United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

 

Report of the Meeting of the Working Group on Household Food Security

Sunday 11 April, 1999,  UNHCHR, Geneva
Chair: Milla McLachlan, World Bank
Rapporteurs: Lawrence Haddad, IFPRI and Leda Nemer, World Bank

Milla McLachlan introduced the session. There were three topics from last year that needed to be taken forward:

  1. interagency collaboration in food security programs,
  2. operational methods for the targeting of food security interventions, and
  3. how to integrate household food security into sector-wide approaches.

Three main themes to be discussed in the current session were:

  • Targeting, 
  • Agency sharing of information with a focus on key issues that require attention and remain unresolved with regards to household food security, and 
  • Prioritizing areas for the HFS Working Group to focus on in the next year.

Presentations

Locating Food Security at the National and Regional Levels

Hartwig de Haen (FAO) presented FIVIMS (Food Insecurity Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems), described how it will help countries to answer 1) who are the food insecure, 2) where are they located, and 3) why are they food insecure in the first place. Steps and situations where FIVIMS can be implemented, multi-donor support to FIVIMS, and interagency cooperation in reinforcing country applications were also discussed using an Ecuador case study provided by WFP as an example.

Discussion

  1. The importance of qualitative data in measuring food insecurity was emphasized.
  2. Indicators for the causes of poor nutrition may well be different in urban areas than rural areas
  3. FIVIMS is a collaborative effort, involving a number of agencies, including UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank, and is coordinated by FAO.
  4. The use of FIVIMS to monitor the realization of the right to food should be explored.
  5. At country level, FIVIMS should be linked with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) process.

Targeting of projects at the community level

John Hoddinott (IFPRI) reported on a collaborative study with IFAD on how existing data can be used to target rural poverty projects. Using existing data from Cote d’Ivoire, the initiative identified correlates of per capita income at the community level. Simple questionnaires were designed to collect new information on these correlates, and administered to the 600 communities in the IFAD project region. IFAD resources could engage only 200 communities, and the problem was to identify the 200 poorest using a simple method. It took 6 weeks to cover the 600 villages. The cost of the initial exercise was $75,000 or $0.5 per beneficiary, less than 1% of the project costs. One would expect these costs to substantially decline as the exercise becomes more routine.

Discussion

  1. There are clear complementarities in top-down and bottom up approaches to targeting. Community assessment was very useful for targeting within communities, but using more formal survey data was more useful in targeting across communities.

Targeting Food aid in emergencies within Communities

Arnold Timmer’s (UNHCR) presentation highlighted the importance and difficulties of targeting food aid in emergency situations and within communities. A qualitative rapid appraisal method was used to target food aid. This approach offers a way of finding out how poor, middle and better off households in refugee situations are living, also making use of information using people’s own definitions of poor and non poor households. The challenge is to target food aid without discriminating in a disrupted social structure.

Discussion

  1. Time dimensions of food aid targeting in emergencies need to be considered because food assistance should respond to a rapidly changing situation.

Targeting in the context of an economic crisis- Indonesia

Martin Bloem’s (HKI) presentation focussed on the nutritional problems in Indonesia following the current economic and financial crisis. Data collected by HKI found that there has been an increase in childhood wasting, childhood anaemia, vitamin A deficiency, and maternal anaemia and a decreased intake of animal-source foods. These problems were particularly severe for the urban areas.

Discussion

  1. The Group discussed how generalizable the conclusions about indicators are for other countries in crisis, and in particular the use of micronutrient status indicators to measure and explain the effects of the crisis. Assessing the trade-offs families have to make in non-food expenditures during times of severe stress was also discussed. 

Agency information sharing

Written Agency Reports were received from FAO, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and IFPRI.

Themes Discussed

  1. Capacity building for HFS interventions : assessment, analysis, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

    2. More capacity building on the use of indicators during all phases of program and project design and implementation is needed at the country level and the community level. There should be a bottom up approach to assure sustainability. This would allow for the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators, would increase community participation in these programs, and is consistent with a rights-based approach.

  2. Targeting- What are the objectives when targeting?

    3. Objectives need to be known and made clear from the beginning. The right instrument for the specified objective needs to be selected.

  3. Livelihood security as opposed to food and nutrition security.

    4. A livelihood security approach may be more inclusive than a narrower focus on food security and nutrition security only. Nutritional status indicators are used, e.g. by CARE International, to track livelihood security.

  4. Economic crises and nutritional gains

    5. Economic crises have affected nutrition. How can a country provide a safety net to maintain nutritional gains and ensure sustainability of all that has been achieved ? The depletion of savings was presented as an indicator of vulnerability in conditions of economic crisis.

  5. Improving nutrition security through a food based approach in Mozambique

A brief presentation was made on a proposed research project on the development and introduction of new sweet potato cultivars in rural Mozambique, under the auspices of the Mozambique Ministry of Health. IFPRI, HKI, World Vision and local partners are involved.

Proposed areas for work of the Household Food Security Working Group in 1999-2000:

  1. Explore the linkages between macro changes and food security at household and community level

    2. It was suggested that the linkages between macro changes, including trade and economic and sectoral reforms, and efforts to address household food security at local level should be highlighted. One possibility may be to hold a symposium on this with international financial institutions including the World Bank, the IMF and WTO. The Working Group should explore this option in consultation with the Working Group on Nutrition, Human Rights and Ethics.

  2. Operationalization of a rights-based approach to programming of household food security programs

    3. Case studies of innovative programs which demonstrate the practical application of a rights based approach to nutrition and food security, should be prepared by agencies for discussion at future meetings.

  3. Urban food insecurity

Urban food security is a growing concern, yet receives less attention than rural food security. The Working Group should review the evidence on trends in urban food insecurity, coping strategies and policies.