T.3 Quantity of food (mt) provided to people assisted by WFP (including specialized nutritious food and fortified food)

T.3 Quantity of food (mt) provided to people assisted by WFP (including specialized nutritious food and fortified food)

VERSION

V1.0 - 2026.03 — NEW

INDICATOR CODE

T.3

TECHNICAL OWNER

PRG-MC

INDICATOR TYPE

Country Level Output Indicator

INDICATOR CLASSIFICATION

Mandatory

INDICATOR SCOPE

Generic

APPLICABILITY

The selection of this indicator is mandatory against Tier 1 beneficiaries under the following sub-activities in CSPs logframes. Selection of the below sub-activities will trigger in COMET the mandatory selection of this indicator:

1. General distribution (GD)

2. Prevention of micronutrient deficiencies (PMD)

3. Prevention of stunting (STUN)

4. Prevention of acute malnutrition (PREV)

5. Management of moderate acute malnutrition/undernutrition (MAM)

6. Treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM)

7. HIV care & treatment (HIV/TB_C&T)

8. School meals programme on site (SF_ONS)

9. School meals programme take home incentives (SF_THI)

10. Food assistance for assets (FFA)

11. Food assistance for training (FFT)

12. Forecast-based anticipatory actions (FBA)

13. Other climate adaptation and risk management activities (CAR)

14. Macro insurance (MAI)

15. Climate adapted assets and agricultural practices (CAP)

16. Smallholder agricultural market support (SMS)

Note: If there are no food modality planned or implemented in COs, the indicator is exempt. CO can choose reason of exemption as “No Food Modality” to deactivate the indicator in the logframe.

UNIT OF MEASUREMENT & ANALYSIS

Metric tonnes (MT)

DEFINITION

This indicator measures the total amount of food in MTs provided to vulnerable people benefiting from different WFP programmes.

Below are key terminologies related to the indicator:

• Food refers to In-kind food assistance provided to targeted beneficiaries through food modality.

• Food modality refers to in-kind food assistance (with WFP batch numbers) transferred either directly from WFP or through cooperating partners

• Metric tonnes (MTs): a unit of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms

In addition, the indicator covers sub data points depending on the type of commodity provided to targeted vulnerable people. Below are some important terminologies related to sub datapoints:

• Staple foods: Commodities that are recommended to be fortified include wheat flour, maize flour and rice.

• Fortified foods: are those that have been processed to increase the content of certain vitamins and minerals, such as iron, zinc, or vitamin A, that are essential for growth and development but may be lacking in the local diet.

• Special nutritious foods (SNF): SNF are a range of food products that provide varying levels of calories and nutrients needed to prevent or treat malnutrition; or address specific nutritional needs of targeted nutritionally vulnerable people. They are designed to meet different needs in specific contexts.

  WFP uses a wide range of specialized nutritious foods to improve the nutritional intake of beneficiaries as part of malnutrition treatment and prevention programming and/or address nutritional vulnerabilities as part of nutrition-sensitive programme approaches. They range from fortified blended foods (FBF) such as Super Cereal (SC) and Super Cereal Plus (SC+), Infant Cereal and micronutrient powders (MNP) to lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS).

  Types of LNS:

1. Lipid-based nutrient supplements large quantity (LNS-LQ; e.g. RUSF)

2. Lipid-based nutrient supplements medium quantity (LNS-MQ; e.g. Plumpy’doz)

3. Lipid-based nutrient supplements small quantity (LNS-SQ; e.g. nutributter)

4. Lipid-based nutrition supplements for pregnant and breastfeeding women & girls (PBWG) (LNS-PLW)

RATIONALE

The quantity of food provided is a fundamental measure of the level of support provided to individuals. It enables WFP to assess the efficiency of its operations and helps in determining whether resources are being utilized optimally. This indicator is also a crucial metric that facilitates the evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of WFP's interventions in addressing food insecurity and malnutrition by providing important information on WFP’s contribution to these higher-level results.

WFP has a mandate to address hunger and malnutrition globally, particularly in emergency and crisis situations. One of the ways in which WFP seeks to achieve this goal is through the provision of fortified foods and specialized nutritious food which can help to address micronutrient deficiencies and improve overall nutritional status.

This indicator and its related sub‑datapoints support evidence‑based decision‑making by informing adjustments to procurement, and distribution strategies, thereby improving program efficiency and maximizing impact on nutritionally vulnerable populations. Measuring both the quantity and type of food provided including fortified and specialized nutritious foods also serves as an accountability mechanism, demonstrating WFP’s commitment to addressing hunger and malnutrition and ensuring transparency to donors.

