Food Security
Projet Nutrition at Center (N@C)
CARE implemented an innovative, comprehensive five-year approach (2013-2017) with the goal of reducing anemia in women of childbearing age, and anemia and stunting in children under two years old. The approach integrated i) maternal and child health (MCH), infant and young child feeding (IYCF); ii) Water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH); and iii) food security (FS) and women's empowerment. Conducted in four (04) developing countries (Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia and Zambia), nutrition at the Center (N@C) aims to develop, document and disseminate the effectiveness and efficiency of an integrated approach that will improve sustainable nutritional status of mothers and children. Read More...
Final Performance Evaluation of the Kore Lavi Development Food Assistance Project in Haiti
In FY 2013, the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Food for Peace (FFP) issued an award to a consortium of three organizations, CARE, Action Contre La Faim (ACF), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to implement a Development Food Assistance Project (DFAP). World Vision (WV) later joined the consortium. The four-year project, titled ‘Kore Lavi’ (‘supporting life’ in Haitian Creole) started in August 2013. Following a two-year extension granted in 2017, the projected ended in September 2019.
The overall purpose of Kore Lavi was to support the Haitian Government in creating a social safety net for food and nutrition security that prioritizes consumption of locally grown quality products. The overall goal was to contribute to reducing food insecurity and vulnerability in targeted communities by establishing a replicable safety net system and expanding government capacities to prevent child under nutrition.
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The overall purpose of Kore Lavi was to support the Haitian Government in creating a social safety net for food and nutrition security that prioritizes consumption of locally grown quality products. The overall goal was to contribute to reducing food insecurity and vulnerability in targeted communities by establishing a replicable safety net system and expanding government capacities to prevent child under nutrition.
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A Glimpse on Poor and Extreme Poor Pregnant and Lactating Women’s Situation in Sunamganj, amidst COVID-19
The global pandemic COVID19 outbreak has crippled the economy after the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Bangladesh government since the end of March 2020 and has thrown millions of its population into poverty and food insecurity. Sunamganj, district is highly susceptible to natural hazards such as heavy rain, storm, thunderstorm, flash flood, which severely affect their livelihood and food and nutrition security where the COVID19 crisis has speeded up the devastation of daily livelihood. While writing this report the total number of infected corona patients in Sunamganj was 1162 and nine died. To better understand how pregnant and lactating women in the poor and the extremely poor household of Sunamganj district, are experiencing and adapting during this COVID 19 crisis, Collective Impact for Nutrition (CI4N), CARE Bangladesh conducted a rapid mobile-based survey from May 14 to 23, 2020. This report represents unofficial survey findings to keep a finger on the pulse of the food and nutrition security situation in rural Bangladesh. Read More...
RESI – Rural Economic Sustainability Initiative
The Rural Economic Sustainability Initiative (RESI) aimed to support inclusive and sustainable rural economic development in four target municipalities in Kosovo: Prishtinë/Priština, Novo Brdo/Novobrdë, Kamenicë/a and Ranil(l)ug. It was financed by Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the Municipality of Prishtinë/Priština and implemented by CARE International in Kosovo.
The approach utilised built on a very successful previous project and featured grants to MSME in agriculture, capacity development of municipality agriculture departments and a special focus on empowerment of women and socio-economically vulnerable groups.
The final evaluation of the RESI took place between 6th October and 11th November 2019. The evaluation aimed to make an independent assessment of the outputs, outcomes and impact of the project towards the end of its 36 month cycle. The evaluation also set out to identify lesson learned, avenues for replication and practical recommendations for the future. Read More...
The approach utilised built on a very successful previous project and featured grants to MSME in agriculture, capacity development of municipality agriculture departments and a special focus on empowerment of women and socio-economically vulnerable groups.
The final evaluation of the RESI took place between 6th October and 11th November 2019. The evaluation aimed to make an independent assessment of the outputs, outcomes and impact of the project towards the end of its 36 month cycle. The evaluation also set out to identify lesson learned, avenues for replication and practical recommendations for the future. Read More...
Rapport de la revue interne-Projet de Recherche-Développment pour la Sécurité Alimentaire et l’ Adaptation au Changement Climatique
L’objectif stratégique du projet REDSAACC vise à appuyer les efforts du gouvernement dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle en contribuant à mettre les populations Nigériennes à l’abri de la famine et à leur garantir les conditions d’une pleine participation à la production nationale et à l’amélioration de leurs revenus.
L’objectif global de cette revue interne est de montrer et mesurer les changements opérés du fait des actions du projet REDSAACC à travers l’évaluation des effets/impacts de la mise en œuvre de l’approche du projet dans le transfert des technologies et le partage des innovations locales pour une adaptation des systèmes de production agricole aux changements climatiques. Read More...
