The Drum Beat 463 - Food Scarcity/Food Security
This issue of the Drum Beat addresses the problem of food scarcity, including food distribution, the effects of the loss of farming knowledge due to AIDS, and the risks posed by weather changes, as well as fundraising tactics for food aid programmes. It looks equally at food security and the role of communication in increasing the dissemination of knowledge associated with food production.
- Selected STATISTICS related to undernourishment and food security.
- A focus on AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS.
- NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT THEME SITE: See The CI's NRM Theme Site.
- Submit info to The CI's next DEVELOPMENT CLASSIFIEDS.
- A focus on COMMUNICATION ACTION to address food security issues.
- New POLICY SPACE - The CI's Communication, Media, and Development POLICY website.
- A focus on POLICY-RELATED RESEARCH on food security issues.
- New E-magazine: Subscribe to C-CHANGE PICKS.
- A focus on ADVOCACY AND ICTs for food funding.
The most recent statistics (2002-2004) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Security Statistics webpage - accessed on July 22 2008 - indicate a prevalence of undernourishment of 14% worldwide and 17% in developing countries, with rates as high as 51% in central Sub-Saharan Africa (31% undernourishment in all of Sub-Saharan Africa). Patterns of reduction of undernourishment since the beginning of charting of these statistics in 1969 show consistent gains within Oceania, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North Africa, with the greatest need for work on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (1969: 33% > 2004: 31%). Statistical data by country on trends in hunger reduction for the monitoring of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Supply (WFS) targets are available on the FAO's Food Security Statistics: Progress on hunger reduction by country.
AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
1.The Impact of HIV/AIDS and Drought on Local Knowledge Systems for Agro-biodiversity and Food Security
by Zakhe Hlanze, Thanky Gama, and Sibusiso Mondlane
According to this 2007 report focused on Swaziland, drought and a high incidence of HIV/AIDS are both long-term crises that create vicious cycles of vulnerability, poverty, and food insecurity. The livelihoods approach was used in this study to highlight the linkages between the impact of HIV/AIDS and drought on human, financial, and social capital. The document outlines how the drought has affected local knowledge for agro-biodiversity and food security, such as causing a change in farming patterns, a decline in yield, and a change to drought-resistant crops with which farmers have less experience.
2.Food Security Learning Center - United States
Launched in 2002 by the United States (US)-based World Hunger Year (WHY), the Food Security Learning Center is a web-based effort to provide tools for building a food-secure world that is sustainable and healthy for all people, communities, and the environment. This information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) project is being run in collaboration with the Community Food Security Coalition and support from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Security Learning Center website is designed to provide information about, and motivation to mobilise around, a variety of issues, such as: community food security (including sub-topics such as community food assessment, community gardens, community supported agriculture (CSA), and food policy councils), nutrition, rural poverty, and family farming. Amongst the other tools here for educating those living in the US and elsewhere are searchable databases, a hunger and poverty research guide, news items, and blueprints and examples of models that work.
Contact: Food Security Learning Center FSLC@worldhungeryear.org
3. Communicating Agricultural Research in Africa: The New Role of Rural Radio
by Helen Hambly Odame
This paper addresses the role of rural radio in Africa and explores how researchers can improve communication with farmers via radio. It also discusses research relationships among civil society where media is an influential but often underestimated institutional partner. According to the report, radio remains a vital part of development in Africa. However, farming systems thinking focuses on a linear approach to scientists developing technologies, government extension agents disseminating them as packages, and farmers adopting them - neglecting farmers' own knowledge and role in developing and adapting technology. In addition, the report notes a need to increase collaboration between agricultural researchers and broadcasters.
4.Applying Information and Communication Technology to Enhance African Capacity in Agriculture and Food Policy Research, Outreach and Teaching: A Collaborative Internet-Based Initiative to Build a Food Security and Policy Information Portal for Africa-FSIP
by Josué Dioné, Michael T. Weber, John Staatz, and Valerie Kelly
From the Executive Summary: "Getting the food and agriculture system moving faster is crucial for structural transformation and poverty reduction in Africa. This requires investing in basic productive and market infrastructure, and expanding appropriate research, knowledge, and technology for increased productivity and competitiveness of African food and agricultural systems and holds the key to increased food security and overall income...." This paper aims to identify opportunities and constraints facing the development of a collaborative internet-based tool called the Food Security and Food Policy Information Portal for Africa (FSIP). The paper reviews the history of building the portal and discusses the research and policy challenges FSIP is addressing, and its potential payoffs.
5.Farm Ideas - Global
Launched in the United Kingdom (UK), this is a magazine and information source designed to allow farmers to share ideas, so that each can benefit from the experience and development of others.
Contact Mike Donovan mike@farmideas.co.uk
Please make sure to visit our Natural Resource Management (NRM) Theme Site.
