction initiative within the framework of the Opportunity Fund. One expert from NWAFU, Dr. Xu Jinghui, and his team have started tackling issues raised by Armenia CO.

The initiatives for other countries in the Opportunity Fund are still being mulled over by both the WFP country offices and WFP China COE, and such projects are expected to be implemented in 2022. 

In addition, WFP China COE also helped the country offices in Nigeria and Chad with local homegrown school feeding programmes and national social registries, respectively.