Best Practices & Lessons Learned : Food Security & Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction

1. Best Practices & Lessons Learned: Food Security & Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction “Measures to Protect People’s Livelihoods” SARCOF – 15 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Training Windhoek, Namibia August 27 – 28, 2011

2. FAO DRR/M Programme Offices in Southern Africa • FAO DRR/M & Emergency Offices • FAO REOSA: • Johannesburg • 7 FAO Country DRRM/ECRU Offices • Malawi • Mozambique • Zambia • Zimbabwe • Madagascar • Lesotho • Swaziland • FAO REOSA DRR/M Projects: • Namibia • Angola • South Africa • Other FAO Offices: • FAO SFS (Harare) • FAO ECTAD (Gaborone) • Partners • COMESA, SADC, NEPAD • National Governments • UN & Other International Agencies • INGO & NGOs • FBOs

3. FAO Sub-Regional DRR/M Office of Southern Africa (REOSA) • Regional Coordinator - Head of Office • Technical Staff • Regional Food Security Officer • Regional Agronomist • Regional DRR Officer • Regional Conservation Agriculture Coordinator • Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer • Regional IPC Coordinator • Regional Emergency HIV/AIDS & Gender Officer • Information, Communication and Visibility Officer • Links & Technical Expertise from Other FAO Technical Divisions • FAO HQ Technical Divisions (Rome) • FAO Sub-regional Office of Southern Africa (SFS – Harare) • FAO ECTAD (Gaborone)

4. DRR in food security and agriculture FAO Regional Emergency Office for Southern Africa (FAO REOSA) www.fao-reosa.org FAO and DRR? • Disasters have the most severe consequences on poor, vulnerable and agriculturally-dependent populations • Food and agriculture play a key role in increasing community resilience to threats • Need to mitigate impact of crisis and help vulnerable people adapt What is the FAO DRR Approach? • Reduce vulnerabilityof people before, during and after disasters • Continuum covers all phases of the DRM framework: 4 Pillars • Management perspectivethat combines prevention, mitigation and preparedness with response, recovery and rehabilitation , and transition and linking to development

5. Disaster Risk Management in food security and agriculture

6. FAO DRR/M Strategy FAO Regional Emergency Office for Southern Africa (FAO REOSA) www.fao-reosa.org • FAO Strategic Program for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRR/M) for Southern Africa – 2010 -2015 • Strategic Objective:“Improved preparedness for, and effective response to, food and agricultural threats and emergencies” • Four Results and Associated Outputs • Result 1 & 2: Disaster Preparedness, Prevention & Risk Mitigation (DRR) • Result 3 & 4: Emergency & Rehabilitation; and Transition and Linking with Development

7. Preparedness Result 1: Southern Africa countries’ vulnerability to crises, threats and emergencies is reduced through better preparedness. Outputs: • Food Security Early warning information is accurate, timely and useful and used by decision makers • Food Security and Livelihoods analysis are improved and more effectively linked to response • National contingency plans are improved by including Food Security and Disaster Risk Management components and are implemented

8. IPC • Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification For more information: www.ipcinfo.org Problem: • Lack of clarity & common definitions for classifying the severity of a food security situation and implications for action. • Lack of comparability of severity from one area to another, absence of mechanism for agreement for action Best Practice: • Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) • Referenced to International Standards, Comparable over space & time, transparency through evidence based analysis facilitating technical consensus & accountability, immediate & underlying causes identified. • Linked to a Strategic Response Framework: with Livelihood Crisis Phase

9. Introduction of IPC in the Southern Africa Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Lessons Learnt: • Institutionalization of the IPC within the existing SADC RVAC and National Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s (NVACs) is necessary for ownership & sustainability • RVAC & NVACs would like IPC process to be continued & expanded, but requires an initial longer term support of 3-5 years to ensure uptake • Technical support and training is necessary and there is a need to develop a pool of IPC experts in the region • High interest among the NVACs in the newly developing IPC Chronic Food Insecurity (CFI) Scale, as CFI is key Food Security issue in this region

10. Integrate Early Recovery Agriculture into NCP Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Problem: • Fragmented programming to food security within National Contingency Plans, resulting in non inclusion of early recovery agricultural interventions. Best Practices: • Joint programming between food security that includes early recovery agricultural interventions ( e.g. Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho) Lessons Learnt: • Food Security early recovery agricultural activities need to be mainstreamed into DRR enabling systematic response • Support to National Contingency Plans is improved by including Food Security & Agriculture Disaster Risk Management components (and are implemented)

11. Prevention & Risk Mitigation Result 2: Southern Africa Countries’ vulnerability to crises, threats and emergencies is reduced through better integration of prevention and risk mitigation into policies, programmes and interventions. Outputs: • Food security disaster risk reduction strategies integrated within DRR programmes and policies to build resilience of households and communities • DRR integrated into agriculture, fisheries, livestock and forestry programmes and policies to reduce vulnerability of agro-ecological systems • Livelihood Based Social Protection (LBSP) integrated within national programmes and policies

