Provide food nutrition and self-reliance assistance to crisis affected population Cox’s Bazar is one of the poorest districts of the country with approximately 33% of the population living below the poverty line. As per the UNHCR October 2021 data, the district is hosting 907,766 Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) who have fled from the violent conflict in Myanmar in 2017. 52% of this population are children and 1% of People with Disabilities (PWDs). As per the Joint, Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (J-MSNA) 2021 report, 59% of the people living in the camps reported unmet needs in terms of access to food and 30% reported access to self-reliance activities among others. Specific types of households, such as female-headed, without access to self-reliance activities, or with PDWs family members among others are more likely to experience unmet needs.
The UNHCR report found that only roughly half of the households living in camps have acceptable Food Consumption Scores (FCS). More than two-thirds of them have adopted various coping strategies including spending savings, reducing essential non-food expenditures and selling household goods as well as labour in advance to meet their basic needs. One report by Cordaid found one in ten households do not have enough drinking water and fifteen percent of the households reported using unimproved sanitation facilities at the time of data collection. Households also reported challenges with the environment of the sanitation facilities. Moreover, COVID-19-related restrictions on service provision posed a barrier to accessing protection services. In fact, 56% of the households reported that they were in need of protection services or support, and 14% of them were not able to access any service. People often had to rely on mahjis and Camps in Charge (CiCs) for the referral of cases of assault or abuse. Nutrition emerged also as an unmet need and only 59% of the Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLW) reported having been screened for malnutrition by community nutrition volunteers or nutrition facility staff during the current pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

The absence of income-generating/ self-reliance opportunities is a major concern in the camp area. FDMNs primarily rely on humanitarian assistance for their basic needs and survival. As per WFP Refugee Influx Emergency Vulnerability Assessment (REVA) 4 report, despite the assistance provided, 49% of the FDMNs and 27% of the host community households are not able to afford their basic needs (consuming below the Minimum Expenditure Basket, MEB). If assistance was removed, 96% of the FDMNs and one-third of the host community households would not be able to cover the MEB. As a result, despite the restrictive policy, the FDMNs men frequently engage in informal income-generating activities outside the camp settlements. Their primary sources of income include casual labour and the selling of humanitarian relief items. Due to a lack of skills or certification, they often receive a lower payment rate from these informal works. On the other hand, FDMNs women are hardly involved in income-generating activities outside their homes.

While considering the overall camp context, vegetation cleared to make way for shelters and infrastructures and to be used as cooking fuels, transformed the previous wildlife sanctuary area into a bare, hilly tract of bamboo and plastic-roofed shelters prone to flooding and landslides in the monsoon season. In addition, due to the highly concentrated population and the habit to throw any item into the poor drainage system, solid waste management became one of the overlooked challenges in the camps. As per the use report of the Temporary Solid Waste Facility (TSWF), a total of 4,819 metric tons of waste was removed from 26 camps during the last cleaning initiative4. It was estimated that on average one person generates 0.550 litre/day of waste, but no more than 5% of the total residual waste generated per camp is used to reach the TSWF. The goal of the project is to enhance the nutrition and resilience of vulnerable people, especially women, youth, and PWDs among FDMNs. The specific objectives of the project are to:

●	To develop FDMNs’ portable skills (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) to work in different cash-for-work opportunities as skilled laborers (project 2.2)
●	To increase the nutritional outcome of the most vulnerable households through behavioral change communication initiatives (project 2.3)
●	To contribute to solid waste management and its environmental impact in the camps by engaging FDMNs volunteers in collecting and up-cycling WFP-generated food waste through a related business model (project 4) Project 2.2 - Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Skills Development

Targeted Beneficiary: 1000 FDMNs above the age of 18 (15% Persons with Disabilities, 40% Female)

Project 2.3 - Nutrition based activities

Target Beneficiary: 1000 FDMNs from the homestead gardening project and vulnerable households receiving support from the fresh food corners in the e-voucher shops.

Project 4 - Circular food assistance and waste management

Target Beneficiary : 600 FDMNs(15% Person with disabilities and 10% Elderly)