DATA SOURCE

The actual data on this indicator can be extracted from beneficiary distribution lists or from partner distribution reports.

Reporting intervals and formats should be included in all Field-Level Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding and other partnership agreements.

INDICATOR CALCULATION FOR REPORTING

This indicator is calculated through a simple count of the total reported quantity (in metric tonnes) of in-kind assistance (including specialized nutritious food and fortified food) provided to beneficiaries through all sub activities.

Sub datapoints related to fortified foods and specialized nutritious foods reported in corporate reports are automatically calculated based on the type of commodity distributed.

The reported datapoints include:

1. Total volume of fortified food distributed

2. Total volume of specialized nutritious food (SNF) distributed

3. Percentage of fortified wheat flour commodity distributed out of the total wheat flour distributed

4. Percentage of fortified maize meal commodity distributed out of the total rice distributed

5. Percentage of fortified rice commodity distributed out of the total rice distributed

DATA ENTRY AND DISAGGREGATION IN CORPORATE SYSTEMS

As this indicator measures the metric tonnes (MT) of food commodities transferred to Tier 1 beneficiaries, data on planned quantities are recorded in the Country Portfolio Needs (CPN) on an annual basis, disaggregated by activity, output, sub‑activity, and commodity type.

The actual amount of food commodities in MT by commodity type distributed are reported through monthly distribution reports (DRs) in COMET.

Important note: The source of truth for the commodity type selected in COMET monthly distribution reports is the commodity type recorded as handed over to partners in the Supply Chain system (LESS). To ensure accurate reporting of the commodity type and the metric tonnes (MT) of food distributed, data in COMET and LESS must be reconciled. Data from the two systems should be reconciled at the commodity-type level by comparing the handover and return quantities recorded in LESS with the partner‑received and return quantities recorded in COMET.

PLANNED FIGURES

This indicator’s planned targets per year and per sub activities are to be set in COMET Country Portfolio Needs (CPN), based on the intended coverage of the programme. Targets are set in COMET prior to the approval of the CSP/ICSP and included in the country’s CSP/ICSP narrative.

Planned Targets in the CPN should be revisited when there is a budget revision which triggers a change (increase/decrease) in the beneficiaries’ in-kind transfers planned under this indicator.

Fortified versions of the following commodities are also available for selecting directly while creating planned ration in COMET:

• Fortified Maize Meal

• Fortified Rice / Rice Blend

• Fortified Wheat Flour

• Fortified Wheat Soy Flour

• Iodized Salt

FREQUENCY OF DATA COLLECTION

Data should be collected and reported on a monthly basis (or as relevant to frequency of transfer cycle). The data should be reconciled and verified against other sources (i.e. data on the total quantity of food handed over to/returned by cooperating partners, recorded in Supply Chain systems (LESS)) before entering and validating it in COMET distribution reports.

INTERPRETATION

The closer the tonnage of food distributed to planned figures, the more likely for the activity to achieve intended results.

Large discrepancies between planned and actual should be explained in reporting. They can be caused by a variety of factors, including:

1. Over/ under-estimation of needs during programme design;

2. A change in the needs since the programme was designed;

3. A change in transfer modality;

4. A lack of resources (a pipeline break);

5. Logistics, security, access or other distribution/ delivery constraints (such as losses, damage and returns of stocks)

6. Commodity substitutions

REPORTING EXAMPLE(S)

INDICATORS COLLECTED & ANALYSED AT THE SAME TIME

This indicator must be reported together with with T.1 Number of people (Tier 1) receiving direct food/cash-based/commodity vouchers/individual capacity strengthening transfers (disaggregated by sex, age group, residence status, modality and activity).

Report this indicator together with the indicator(s) below when the relevant conditions outlined in their methodological notes are met.

VISUALIZATION

LIMITATIONS

In complex emergency situations, it can be challenging for partners to provide timely and accurate information on food distributions (due to access issues).

Because WFP specifications dictate that all oil procured and distributed by WFP must be fortified, the assumption is that 100% of reported oil is indeed fortified. However, a tag for fortified versus non-fortified oil does not exist. Waivers from the Fortification Review Committee should be obtained if non-fortified commodities, or commodities not in line with WFP specifications for fortified commodities, need to be procured for WFP operations.

FURTHER INFORMATION

WFP policy on fortification