In mid-2008, the UN Country Team in the Kyrgyz Republic, concerned about the impact of the harsh winter in 2007/2008, and the subsequent drought over the summer of 2008, asked WFP to do a food security assessment in the country. In October and November 2008 WFP carried out the analysis of the information from the Kyrgyz Integrated Household Survey from January 2006 to the first quarter of 2008 (the latest information available at that time), and a study with questionnaires and focus groups of the food security of the population living in the periphery of Bishkek city.

These surveys found that approximately 35% of the households in Kyrgyzstan were food insecure with 20% out of them being severely food insecure. Upon the request of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, WFP designed a project to ensure that vulnerable households in the poorest areas of the country would have enough food to meet their minimum needs over the winter and early spring period, and to ensure that they did not have to sell productive assets in order to buy food.

The specific objectives of the post-distribution monitoring were to verify if beneficiaries received their entitled rations, to clarify the mode of utilization of food (shared, consumed, exchanged), to find out types of problems the beneficiaries faced during distribution and to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the distribution process. The questionnaire was complemented with questions that did not relate to the food distribution process per se in an attempt to gain an understanding about the food security situation of the targeted households including agricultural production, animal ownership, income activities, food and non-food expenditure, sources of food and external assistance other than WFP’s.