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COMMUNICATION ACTION FOR FOOD SECURITY
6.Livelihood Changes Enabled by Mobile Phones: The Case of Tanzanian Fishermen
by Jonas Myhr and Lars Nordström
This 2006 Bachelor Degree thesis discusses the use of mobile phones in Africa for economic support and livelihood, using the study of fishermen in Tanzania as its core case. From the Abstract: "Mobile phones have had a tremendous diffusion rate in Africa in recent years. This has brought access to telecommunication to new user groups, among them Tanzanian fishermen. But how does mobile phone use affect the way fishermen live their lives, how they pursue economic activities and how they protect themselves from vulnerability to risk? During a field study in Tanzania, interviews with fish boat captains were conducted in order to investigate what impact mobile phone use has on the livelihood indicators empowerment, opportunity and vulnerability to risk. Our research shows that increased access to information, enabled by mobile phones brings positive effects to all indicators. Mobile phone use empowers, both through increased bargaining power and increased control over external events..."
7.Barnaamijka Xoolaha (The Livestock Programme) - Somalia
Since 2006, the BBC World Service Trust has been working in partnership with the BBC Somali Service, the Africa Educational Trust, the European Union's Rehabilitation Programme for Somalia, and a wide range of stakeholders to increase the knowledge and skills of those working in the livestock sector in Somalia. This is being done through a 30-minute weekly radio programme called Barnaamijka Xoolaha ('The Livestock Programme'), which aims to empower livestock producers, traders, and others with the practical skills, technical knowledge, and business awareness necessary to maximise their incomes from livestock. Over a 30-month period, local production staff were trained to produce 130 educational radio programmes for Barnaamijka Xoolaha. The programmes include information on how to improve the quality and health of livestock, and cover issues around animal husbandry, vaccinations, detecting fake drugs, market prices, marketing, business skills, and new economic opportunities.
Contact: BBC World Service Trust
8.Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) - North America
Using a blend of training, networking, and advocacy, this non-profit organisation draws upon ICTs and in-person events in an effort to build strong, sustainable, local, and regional food systems that ensure full access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. The coalition member organisations work together to develop self-reliance amongst all communities with regard to obtaining their food and to creating systems of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability.
Contact: Heather Fenney heather@cafoodjustice.org
9. Ichi Chalo (This World in Which We Live) - Zambia
The centrepiece of a World Food Programme (WFP) project, this radio soap opera highlighted risks to food security in Zambia. The goal of the programme was to encourage people to draw the link between food security and their own security. Programmes were broadcast in English and indigenous languages on both national and local community stations; the shows had two segments: a 12-minute dramatised soap opera followed by 18 minutes of interviews and discussion. Topics included the impact of HIV/AIDS, childhood malnutrition, and natural disasters such as droughts and floods. By translating and adapting the original show from English into Zambia's 7 main indigenous languages, the organisers hoped the programme would broaden its own appeal and overcome linguistic and cultural barriers in the fight for food security.
Contact: World Food Programme (WFP) wfpinfo@wfp.org
10. Enhancing Community Over the Airwaves
by Blythe McKay
This study, from 2003, is an exploratory analysis of the role that a community radio station, Radio Ada, played in fishers' livelihoods and lives in Anyakpor, a fishing village in southeast Ghana. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) activities, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis in an effort to:
- identify what types of information fishers need and value, with an eye to investigating whether Radio Ada was providing information perceived by fishers as important to their livelihoods.
- explore the communication networks/media fishers rely on for receiving, exchanging, and generating information related to their livelihoods.
- assess fishers' perceptions of the role that community radio plays in their livelihoods and lives.
11.Empowering Self-Help Groups in Kenya Through ICT for Better Education and Alternative Livelihood Opportunities - Kenya
This project aims to alleviate economic poverty, promote sustainable development, and empower women's self-help groups in coastal areas of Kenya through the use of ICTs. Women's groups are assisted with ICT training and facilities to engage in alternative livelihood activities and improve productivity. The self-help groups include Mwamlongo, Karoyo, Wakunga, Lolarako, and Gazi Women Mangrove Boardwalk. The majority of the groups work in poultry and duck cultivation; one group focuses on tourism. Organisers say members of the group have acknowledged that having a community phone enables them to obtain market information and technical services.
Contact: Coastal Oceans Research and Development Indian Ocean (CORDIO) sater@cordioea.org
12.Radio Yangeni - Zambia
Radio Yangeni is a Catholic community radio station operating in the Mansa district of Zambia. Working in partnership with the Luapula Food Security, Nutrition Action and Communication (LFSNAC) project (an integrated programme of the FAO and the Government of Zambia), the station airs radio programmes related to nutrition, food security, and agriculture. The LFSNAC project and Radio Yangeni have started airing programmes for school-going children in primary schools in Mansa district, based on the nutrition education materials for grade four. The programmes are produced by the children themselves under the guidance of a trained schoolteacher. In future, it is hoped that children themselves will serve as peer teachers/presenters of the programme.
