Funding

1. Africa Food and Financial CrisisFood for the Hungry’s ResponseFood for the Hungry236 Massachusetts Ave. NEWashington, D.C. 20002202-547-0560

2. Food for the Hungry (FH) is a Christian relief and development organization that was founded in 1971. • FH works alongside the poor who are suffering from injustice and poverty to help them reach their full, God-given potential. • Our work primarily focuses on facilitating sustainable development and providing emergency relief to those in need.

3. Funding • FH receives funding from USAID, the State Department, USDA, OFDA, CIDA, UN-OCHA, private donors and FH national offices. • FH has over twenty years of Title II program experience and currently implements Title II-funded food security programs in four countries.

4. Geographic Locations Asia Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines Latin Am. & Caribbean Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru Africa Burundi, DRC. Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda

5. Food Crisis • If you were to discuss the sudden advent of the food crisis with an African farmer her response might be a puzzled look, • Or the comment, “so what’s new?” • Unfortunately this situation is the status quo of the chronically food insecure in Africa. • Unless long term, sustainable action takes place the food crisis that many African families face will continue long after the media has forgotten “The Food Crisis”

6. Food Security • FH feels the best way out of the Food Crisis will be through long term development that results in sustainable food security. • Food security depends on at least four major factors • Risk Reduction • Availability of food • Access to food • Proper Utilization of food • There will be no quick fixes to food insecurity and we need to address all these issues to deal with the current crisis.

7. Disaster Risk Reduction • Ethiopia: using the Productive Safety Net to reduce risks associated with soil degradation and loss of land through: • Gully reclamation • Terracing • Tree planting • Kenya: Reducing conflict through peace committees

8. Short – Term Mitigation in northern Kenya • The food crisis has severely affected HHs in northern Kenya. • Even in good years, the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists of this region suffer from chronic food insecurity. • The average pastoralist family funds the purchase of 65% of their food from the sale of their livestock. • Because of growing food insecurity and drought a significant number of these pastoralists have become destitute after losing most of their livestock. • They have left their traditional livelihood and are referred to as ‘pastoral dropouts’.

9. FH’s mitigation program in northern Kenya • The short term response to this situation includes cash for work for the most vulnerable. • The goals of the cash for work program are: • short-term mitigation to address immediate food needs and protect lives and livelihoods • Reduction of risk by creating and/or strengthening productive community assets that will benefit long term market development and linkages. • Cash for work outcomes include market infrastructure development, improved access to water resources, increased fodder availability, and improved natural resource management.

10. Challenges • Many have “written-off” the pastorialist livelihood in northern Kenya as unsustainable. • However recently a major change in thinking has occurred and the GoK and others are renewing their commitment to supporting the pastorialist’s way of life. • Long-term solutions are needed but will be difficult to bring about. • FH is working with pastorialist communities to promote market development and animal production through sustainable NRM.

11. Improved Access and Availability

12. Northern Ethiopia • The vast majority of households in northern Ethiopia rely on farming for their livelihoods. • Crop productivity is declining due to soil erosion, over use of the land and soil infertility.

13. Climatic Change • Rainfall patterns are becoming less and less reliable. Neither the start of the rains nor their length can be predicted. • Consequently, long season highland crops such as wheat and barley are becoming more risky to plant.

14. Potatoes – part of the solution • Farmers are turning to another traditional crop, the potato • Potatoes mature faster than cereal crops and therefore can avoid problems associated with the changing rainfall patterns. • However traditional potato varieties are low yielding and are not resistant to the late blight.

15. Cooperating with local research centers • FH is working closely with Ethiopian research institutions to promote high yielding varieties of potatoes. • These varieties are resistant to late blight and yield up to 3 times more than traditional varieties.

16. Local Success • Last year, approximately 105 tons of these improved potatoes where produced by local farmers and were sold and distributed in the local community. • They continue to be multiplied throughout the area and are greatly increasing local potato production. • This production is being used locally to improve diets and the potatoes are also being sold in local markets to generate income.

17. Challenges • Value chains that reach beyond the local community need to be strengthen and developed for these improved potato varieties. • Limited availability of the certified potato seeds is restricting the proper functioning of the value chain. • FH is working with the MoA, research centers, local farmers and wholesalers to produce and market larger quantities of these varieties. • More work needs to be done to make the value chain a “well oiled machine”.

18. Challenges, continued… • Connecting the isolated rural markets to markets with greater opportunities is difficult due to poor roads and access. • Local research capacity seems adequate and excellent varieties are being generated. • However, the MoA’s extension system is under funded and ineffective.

19. Improved Food Utilization through Behaviour Change- using available food and resources more effectively

20. FH uses Formative Research to design Behavior Change programs • Food utilization can be greatly improved with a few simple but key behavior changes. • FH conducts local – formative research to determine which key behaviors need to change and therefore should be promoted. • The research also determines what barriers keep people from adapting these key behaviors. • We then design our program to promote these key behaviors and address the barriers to behavior change.

21. Some Common Nutrition and Hygiene Behaviors that improve food security, utilization & reduce malnutrition • Mothers washing their hands with soap at appropriate times. • Giving all children ORS when they have diarrhea. • Women breastfeeding their newborns within one hour of birth and exclusively breastfeeding them for 6 months after birth. • Families providing the right foods to children when they turn 6 months old.

22. Key Behaviors are then promoted through Care Groups Each Promoter serves 10 groups of 10 Leader Mothers (totaling 100 Leader Mothers) About 15 Promoters in Each District Each Leader Mother serves 10 mothers and their families Promoter #2 Promtor #1 Promoter #3 10 Leader Mothers 10 Leader Mothers 10 families 10 Leader Mothers 10 families Promoter #6 Promoter #4 Promtor #5 Promoter #7 10 Leader Mothers 10 families 10 Leader Mothers 10 families 10 families 10 Leader Mothers Promoter #8 Promoter #9 Promoter #10 Promoter #11 10 families 10 Leader Mothers 10 families 10 families 10 Leader Mothers 10 families Promoter #12 Promoter #14 Promoter #15 Promoter #13 10 Leader Mothers 10 families 10 Leader Mothers

23. What happens during Care Group meetings? • Social networks are formed to support behavior change. • Members report illnesses and discuss how to deal with them. • Members report on their progress in health promotion & troubleshoot • The week’s hygiene and nutrition messages are presented by posters, songs, dramas, or games.

24. Care Group – Behavior Change Communication Results Fewer Malnourished Children (Decreased by 42% in 2.5 years) 40.4 15.6

25. Challenges with the program • The Promoter is very important to the program. There may be a lack of community-level MOH staff to assume role of Promoter at end of project. • (However, we have found that many Leader Mothers still do HH outreach after phase-out). • The program requires a commitment to gathering and using formative research data. • The program requires a mindset shift from “education” to promoting behavior change.

26. Summary of FH actions Short-term mitigation • We address emergency food access needs through cash for work and food for work activities Medium and long term activities • We address risk through Disaster Risk Reduction activities such as safety nets. • We promote Improved utilization, availability and access through sustainable change. • We target root causes to avoid future crises (or at least reduce the severity/frequency)

27. Thank you