Eswatini
- 26%
- of the adult population is HIV-positive
- 26%
- of children under 5 are affected by chronic malnutrition
- 1.1 million
- population
Eswatini is a lower-middle-income country with a population of 1.1 million. Ranking 138th of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index, the country has the 10th highest income inequality in the world, at 49 percent. The proportion of people living in poverty remains very high: 58.9 percent of the rural population lives below the national poverty line (living on less than US$1.9 a day) with 20 percent considered extremely poor.
With 26 percent of the adult population infected, Eswatini has the highest rate of HIV prevalence in the world. Women are disproportionately affected, with 35 percent living with HIV compared to 19 percent of men. More than 50 percent of children under 17 are orphaned, with about 59 percent having lost parents to HIV- and AIDS-related deaths.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Eswatini
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Crisis response
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WFP provides a shock-responsive safety net to address the immediate needs of people during crisis and early recovery. WFP protects shock-affected families, including those with vulnerable members, young children and/or those affected by HIV. WFP provides food and/or cash-based transfers to meet basic food and nutrition needs, and supports early recovery through national social protection frameworks.
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Resilience and smallholder farmers
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WFP contributes to the improvement of smallholder productivity and incomes, through support for government capacity strengthening for the implementation of gender and nutrition-sensitive, shock-responsive social safety nets. The link between the national school feeding programme and local markets supports smallholder farmers, particularly women. WFP supports the Ministry of Education and Training in developing technical expertise for increased local purchasing of food from smallholder farmers.
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Social protection
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WFP develops an effective and efficient integrated social-protection system that is shock-responsive and nutrition, HIV, and gender-sensitive. In this context, WFP builds a social-intervention system that responds to gender and age vulnerabilities across the life cycle, and provides institutionalized and accessible social assistance through legislative, accountability, transparency and collaborative mechanisms.
Eswatini news releases
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Find out more about the state of food security in Eswatini
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Office
2nd Floor New UN House, Corner Somhlolo Road & Madlenya Street
Mbabane
Eswatini