Applying Lessons Learned on Community Resilience to Chronic Hunger Crises,

GHI, 2013

Ethiopia 2012: Watershed and Land Regeneration, Walka Melho kebele, Delante woreda, North Wollo.

Operational Research: 3 hunger seasons (2010-12)

Focused on cash transfers as seasonal safety net, Tahoua Region

1. Cash transfers lead to more frequent meals for children and more legume

consumption. A large portion of cash transfers are spent on household food.

2. To improve or maintain nutritional status, cash transfers alone or with CMAM

are not enough and should be integrated with other interventions that

address the causes of malnutrition and food insecurity.

3. Nutrition and food security indicators such as number of hunger days, dietary

diversity scores or global acute malnutrition rate should be monitored to

account for cash transfers’ many uses and to measure the nutritional success

of the program.

Niger Learning

Cash transfers and nutrition treatment programs that focused on

seasonal hunger needs were insufficient to create resilience to

periodic hunger crises.

Longer-term development interventions focused on building

absorptive and adaptive coping strategies would be required.

Ethiopia: South Wollo

Dessie Zuria woreda, South Wollo, Amhara Region, stunting = 54%,

(national average = 44%).

Woreda chronically food insecure: c. 40% dependent on safety nets.

2000 and 2010 annual surveys: GAM reduced only once to <10%.

High dependence on Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP).

Coping mechanisms: PSNP, begging, eating unpalatable wild fruits, and

daily labour.

Livelihoods very vulnerable to risks and shocks: climate variability, human

and livestock diseases, pests, flooding and landslides.

Ethiopia Interventions

Resilience building multi-sectoral interventions– Land and water management– Frost tolerant crops in highlands (potato)– Crop diversification– Increasing and maintaining livestock assets– Water and sanitation – Early identification of malnutrition and CMAM response

Complementing the PSNP with Fresh Food Vouchers during the

hunger season and with IYCF support

Learning from Ethiopia

• Use multisectoral approach to maximize linkages between sectors.

• Use existing institutions’ coordination to promote a sense of ownership.

• Map real-time, resilience outcomes to create evidence for policy change.

• Address the environmental drivers of risk and use DRR technologies and practices for

sustainable food production (e.g. watershed management).

• Address gender issues that are critical to achieving resilience.

• Create a contingency plan - define surge capacity to help respond to small-scale

disasters or provide an initial response to large-scale disasters.

• Support local governments with early warning systems and communicate during even

small disasters to ensure that food security is not threatened by the cumulative effects

of lesser shocks or stressors.

GAM Trends Northern Kenya 2010 and 2011

2010 and 2011 nutrition surveys were conducted between April and June. Data from these surveys was used to construct maps

GAM & SAM Trends Northern Kenya 2010 and 2011

Global acute malnutrition

Severe acute malnutrition

District 2010 rate (%)

2011 rate (%)

% change

2010 rate (%)

2011 rate (%)

% change

Marsabit

13.4 27.1 102 1.3 5.0 285

Wajir North

19.8 27.9 41 1.4 6.8 386

Moyale 12.3 13.7 11 3.0 1.5 -50

Interventions in Moyale, Kenya

1. Livelihoods and Water interventions: introducing dryland farming (alongside

pastoralism) producing kale, onion, tomatoes and fruits; introducing drought

tolerant species such as cassava; improving irrigation systems; diversifying

livestock; rangeland management; conflict mitigation on pasture access; and

improved access to water.

2. Strengthened Gov capacity to respond to nutritional crises: supported the

District Health Management Team through technical training to staff, establishing

technical protocols and quality of care oversight systems, adopting interventions

with the highest impact on mortality, improving budgeting, setting thresholds,

strategies, and protocols for scale up and scale down, and situation monitoring

mechanisms aimed at informing triggers for scale-up.