12. Conservation Agriculture Best Practices and Lessons Learned: • Problem: • Recurrent crop failure due to high within and between season rainfall variability • Best Practice: • Conservation agriculture infuses resilience into the systems - enables crop to cope with erratic rainfall through water harvesting and water conservation - farmers are able to have harvests • Lessons Learnt: • CA knowledge intensive and training of extension and farmers is critical • CA promotion most efficient and effective when done through farmer groups Minimum soil disturbance Minimum soil disturbance Diversification of crop species in sequences or associations Organic soil cover • Problem: • Inadequate resources for livelihood-based • social protection • Best Practice: • Development and enforcement of minimum standards for OVC support that incorporate social protection elements • Allocation of funding for the protection of children in national budgets • Lessons Learnt: • Community can only do so much on their own: without strong support for agricultural production, income generation and education from government and other agencies, assistance to OVC will usually be indeterminate and sustainable

13. Early Maturing Varieties & Hazard Tolerant Crops Best Practices and Lessons Learned: • Problem: • Loss of crops & food due to flood and cyclone damage, this increases households vulnerability and food insecurity, which is already generally precarious. • Best Practice: • Use of appropriate early maturing varieties to obtain harvest before peak hazard season, & ability to replant after flood or cyclone for 2nd crop • Adoption of flood & cyclone tolerant crop production and techniques • Promote flood & cyclone proof seed and food storage capacity • Promotion of small scale seed multiplication to build production capacity for next seasons • Problem: • Inadequate resources for livelihood-based • social protection • Best Practice: • Development and enforcement of minimum standards for OVC support that incorporate social protection elements • Allocation of funding for the protection of children in national budgets • Lessons Learnt: • Community can only do so much on their own: without strong support for agricultural production, income generation and education from government and other agencies, assistance to OVC will usually be indeterminate and sustainable

14. Early Maturing Varieties & Hazard Tolerant Crops Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Lessons Learnt: • Institutional capacity at farmer level is an important factor to uptake and sustainability (FFS, cooperatives, farmer organizations, etc.) • Informal diffusion of quality seed produced by small-scale farmers helps uptake of improved varieties into communities • It is important to facilitate public /private partnership in agriculture service delivery in order to: • increase the efficiency of input delivery • empower beneficiaries to exercise choice • contribute to sustainability of intervention

15. Crop Diversification Best Practices and Lessons Learned: • Problem: • Reliance on a single crop, often produced in peak hazard season, increases beneficiaries vulnerability and decreases their resilience to hazards • Best Practice: • Encourage crop diversification in hazard affected communities - include crops with different resiliencies to climatic stresses that are associated with natural hazards (high winds, flooding) or that are regularly occurring (prolonged dry periods), and encourage counter season production • Lessons Learnt: • More research is needed on the environmental impacts of irrigation-dependent counter season production • Problem: • Inadequate resources for livelihood-based • social protection • Best Practice: • Development and enforcement of minimum standards for OVC support that incorporate social protection elements • Allocation of funding for the protection of children in national budgets • Lessons Learnt: • Community can only do so much on their own: without strong support for agricultural production, income generation and education from government and other agencies, assistance to OVC will usually be indeterminate and sustainable

16. Livelihood Social Protection Programmes Best Practices and Lessons Learned: • Problem: • Social Protectionon its own is not enough to address the underlying causes of chronic vulnerability and poverty • Best Practice: • Livelihood based social protection programmes provide a means ofbringing most vulnerable into development process and strengthening their resilience to crisis • Lessons Learnt: • Integrated approach is necessary across areas of need (health, livelihoods, education) • Adequate technical support to avoid costly technical mistakes • Communities need to retain ownership of both process and outcomes • Problem: • Inadequate resources for livelihood-based • social protection • Best Practice: • Development and enforcement of minimum standards for OVC support that incorporate social protection elements • Allocation of funding for the protection of children in national budgets • Lessons Learnt: • Community can only do so much on their own: without strong support for agricultural production, income generation and education from government and other agencies, assistance to OVC will usually be indeterminate and sustainable

17. Mainstreaming HIV/Aids & Gender Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Problem: • Women and HIV affected individuals do not have equal access and opportunities Best Practice: • Mainstream HIV & Gender within and across DRR programmes and projects: • Include women’s and/or PLHIV organizations as partners • Use gender and HIV sensitive criteria in allocation of resources • Take into consideration the needs of men, women and HIV affected individuals in activity implementation

18. Mainstreaming HIV/Aids & Gender Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Lessons Learnt: • Conducting a gender analysis to understand gender differences, inequalities and capacities improves effectiveness in humanitarian response & DRR • Special programmes targeting women would be more beneficial in areas where women are more vulnerable than men • Food used by women is more likely to have a beneficial impact on family nutrition and welfare of children, hence women prefer food for work over cash for work, as they would have much control

19. FAO REOSA’s Three Publication Series: Best Practices and Lessons Learned • Technical Briefs Series • 2010: Three published on Conservation Agriculture (CA), Status of CA in the region, Socio-Economic Impacts and Best Practices. • 2011: Three publications on Best Practices & Lessons Learned Food Security DRR (forthcoming) • Network Paper Series • 2010: Three published - Best Practices Livelihood Based Social Protection and Climatic Risk Analysis & Conservation Agriculture • 2011: Lessons Learned Flood DRR FS (forthcoming) • Policy Brief Series • 2010: Three published - Scale up of Livelihood Based Social Protection

20. FAO REOSA’s Newsletters & Website: Best Practices and Lessons Learned • Monthly Food Security DRR Newsletter • Launched Sept. 2010 • FAO REOSA Website • (Launch date Sept 2011) • www.FAO-REOSA.org • Food Security DRRR • Website for Southern Africa • Launched Dec. 2010 www.disasterriskreduction.org

21. Thank you