FOOD SECURITY C oncepts, Basic Facts, and Measurement Issues

1. FOOD SECURITYConcepts, Basic Facts,and Measurement Issues June 26 to July 7, 2006 Dhaka, Bangladesh

2. Rao 6d:Monitoring Global Food Security Learning: The learning goal is to consider major recent global initiatives against hunger and for FS as well as for measuring and monitoring programs (of FIS and vulnerability to FIS) at national and international levels.

3. Brief Contents • WFS, 1996, and the Rome Declaration • the WFS plan of action • need for FS monitoring systems • national early warning and nutrition monitoring systems • monitoring the WFS target and MDG hunger reduction objective • the different frameworks and levels of analysis (FIVIMS, SETSAN, VAM; global, national, local, household, individual) • identifying the vulnerable, vulnerable mapping and livelihood profiling, vulnerability measurements

4. Major Results of the World Food Summit • FAO organized WFS in November, 1996 to promote cause of FS for all people. • WFS adopted Rome Declaration on World FS leading to WFS Plan of Action. • The Rome Declaration pledged to reduce the number of undernourished people to half their present level (about 800m) by 2015. • A mid-term review to ascertain whether this target can be achieved will take place by the year 2010.

5. Seven Strategic Steps of the WFS Plan 1. "We will ensure an enabling political, social, and economic environment designed to create the best conditions for the eradication of poverty and for durable peace, based on full and equal participation of women and men, which is most conducive to achieving sustainable FS for all" 2. "We will implement policies aimed at eradicating poverty and inequality and improving physical and economic access by all, at all times, to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe food and its effective utilization". 3. "Pursue participatory and sustainable food, AG, fisheries, forestry and rural development policies and practices in high and low potential areas, which are essential to adequate and reliable food supplies at the HH, national, regional and global levels, and combat pests, drought and desertification, considering the multifunctional character of AG".

6. Seven Strategic Steps of the WFS Plan (contd.) 4. "We will strive to ensure that food, AG trade and overall trade policies are conducive to fostering FS for all through a fair and market oriented world trade system". 5. "We will endeavor to prevent and be prepared for natural disasters and man-made emergencies and to meet transitory and emergency food requirements in ways that encourage recovery, rehabilitation, development and a capacity to satisfy future trends". 6. "Promoting optimal allocation and use of public and private investments to foster human resources, sustainable food, AG, fisheries and forestry systems, and rural development, in high and low potential areas". 7. "We will implement, monitor, and follow-up this Plan of Action at all levels in cooperation with the international community".

7. The Need For a FS Monitoring System • Generally to provide information about developments in FS to form basis for government policy interventions at national and international levels. • Food emergencies can be averted with such information. Food imports can be ordered, or pesticides can be delivered to the regions under pest attack, etc. • Food and financial aid can be requested through donor appeals.

8. Desirable Attributes of Monitoring Systems • Monitoring system must be part of or report to organisation which has a response mechanism. • It should result in improvements in programme design and delivery and more appropriate policy implementation. • Information may be specially collected or be based on what is already collected as part of the country's statistical programme. • Cost effectiveness and timeliness should also be major critera in monitoring systems.

9. Two Classes of Monitoring Systems • National and Global monitoring systems have strengths in reporting on food availability at national and regional levels, but tend to be weak in reporting on HH physical and economic access to the food available. • Local and HH based monitoring systems tend to be much stronger on monitoring access, but are often poorer at building up a picture of overall food availability.

10. National Early Warning Systems • The most common form of national FS monitoring system is the early warning system. • To assess likely food supply, AG production is estimated in months leading up to the harvest period, and supplemented by meteorological information. Rainfall monitoring has been enhanced in many countries by satellite remote sensing. • This is then combined with planed imports and estimates of national consumption requirements to from a simple food balance sheet and thus identify food gaps. • More sophisticated and developed early warning systems may also collect information on market prices to assess shortages in local and regional markets.

11. National Nutrition Monitoring • National nutrition monitoring is less common than early warning systems but many countries do have operational systems. • But information quality can be weak e.g., information on nutritional status of children is collected in isolation from the kind of socio-economic information which would allow relevant causal analysis to be undertaken. • Nutritional information can often be collected as a by-product of national health programmes, such as information on low birth-weight babies or child anthropometry. • Training enumerators to collect accurate anthrop. information can be costly. • Recently, more has been done to try to incorporate nutritional data into monitoring systems, and this should increase our understanding of how effective child nutritional data are, both as indicators of chronic FIS and of transitory food crises.