3. Early scaling up of high impact nutrition interventions when warnings rang.

4. Coordination: Kenyan government services, WFP, World Vision (food and cash

transfers)

Lessons from Kenya ASALS:

Strengthening of resilience at community level: contextually

appropriate, multisectoral interventions worked!

Strengthening government capacity to respond to a nutritional

emergency (“surge capacity model”)

Early scaling up of high impact interventions

Coordination between government and other partners

Health system strengthening

Caseload

External support

Health System Capacity

Time

*Adapted from P. Hailey and D. Tewoldeberha, ENN, 2010, issue 39

Ongoing health systems strengthening efforts

Community Resilience to Acute Malnutrition (CRAM) Linking Humanitarian and Development Programming

Text

Community Resilience to Acute Malnutrition (CRAM) In an Integrated Programme

1. Conservation Agriculture2. Soil Fertility (including trees)3. Integrated Pest Management4. Extension Messages5. Decreasing post harvest

losses6. Homestead Gardening7. Support small scale irrigation8. Support IGAs 9. Support the development of

the PS1. Improved Community Health

Outreach• Community Case

Management and Care Groups

• Effective MAM2. Health System Strengthening

• Management of the health system

• Mobile clinics3. Changing Feeding Practices

1. Increased access to safe water• Borehole drilling• Water conveyancing

2. Promoting improved sanitation• CLTS and PHAST• Community Latrines

3. Community Water Management Groups 1. Increase capacity of

community groups and women's participation in them

2. Community Conversations3. Targeting Community

Leaders for attitude and behaviour change

Expected SAM Outcomes between Treatment and Control Areas

Wk

1W

k 3

Wk

5W

k 7

Wk

9

Wk

11

Wk

13

Wk

15

Wk

17

Wk

19

Wk

21

Wk

23

Wk

25

Wk

27

Wk

29

Wk

31

Wk

33

Wk

35

Wk

37

Wk

39

Wk

41

Wk

43

Wk

45

Wk

47

Wk

49

Wk

51

Treatment Area Control Area Response Threshold Normal Year

1. Undertake systematic risk analysis incl. analysis and planning for future

uncertainty and worse case scenarios.

2. Reduce the causes of vulnerability by building assets and supporting

sustainable livelihoods.

3. Address drivers of inequality.

4. Build up communities’ absorptive and adaptive capacities, including better

access to safety nets and deepening or diversifying livelihoods.

5. Support enhanced capacity for effective and timely emergency responses.

6. Build institutions for governance and risk management at local level.

Concern and Welthungerhilfe Conclusions: Guiding Principles for Resilience Building

A presentation to Karina Howley, KPMG — 4th April 2011

Targeted Recommendations(Note: large overlaps across the target groups)

1. International development, humanitarian, and donor communities.

2. Country-level policymakers in food-insecure countries.

3. Development and humanitarian practitioners.

Resilience is not a panacea!!

Selected policy recommendations: int’l development, humanitarian & donor communities

• Break down the institutional, financial, and conceptual walls separating development and humanitarian assistance in donor and UN agencies to achieve greater synergies in strategies and implementation plans.

• Support a coordinated approach to monitoring resilience-building measures and building an evidence base on the impact and effectiveness of such measures.

• Support a pro-poor resilience approach.

Selected policy recommendations: country-level policymakers in food-insecure countries

• Develop national approaches to food and nutrition security that are resilient to shocks and other stresses.

• Encourage and facilitate a multi-sectoral approach to resilience, coordinating plans and programs across line ministries.

• Evaluate national sectoral strategies and action plans using disaster-proofing and resilience-building lenses.

Selected policy recommendations: development and humanitarian practitioners

• Focus on improving maternal and child nutrition in developing regions, with interventions to address the immediate and underlying causes of undernutrition.

• Support positive coping mechanisms that people already use, such as community-level savings networks or banks.

• NGOs and their national partners should use their long-term experience in development programming more proactively to lobby for resilience-enhancing policy change.