16 December 2008
Ethiopia
Although in its early days, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is contributing to improved food security of recipient households and helping them to protect and build their assets:
- Three in five recipients avoided having to sell assets to buy food and 36% of recipients avoided using savings to buy food. In both cases, 90% of these households explained these positive outcomes in terms of the PSNP.
- Three quarters of households surveyed consumed more food or better quality food than before the advent of the PSNP. 94% of these households attribute this to the PSNP.
This year the PSNP responded to the drought and high food prices by delivering 2-3 months additional financial support to 4.4 million beneficiaries.
DFID has given £70 million so far (over 3 years) for the Productive Safety Net Programme, PSNP, which helps support 7.2 million people who had previously depended on emergency relief. DFID will give £30 million per annum to the PSNP when it will cover over 8 million people. DFID partners in this programme are the government of Ethiopia, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Canadians, Irish Aid, the US and the World Food Programme.
Zimbabwe
Evaluation of the Protracted Relief Programme has documented its success in improving household livelihoods. Group members borrowed to avoid asset sales as well as to invest in income-generating activities. Participants purchased food, kitchen utensils, school fees and uniforms, livestock and other farm inputs, clothing, furniture and spent money on small business investments and home repairs.
India
The Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project (WORLP): 31% of poor households that experienced food shortage in previous years reported a reduction in food shortages during the project period. The Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Project (OTELP), which is jointly supported by IFAD and WFP: a food for work initiative improved access to food and created over half a million people days of employment - out of which 50% beneficiaries are tribal women.
The UN Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA)
In April 2008, the United Nations Secretary General established a High Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis (HLTF), which comprises the Heads of the UN agencies, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, to agree a common strategy to respond to the global food crisis in a coherent and coordinated way. The CFA was finalized mid-July.
UK’s vision and approach to tackling high food prices:
The UK’s vision is coordinated international action that will lead to a:
- Doubling of agricultural productivity in Africa,
- Doubling of the rate of agricultural growth in Asia,
- Doubling of investment in international agricultural research, and
- Doubling of the number of people taken out of long-term dependence on food aid through expansion of social protection.
- Our four pronged approach for achieving this vision is to:
Increase humanitarian assistance
- Meet the immediate needs of developing countries (budget support, social protection).
- Provide longer term support for agricultural productivity and social protection
- Get the international system working more effectively
The Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security (GPAFS):
The UK is calling for a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security (GPAFS), which is envisaged as being a compact to bring together a broad range of partners behind nationally developed country plans and policies; hold everyone to account; and help facilitate access to finance. It will:
- Involve donors, developing countries, international agencies, civil society, and the private sector.
- Use existing financing mechanisms and instruments.
- Help to align stakeholders behind key national and regional plans (such as CAADP and AU-led Social Protection processes in Africa).
- Help to take forward the UN
The Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
CAADP is the Africa Union’s own programme for addressing MDG1 in Africa. DFID support’s CAADP (£5 million) because it is Africa led and focused on doing more with the money and effort being expended by national governments and donors to address food security and encourage economic growth. African governments commit to raising agricultural productivity by 6% per year by increasing investment in agriculture to 10 per cent of national budgets. So far Mali, Madagascar, Namibia, Niger, Chad and Ethiopia have met or surpassed the 10% goal. Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda have already boosted their agriculture budgets significantly in pursuit of the 10% target.
