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