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Scaling Up to

National Food Security Programmes:

Concepts and Example

19-21 July 2005

Food and Agriculture Organization

of the United Nations (FAO)

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Special Programme for Food Security

(SPFS) Mission:

Mandated by WFS to provide special assistance to developing countries to achieve the goal of halving hunger by 2015

Approach:

To help countries prepare and implement national and regional food security programmes, drawing on international models, FAO’s capacities and engaging with other partners

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Water and soil management: Improving soil conditions and moisture availability,small water harvesting, low-cost drainage and irrigation systems (e.g. treadle pumps)

Raising productivity on a sustainable basis :Improved and accessible technologies and farmingpractices (e.g. IPM)

Farm diversification: Better household nutrition and livelihoods throughsmall-scale animal husbandry (e.g. poultry, goats), aquaculture, agroforestry, storage and agro-processing

Participatory analysis of socio-economic constraintsand opportunities: focusing on food security constraints, based on food production and income, access to natural resources and markets, social equity issues and policy issues

Initial Components

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SPFSOver 10 years of lessons learned

• Projects began with piloting small-scale, low-cost technical interventions that provided a specific focus for national/local authorities to see and believe – but many programmes became stuck in “pilot-mode”

• Technology driven methods gradually included community-based participatory approaches

• Nurturing national ownership takes time but is worth it in terms of up scaling

• ACTION-ACTION-ACTION is needed while learning from mistakes along the way

• South-South Cooperation provided innovative insights but requires good preparation and maintenance

Raising human energy supplies for undernourished people

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

2200

2400

KCal/person/day

Maintenance/ low activity/ lassitude

1,400

400

Full Day’s Work

Light Work (current) 200

Modest Increases in Calorie Intake have Substantial Effects

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• Focus on countries with strong political commitment– Up-scaling in over 30 countries

• Integration with PRSP and MDG processes

• Twin-track approach– Food productivity and income– Direct access to food

• Broadening Programme components– Policy reform– Institutional strengthening – Capacity building

• Broadening Partnerships

Moving from Pilot Projects to National Scale Programmes

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Changing Gear from Pilot to National Programmes

High productivity gainsSustainable production growth,livelihoods diversification and improved nutrition

Central management Decentralized management

Public sector extensionists and purchased inputs

Community-based farmer facilitators, better use of local resources

Better-off amongst the poor Food-insecure, vulnerable families

Production and access Production only

Large number of rural people at low cost (millions of farmers)

Relatively few farmers at high cost (thousands of farmers)

From: To:

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Sierra Leone OFTN Example• National food security programme est. 2003 after study tours and

planning meetings.• Rapid development of 14 district programmes including coordinator

TOT and local facilitator TOT with 17,000 farmers participating in seasonal community-based training and network development

• Linked to UNDP and NGO programmes• Operationalization of the PRSP Pillar II and under Right to Food

• Quick win – investment in farmer management skills improve productivity and creates network for seed distribution, market networks, processing

• Quick win – off season food for work (needed), school gardens/feeding

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Njaa Marufuku Kenya• Start up phase (detailed draft presented in Annex 4): immediate and urgent action

in 2005 through a Fast Track Action Plan that focuses on community action and the implementation of social safety nets, including a proposed Community feeding programmes, and food for work activities in support of natural resource conservation

– Estimated investment: US$10.0 million (KSh 780 million). The Government of Kenya through H.E. the President has already pledged US$1million (KSh 80million) towards immediate implementation activities.

• 5-year plan: this focuses on the most food insecure population groups in targeting 1,000,000 rural families by 2010 through a focus on community empowerment, decentralized management, enabling policies, emergency prevention, improved information systems and the strengthening of partnerships. The 5-year plan builds on success stories in rural parts of Kenya and therefore should result in rapid impact at community level.

– Estimated investment: minimum of US$70 million (KSh 5.6 billion). • 10-year full implementation plan: this plan (2006-2015) complements the above

short/medium-term plans in addressing the broader objectives of the UN-HTF Report, building on the SRA and the MDG-1 Needs Assessment Report for Kenya; it is intended that this plan includes development-oriented programmes, as well as productive safety nets for hunger reduction.

– Estimated investment: (to be elaborated by inter-sectoral TWG based on global US$8.5 billion MDG-1 Needs Assessment Report)

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Conclusions• POLICY ISSUES:

– National ownership for sustainability

– ACTION-ACTION-ACTION

– Direct transfers and safety nets combined with programmes for increased production are key ways forward

– Small production changes can make big household changes in vulnerable households

– Low cost technologies and improved management for water supply, intensification and diversification can lead to household food security

• INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES:

– “Up scaling” is a process of “scaling out” under more local programmes and with participation in each community