EVOLVING APPROACHES TO FOOD SECURITY IN
AFGHANISTAN
By François Grunewald, Domitille Kauffmann, Peggy Pascal and Nicolas Rivière
GROUPE URD
Groupe URD is a French research institute whose main goal is to:Improve quality of humanitarian practices through debate, research, evaluation, capacity building, training and lobbying.
Based on field research…
Sharing our findings Publishing the results of our work (books, reviews, Internet) Facilitating the exchange of lessons and experiences through debates and conferences (Autumn School on Humanitarian Aid)
Learning from previous experiences Carrying out evaluations on programme design and implementation Conducting cross-sector and thematic research studies
Advocacy on humanitarian practice Advising and influencing donors, decision makers, NGOs and UN agencies
Capacity development Providing training for aid workers based on lessons learnt in the field
Developing new methods and tools Quality COMPAS© (CD-ROM and Companion Book) Dynamic COMPAS® (Interactive software) Practitioners’ Handbook on Participation
AFFECTEDPOPULATIONS
&CONTEXT
Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and development
Continuation of a process initiated in 2001Multisectoral Multi sitesMulti actors
Evaluations / sector reviewsResearch in different sectorsTrainings
Yesterday morning, presentation of the results of the 2, 5 years of research
Main Objectives
Learning and sharing lessons in this period of political and technical transition, through multi-sector review
Increasing and sharing knowledge and experience by carrying out applied research in rural and urban settings in specific fields (including food and economic security and urban development):
- 4 different agrarian systems throughout Afghanistan- 3 cities (small/middle/big)In partnership with interested NGOs
Contributing to the capacity building efforts of the relevant ministries and Afghan NGOs through trainings
A large diversity of Afghan Farming systems
Hazards Climatic
Drought Flood Snow
Earthquake Deforestation and Denuding Diseases and pest Landmines Pollution Military confrontations
External factors : political, economic, macro-ecomomic…
History
Agrarian system
Socio-economicenvironment
Agro-ecological situations
Food security: few concepts
Food security: an attempt of defintion World Food Summit 1996 : “Food security, at the individual, household, national, regionaland global levels is achieved when all people, at all times,have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe andNutritious food to meet their dietary needs and foodpreferences for an active and healthy life”.
Oxfam:“All people, especially the most vulnerable and least resilienthave dignified and unthreatening access to the quantity andquality of culturally appropriate food that will fully support thephysical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.”
Food security: a framework for analysis Food availability : “the amount of food that is physically present in
a country or area through all forms of domestic production, commercial imports and food aid”
food access: “a household’s ability to regularly acquire adequate amounts of food through a combination of their own stock and home production, purchases, barter, gifts, borrowing or food aid”;
food consumption: households’ use of the food to which they have access (preservation, cooking,etc.)
Food utilization: individuals’ ability to absorb nutrients, or the conversion efficiency of food by the body”
National nutrition data in Afghanistan High rate of chronic malnutrition: +/- 50%
+/- 10% acute malnutrition: low rate of severe acute malnutrition Seasonality (summer=diarrhea, winter=insufficient food
storage)
High rates of micronutrient deficiences: Iron: more than 70% of children and 48% of women Anemia: 38% ofchildren, 25% of women Vitamin A (night blindness): 20% of women Vitamin C: up to 10% in some areas
NRVA 2005: preliminary results
Putting Food Security at the core of the
development strategy
FS issues in Afghanistan: dealing with complexity / diversity?
High diversity of agro-ecological systems Land and water repartition problems Access problems: roads and markets Occurrence of droughts / floods Sharing roles, mandates and
responsabilities in between ministries
Wheat seeds multiplication(DPs)
Horticulture
Animal health
Kitchen gardens Vegetables production
Broader livestock improvement programs
Food processingPrivate sector
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
FREE SEEDS DISTRIBUTION
FFW / CFW
FOOD AID
PRT’s distribution
Irrigation schemes’ rehabilitationWater ress. dvpt oriented programs
Wheat: staple food in Afghanistan
Since many years: FS programs were partly based on improving yields
Issues at stake:
• Focus on irrigated wheat: what about the most vulnerable ( access to land and water)?•Focus on yields increase vs risk management• Limited understanding of wheat production and lack of evaluation of programs impacts
•Wheat programs and wheat distribution are not THE solution to FI in Afghanistan •Needs of a diversification of the programs
Daily energy supplies (Kcal) of the basic foods for one adult (> 12 years old) in Baharak.
bread (wheat)61%
oil14%
vegetables1%
sugar4%
walnuts4% rice
11%potatoes
2%
milk1%
meat2%
Focusing on wheat to decrease FI?
