Baseline Report on the Hot Meals Component of the Project to Reduce the Vulnerability of Venezuelan Migrants

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, 87.6% of the Venezuelan population in Peru requires support to meet their basic needs. The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in Peru reports that up to 80% of migrants require daily medication, 85% do not have access to medical care, and 68.5% of those surveyed in Tumbes do not have access to food. Of those who are food insecure, 36% stated that their spending on food is more than 50% of their income. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated entrenched vulnerabilities among Venezuelan migrants, including inadequate access to public services, food, shelter, poverty, limited economic opportunities, and unemployment. A large portion of Venezuela's migrants, most of whom work in the informal sector, have seen their livelihoods disrupted by movement restrictions and concerns about leaving home due to the risk of contagion and increased feelings of discrimination. As part of the design and monitoring of the project, a baseline survey was conducted for the Hot Meals component. The baseline survey allows for the assessment of the initial status of the project's performance indicators, including social and food vulnerability indicators. The application of this survey covered different indicators that made it possible to assess the degree of vulnerability of migrants and their admission to the hot meals component. The baseline report aims to analyze the information on food consumption in households benefitted by the Hot Meals component prior to the distribution of hot meals, evaluating the food vulnerability condition of beneficiary families before being served in the soup kitchens. The information and graphs in this document correspond to the systematization of the data collected through the Score Meal survey collected in person and/or by telephone by the Project's MEAL team. The baseline information was collected through the Score Meal tool by means of telephone and/or face-to-face interviews with heads of household. Information from 229 households from the fifth group of World Vision's hot meals component was processed. The baseline emphasis is quantitative, and the information collected is from primary sources. The evaluation period was the month of July. The sample of beneficiary households was 229 households, distributed as follows: 154 in Lima, 17 in Tumbes, and 58 in La Libertad. The distribution of the household by gender composition is as follows: 94 households are composed of adults of both sexes (F&M); 84 households are composed of an adult female without an adult male (FNM); 51 are composed of an adult male without an adult female (MNF). There are no households composed only by minors (CNA). The results of the survey indicate that approximately 72.93% (167) of the participants are females, and 27.07% (62) are males. 97.82% (224) are Venezuelan, and 2.18% (5) are Peruvian. Of the total number of participating households, 7.42% (17) live in Tumbes, 25.33% (58) in La Libertad, and 67.25% (154) in Lima. Additionally, 100% (229) of the respondents claim to be the head of household.