Household Production for Resilient Communities: Lessons and Challenges in Agriculture Support Programs

1. Protection: Household Production Contributing to Resiliency for the Poor Kirsten Weeks, DAIkirsten_weeks@dai.com

2. Household Production – What do we mean? • Includes household gardening, agriculture, livestock and horticulture, micro-business support, understanding markets, vocational training – linked to job placement. • Increase productive assets • Helps household smooth income and expenses and promote asset growth • Help households increase productivity and income.

3. Program Experience - Urban Gardens Program (UGP) – Ethiopia • Introduced household, community and school gardens across 136 Community garden sites; 188 school garden sites. • Program Experience as a technical assistance provider IMARISHA – Tanzania; and HICD/R - Rwanda • Providing technical assistance to PEPFAR supported home-based care and OVC partners

4. UGP Approach • Blend of: Participatory, training and learning “Garden Dialogues” to promote agriculture; Technology: (drip-kits, grow-bags/plasic boxes); and group savings.

5. UGP Challenges • Push for high targets and rapid graduation of participants – one year of support • Challenges of land tenure • Gender inequities

6. UGP Lessons Learned through Implementation • Need to adapt technology and approach • Grow-bags due to land insecurity – evolved into plastic box solutions. • Drip-kits – seen as “the answer” evolved into a potential tool for water management, but not “the tool.” • Need to modify traditional farmer-field school model to be more female friendly and peer-oriented vs vertical extension approach

7. UGP Results • Improved horticulture knowledge • Improved land management (from an access perspective) – Increased land access for participants, as well as a 2012 Urban Agriculture Policy and Implementation Plan for Addis Ababa • Reduced Self-stigma and increased reported self-confidence among participants • Increased reports of dietary diversity among program participants

8. UGP Post-Project Lessons • Community gardens continued • School gardens did not continue without ongoing support • Need to extend the time of support for participants to ensure uptake of learning • Need to improve soil management

9. Technical Assistance Experience: Lessons from the Data • One solution alone isn’t part of the answer, but agriculture is part of the solution

10. Challenges Facing HBC / OVC Implementers • Push for high targets and rapid graduation of participants • Gender inequities • Unclearly defined approaches to economic strengthening and agriculture in particular • Understanding home based care and OVCs doesn’t always translate to understanding agriculture or economic strengthening

11. Lessons Learned through Implementation • Need for ongoing rather than one-off support • Need to move beyond output to outcome monitoring for agricultural behaviors • Need to be realistic of the results we promise.

12. Questions for Group Discussion • How should we define results of integrating household agriculture within HIV programming? • What factors do we need to consider to design more effective household agriculture activities for HIV programs?

13. Questions for Group Discussion • How can we better leverage non-health resources to support cross sectoral programming for HIV and food insecurity?