Irrigation schemes rehabilitation
Inequal quality and limited impact
Limited capacities and inappropriate methodologies from the humanitarian stakeholders
Inclusive and balanced response to FS issues in Afghanistan
Food security causes are diversified throughout Afghanistan
=>Need of specific approaches and programs (the case of the drought response in 2006)
Remote and disadvantaged areas should not be left aside (horticulture programs should be also launched there at least as pilot programs with pro-poor approaches, irrigation programs)
FS is an issue to place in the development agenda
Coordinate food aid / Food security/ agro business programs
Food aid delivery is not a solution to FS Free distributions are raising many issues
on the field (relevance, dependance, hampering dvpt programs)
Need to improve the coordination in between the different stakeholders and approaches (also in term of DP and EW)
Need for appropriate diagnosis and cross-
sector response
Systemic approach for diagnosis How to understand food insecurity problems & causes in
an holistic manner?
First challenge: a comprehensive and sustainable response through specific / diversified actions/solutions
Needs for tools and methodologies to understand both the farming & livelihoods systems while understanding sector/thematic constraints and opportunities
Trans-sector response
The Afghan state and the development are set up around a sector based strategy: How to tackle trans-sector FS issue within such a framework?
The FS issue is assigned to one government institution, the MAIL. How to involve the other concerned ministries (MEW and MRRD)?
High level of collaboration among ministries = other main challenge
Linkage between the Water/irrigation and Agriculture sectors
Which collaboration in between these 2 sectors to address FS issues ?
1) Respect the new framework (rules and principles) developed by the water sector
2)Need of specific technical expertise
3) Increase the links in between agriculture strategies and WR development process?
→ Define development plans in common ( at local or provincial levels) and a strategy of implementation
How to make Food security programs work: main principles
1- Flexible frameworks (time, scale, means)
2- Competences and technical expertise
3- M&E
Flexible framework Time: long-term commitment in order to achieve a real impact
Acquiring a new skill, building a women’s cooperative, changing nutritional habits and beliefs need time
Scale of the program : Different scales of interventions have to be considered Risks to use a pre-formated framework for all Food
Security programs: ex:Water issues
Being able to adjust the program according to changes occuring during the implementation
Competences and technical expertise
Food Security programs need technical expertise Implementing highly technical sector-based
response within Food Security programs Increase / diversify knowledge on innovative
technologies and management practices developped with similar constraints (mountainous area, aridity, etc) and food security issues
Monitoring & Evaluation
Lessons learnt on what does work in Afghanistan
Ex: Is the objective of kitchen gardens to improve food security? But in what? Increasing incomes within the HH? Improving diet diversity? If so, how is it monitored?
Elements for a tool box
From diagnosis to evaluation through design and monitoring
Improved diagnoses Tools for better zoning (administrative
boundaries are not the appropriate boundaries to map agro-ecological zones and socio-economic vulnerabilities)
Tools for better understanding of the functioning of the survival strategies and coping mechanisms (agrarian system analysis and systemic analysis)
Tools for better design
From on farm to off farm activities Important to understand the domain of validity
of success stories before repeating them Important also to be careful with “gadgets à la
mode”
Monitoring Monitoring should be a tool for project steering and not a tool
for the preparation of intermediate reports Should be supporting quick reaction from management (time
between info collection and analysis should be very short) Should not create “data cemeteries” Should be based on sentinel indicators for:
Situation monitoring (politics, military, security incidents, prices, etc.)
Identification of unexpected behaviours Quick identification of delays Identification of emerging negative impacts in different
sectors
Evaluation
For learning rather than controling Participatory tools Socio-economic tools Systemic and holistic analysis Understanding of changes which are not resulting
from the project Based on proper field work (with sufficient time
allocation)
Need for a quality assurance mechanism