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SCN Working Group on Household Food Security
held during the ACC/SCN's 29th Session in Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday 5 April
2001
Chair: Kraisid Tontisirin, FAO
Rapporteurs: Sahkuntala Thilsted, Denmark; Ken Simler, IFPRI; Brian Thompson,
FAO
Dr. Kraisid presented the objectives of the Working Group and what was
expected out of this particular meeting. The objectives were to (a) take stock
on what had been accomplished in the area of household food security since the
last meeting of the Working Group and (b) to build consensus on the process by
which agencies can collaborate in developing a coordinated workplan for making
improved household food security and nutrition central to the development
process and for implementing community-centred food-based approaches to reach
this goal.
(a) With regards to progress made in moving the household food security
approach forward to reach the World Food Summit goal of reducing the numbers of
food insecure by half by the year 2015, Dr. Kraisid said that the fall has only
been around 8 m/yr instead of the target of 20 million. The challenge is to find
new strategies to accelerate the pace of improvement.
Participants were invited to present progress reports on follow-up of the
recommendations from the last meeting of the Working Group and on activities
undertaken over the last twelve months on household food security. A number of
participants had responded to the invitation made prior to the meeting to
present posters on activities and success stories for improving food security
leading to improved nutrition, and these were displayed.
FAO reported that a paper had been prepared by the Rome-based food agencies (IFAD,
FAO and WFP) entitled System Wide Guidance on Household Food Security and
Nutrition that had been endorsed by the ACC Consultative Committee on Programme
and Operational Questions (CCPOQ) in October 2000. The paper provides a common
definition of household food security and guidance for better collaboration
within the UN system at global, macro, sectoral and community levels for
improving household food security. FAO places emphasis on community-centred
food-based approaches for improving household food security and prepared a
concept paper on this topic, drawing heavily on the CCPOQ paper, for discussion
in the Working Group.
IFPRI submitted a report on its nutrition activities 2000-2001 focusing on
operational research undertaken in a number of countries. Joint collaboration
between IFPRI and ICRW was referred to in the conduct of a stakeholder opinion
survey for developing an action plan for strengthening agriculture and nutrition
linkages. FANTA gave a presentation covering work in the last year, in addition
to a poster highlighting the role of food aid in development. Brief reports were
also received from a number of national academics and institutions.
(b) Highlights of the concept paper prepared by FAO on community-centred
food-based approaches (CCFB) for improving nutrition, was presented and
discussed. The paper describes a strategy and process for implementing CCFB.
Comments on the paper were received and the focus of the ensuing discussions was
on developing a workplan for moving this process forward. The paper is to be
revised accordingly.
The WG accepted that where household food insecurity was a limiting factor,
increasing the availability, access and utilization of adequate quantities of
safe, good quality nutritious food was a necessary pre-condition to making
sustainable improvements in nutrition. The WG recognised that food-based
approaches need to be complemented by activities that take into account factors
related to health and care, and that these also need support. The relative
weight of the food, health and care interventions required to best respond to
the nutritional needs of the community or household may vary over time, season
and type of household and the choice of intervention will have to take into
account the local situation. An integrated approach is therefore required. The
WG agreed to give emphasis to identifying how food-based approaches for
improving household food security and nutrition can be strengthened.
The community-centred food-based approach provides a viable, practical
approach for significantly and rapidly reducing malnutrition. Identifying
partnerships at global, national and local levels for the promotion and
implementation of such activities will be needed and there should be a clear
distinction of roles and responsibilities between the different parties - the
community, community leaders, local government, national government, NGO/PVOs
and international agencies.
The WG recognised that communities are rarely homogenous and so efforts for
mobilizing communities around felt needs will have to resolve issues related to
possible conflicts of interest that may arise. Questions were raised as to what
to do if the response of the community is poor as the viability of the CCFB
approach depends on strong community involvement.
It was suggested that why some programmes work and others fail may partly be
explained by differentiating between contextual factors that describe the
different underlying causes of the nutrition problem, and programme factors
relating to the limitations of the interventions themselves. Nutrition
improvement will have to take place by focusing on overcoming the programme
factors. The African participants confirmed that the proposed approach for
community mobilizers to encourage the community to take advantage of existing
services by acting as the interface between the service providers and the
community could work in Africa.
One problem in Kenya contributing to poor nutrition was said to be the
decline in the production and consumption of traditional local foods. Reducing
drudgery and time and effort needed for preparing and processing such foods was
cited as an area for further work. Support for women's groups in small-scale
food processing to increase consumption as well as incomes were seen as needing
expansion. The important contribution that animal products (fish and poultry for
example) make to nutrition both for direct consumption as well as by raising
incomes, was noted and their inclusion in food-based approaches encouraged.
The important role of complementary feeding for the nutrition of young
children was underlined, as was the need to back this up with actions to
increase agricultural production to ensure that these foods are available. The
involvement of agricultural research centres in these areas was to be encouraged
and case studies on how agricultural investment can have a greater nutritional
impact were called for. Case studies should be representative of the different
macro and micro economic situations. The contribution of agricultural research
for increasing the nutritional content of foods through the development of
nutritionally improved varieties, for example golden rice and orange sweet
potato, was recognised.
The following recommendations for follow-up were presented during the final
plenary session:
- Identify interested partners for working within the broad framework
elaborated in the CCFB paper to reach consensus on future agency support for
these strategies and actions.
- Establish a Task Force to revise the strategy and approaches for CCFB and
for follow-up on the conclusions and recommendations of the HHFS WG.
- Develop a draft joint plan of action for global, country, district and
community levels. This may include incorporating CCFB into country-level
United Nations Development framework (UNDAF), Common Country Assessment (CCA),
the ACC Task Force on Rural Development and Food Security (TF/RDFS), and
local government planning mechanisms.
- Identify possible countries for implementation of CCFB activities as well
as partnerships and alliances for assisting in the implementation of CCFB
programmes.
- Take stock of experience to date. Call for abstracts and case studies that
can demonstrate how investments in the food and agricultural sector can have
nutritional impact. Such case studies should be representative of different
situations in terms of macroeconomic as well as farming systems. The Task
Force is to review abstracts and submit relevant lessons for next ACC/SCN.
The ACC/SCN should consider holding a symposium on food-based approaches for
improving nutrition in a future SCN Session. The WG should consider holding
a consensus meeting on CCFB nutrition programmes later this year.
- Encourage agencies, research institutions and other interested partners to
conduct operational research on best practices, e.g., institutional
arrangements, participatory processes, implementation strategies, Essential
Minimum Needs (EMN), and other components of the proposed CCFB approach.
- Build a stronger case for investments in CCFB, and provide guidance for
the mobilization of resources.
- Explore modalities for providing a facility for documenting the results of
the case studies called for by the Working Group.
- Explore the use of food aid for improving household food security.
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