Contact: Fr. Chansa Lambo Oswald domcom@zamtel.zm OR mansadiocese@zamtel.zm
13.African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) - Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania
AFRRI is a 42-month action research project being implemented in 5 sub-Saharan Africa countries. AFRRI partner radio stations are producing and broadcasting a variety of participatory radio campaigns with and for farmers that address their food security priorities. By comparing farmers' knowledge and farming practices before and after the programmes are broadcast, AFRRI aims to discover how radio, mobile phones, and other communication technologies can best be used to help smallholder farmers meet their food security objectives.
Contact: Kevin Perkins kperkins@farmradio.org
NEW POLICY SPACE: Communication, Media, and Development Policy
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Please read the blogs of interest to you and contribute your reactions and comments through "Post a Comment or Question"; click here!
14.Children Speak Out on Poverty: Report on the ACESS Child Participation Process
From 2002, this paper reports on consultations conducted by South Africa's Alliance for Children's Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS) to engage children and provide them with the opportunity to influence policy makers investigating and making recommendations for a new social security system for South Africa. ACESS conducted a series of workshops involving children to get their perspectives on issues of poverty, survival, and social security. Children were open to the idea of indirect social security in the form of feeding schemes (in secondary and primary schools), free uniforms, free services, and transport to school. The report concludes that accessing education, basic services, and food security needs to be addressed with urgency, especially in light of the fact that the HIV/AIDS pandemic will increase tenfold the number of vulnerable children in society.
15.Research for Action: A Region-wide Participatory Process to Build Participation, Awareness and Advocacy on Trade Policies
by Chubashini Suntharalingam
Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON) was created in 1996 based on the principle that food security is a universal right that needs to be enshrined in law at all levels. In each of SEACON's member countries, the organisation supports people-centred national strategies, such as food security councils that enable government, private sector, and civil society representatives to meet and dialogue on agriculture and trade issues. Responding to the rise of free trade in the global economy, SEACON set out in 2003 to conduct a participatory research project to investigate the impacts of these macroeconomic changes on small-scale food producers in Southeast Asia. The process was designed to be participatory, regional in scope, credible, and gender-sensitive. Specifically, interviews with producers (e.g., farmers and fisherfolk) and government officials, observations, focus group discussions (FGDs), price gathering, and case studies were carried out; each of these components is examined within this 2006 report.
16.Transcending Boundaries to Improve the Food Security of HIV-affected Households in Rural Uganda: A Case Study
by Katharine Coon, Jessica Ogden, John Odolon, Anthony Obudi-Owor, Charles Otim, James Byakigga, and Peter Sebanja
This report provides a case study of a process to bring key technical sectors together with communities in a partnership for reducing food insecurity among HIV-affected households in Tororo, Uganda. This report shares information and lessons learned from the Partners for Food Security (PAFOSE) Project to improve household food security in rural Ugandan communities affected by HIV/AIDS. The report outlines how policy and programming related to nutrition, food security, and HIV/AIDS include two approaches: the first approach seeks to improve the nutrition of people living with HIV in the context of health care delivery systems; the second approach seeks to improve their nutrition in the context of their households and communities. The second approach recognises that food behaviour, like sexual behaviour, is influenced by the knowledge, skills, resources, and norms of families and communities. To be sustainable (so that malnutrition does not reoccur when food aid is withdrawn), HIV food and nutrition interventions must be integrated into households and communities where affected people live.
C-Change Picks
This periodic e-magazine, supported by C-Change (see The Drum Beat #461) and implemented by The Communication Initiative, has a focus on behaviour change and social change communication to address health, the environment, and civil society. Current special focus areas include family planning, HIV/AIDS, and malaria.
Issue #1 - Information about Behaviour and Social Change Communication, published August 26 2008.
Issue #2 - Information about Behaviour and Social Change Communication - HIV Prevention, published September 17 2008
Contact cchange@comminit.com to subscribe.
ADVOCACY AND ICTS FOR FOOD FUNDING
17.Fill the Cup - Global
Launched in March 2008, this international fundraising and awareness initiative is designed to benefit hungry schoolchildren worldwide. "Fill the Cup" draws on the involvement of high-profile actors and athletes to educate people about the problem of hunger, and to encourage them to donate online in order to "fill a cup" with porridge, rice, or beans. The ultimate goal is to increase the chances of hungry schoolchildren to enjoy better health and education, and a promising future. The core communication strategy in this campaign involves lending the voices and faces of well-known Ambassadors Against Hunger to share information and to encourage participation in overseas development assistance.
Contact: wfpinfo@wfp.org
18.FreeRice - Global
This vocabulary-based web initiative is designed to improve literacy and raise awareness about hunger around the world - while raising funds to feed those who are starving. For each word that the visitor to the website gets correct as he or she plays the game, 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations World Food Programme. This ICT-based project uses an edutainment strategy to provide what is intended to be a fun English vocabulary "lesson" while informing people about (and raising money to address) a development issue: hunger.
Contact: Jennifer Parmelee jennifer.parmelee@wfp.org OR Jennifer Mizgata jennifer.mizgata@wfp.org OR Bettina Luescher Luescher@un.org
This issue was written by Julie Levy.
The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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