12. Local and HH FS Monitoring • These concentrate on monitoring access to food rather than national availability. • There can be mutuality between national and local approaches. • Local monitoring allows information on coping strategies, such as distress sales of assets, consumption of famine foods and outmigration. These indicators have to be location specific and disaggregated. • Respondents in HH surveys can also be asked about HH food stocks and their own perceptions of their food needs and FS. • Nutrition status information can also be collected, but this has to be done in conjunction with information on health status, sanitation and maternal care.

13. Vulnerability Mapping • In recent years a number of countries have experimented with vulnerability mapping. • This is a process whereby existing information on income, FIS, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy, low birth weight babies etc. is disaggregated by geographical location and sometimes socio-economic category, to identify those groups of the population who have multiple risk factors. • This can then be used as a basis for more closely targeted monitoring, as well providing the information on which to base economic and social support programmes.

14. Complexity of the Local-HH Monitoring Problem • The causes of FIS at the HH level tend to be complex and to vary by location and socio-economic grouping. • The analyst faces a major challenge to present information to decision makers in a way which allows them to understand the issues without misleading simplification. • It is much easier to understand the message delivered by early warning systems, which usually can be simplified into the need for more imports. • One of the problems of HH monitoring systems up until now has been the difficulty in translating information into action. • Without demonstration of their usefulness, financing of Local-HH monitoring will remain problematic. Yet, without effective methodology for HH level monitoring, FS information systems will continue to emphasise availability of food at the expense of access to existing food supplies.

15. The FIVIMS Framework • FIVIMS: Food Insecurity & Vulnerability Info Mapping Systems • Basic idea is that improved information can be actively used to improve FS for all. • The Inter-Agency Working Group on FIS and Vulnerability Mapping Systems (IAWG-FIVIMS) oversees development of FIVIMS. It has 28 organizational members with permanent Secretariat at FAO. • National Level FIVIMS is implemented through a network of information systems for measuring and monitoring FIS and vulnerability. This is a "national FIVIMS". • International Level FIVIMS is implemented through many activities aimed to support national FIVIMS and establish a common database and information exchange, referred to as "global FIVIMS". • FIVIMS will make a major contribution to the common UN country planning process.

16. Core Functions Of FIVIMS 1. Development of a consensus among donors and technical agencies on best practices in FS information system work at country level and across a variety of socio-economic circumstances 2. Insistence on greater co-ordination among donor and technical agency efforts in FS information system work, especially in the poorest countries, to avoid duplication 3. Linking information systems to remedial action programs and evaluating impact of these combined programs on real reductions over time in undernourished (in the shorter run) and the number of the poor and vulnerable (in the longer run).

17. Progress on FIVIMS • Since inception of FIVIMS in 1997, FAO has devoted substantial funds to support research on best practices for development of information and mapping systems to help guide improved actions for sustainable development, poverty alleviation and hunger reduction. • Examples: • Use of Sustainable Livelihood Approaches: Work on profiling vulnerable livelihoods of different population groups (Nepal). • FIVIMS Supporting Documents: The FIVIMS Tools and Tips assist the start up of FIVIMS at national level. They are key reference documents. • In some countries, the national thematic groups of the UN System Network on Rural Development and FS have chosen the development of a national FIVIMS as their theme.

18. More On FIVIMS • Four country level case studies have been funded; in Ecuador , Nigeria, Malawi and Mexico. • Two poverty mapping activities in Kenya and Bangladesh supported by the FNPP project on integrating FIVIMS into the CCA/UNDAF and PRSP process. Two other proposals are under discussion. • Nutrition Country Profiles: These provide concise analytical summaries describing the food and nutrition situation in the countries. Their regular updating by institutions in the countries allows monitoring of the food and nutrition situation and can be incorporated into the process of MDG analysis.

19. Vulnerability Analysis And Mapping (VAM) • VAM is a decentralized WFP technical support unit contributing to FIVIMS in the countries where it is currently working. • VAM provided the necessary analysis to support the WFP emergency operation in Afghanistan, Western Sahel, Guatemala and 17 other countries. • It also played an important role in the coordination of the needs assessment for the food crisis in Southern Africa. • VAM contributed to the establishment of a national FIVIMS in Bangladesh and a similar structure in Angola. • In 2002 VAM units supported government capacity building in FS assessments, through provision of training, equipment, conduction of joint-assessments, development of Early Warning Systems (EWS), vulnerability monitoring systems, contingency plans, and disaster management policies and structures. • In Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and Bangladesh VAM has in 2002 assisted the governments’ in the development of Early Warning systems.