L’objectif global de cette revue interne est de montrer et mesurer les changements opérés du fait des actions du projet REDSAACC à travers l’évaluation des effets/impacts de la mise en œuvre de l’approche du projet dans le transfert des technologies et le partage des innovations locales pour une adaptation des systèmes de production agricole aux changements climatiques. Read More...
Promoción de la Seguridad Alimentaria, Desarrollo Económico e Inclusión Social en la Región Lempa de Honduras
Se presenta el informe de la evaluación final del proyecto “Promoción de la Seguridad Alimentaria, Desarrollo Económico e Inclusión Social en la Región Lempa de Honduras” resultado de un ejercicio participativo realizado entre mayo y septiembre de 2019. El proyecto fue diseñado e implementado por CARE Internacional Honduras, y tenía por objetivo principal contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de hombres, mujeres, niñas, niños y jóvenes que viven en condiciones de pobreza, exclusión, vulnerabilidad y riesgo, generando condiciones para la seguridad alimentaria, la salud, la nutrición y la gobernanza en materia de seguridad alimentaria, a través del desarrollo de componentes programáticos bajos estas temáticas. En términos de alcance cuantitativo, se lograron evaluar 26 indicadores con disponibilidad de información, encontrando que el proyecto logró el cumplimiento de 16: cumplió con 8 de 8 indicadores en el componente de disponibilidad de alimentos, 4 de 6 en el componente de gobernabilidad, 1 de 2 en el componente de alimento solidario y 3 de 10 en el componente de salud. Read More...
UBALE: United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations – PARTICIPATORY GENDER ANALYSIS FINAL REPORT
United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE), is a five-year (2015-2019) Food for Peace program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Save the Children, and the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM). The program aims to reduce chronic malnutrition and food insecurity and build resilience among vulnerable populations in three districts in Malawi, Blantyre Rural, Chikwawa and Nsanje.
This report describes the process and findings specific to the UBALE program. Read More...
This report describes the process and findings specific to the UBALE program. Read More...
EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM: FINAL EVALUATION REPORT
This report provides the results of the final evaluation of the Emergency Food Security Program (EFSP) implemented in twelve districts within the four regions of Sool, Sanaag, Galgaduud and Mudug that was conducted during July and August 2019.
Over and above the program performance parameters, the beneficiaries overwhelmingly indicated that the program had had significant positive impacts. The program was considered timely as it was delivered when beneficiaries were getting into months of food insecurity. When asked whether the cash transfer had improved their livelihoods, 93% of the household survey respondents reported that their livelihoods had improved, mainly in terms of improved purchasing power (93%), ease of meeting their basic needs (78%), better social status (22%), better and more recognition (17%), taking children to school (14%), access to healthcare (9%) and in other (non-described) areas (7%). In the household survey, 94% of the respondents received three cycles of the correct amount, whilst 5% who were targeted under the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) received two cycles enabling households to purchase their preferred foods, at least 25Kg of rice, 25Kg of sugar, 25kg wheat flour, 3kg of cooking oil, 10kg of pasta and some vegetables.
The program had a positive impact on the 52,299 households enrolled. The programme resulted in a reduction of distress coping strategies, with an average rCSI of 12.8 reducing from 20.4 at the program baseline. This supports the effectiveness of the program in enabling the beneficiaries to reduce the number of negative coping strategies that they were previously employing in order to meet basic household needs. In addition, as planned, all the households used the cash transfer to meet their basic needs, with 97% of them using the cash transfer to purchase food for the household, indicating that the cash intervention has directly contributed to the enhancement of the household food security during the drought. Trend analysis shows that throughout the program there was a downward trend of the rCSI scores, while there was an increase of household dietary diversity index to 20.4 compared to the baseline of 12.8. Similarly, an analysis of household hunger shows that in general the beneficiaries were experiencing little to no hunger, with only 13% experiencing moderate hunger and 86% of households experiencing little to no hunger. This again indicates that the programme has achieved positive outcomes.
While the evidence suggests that the program generated a number of positive impacts, across many domains, demonstrating effective and efficient implementation, and that the beneficiaries used the cash as per the original objectives of the program, households continue to faces challenges in their capacity to fully recover from the impacts of conflict and drought. Increasing the scale of interventions and developing additional holistic livelihood strategies for the target areas, creating linkages with market-based interventions and improvement in access to water, education and healthcare, experimenting with graduation models combined with local savings (VSLAs) were among some of the areas identified for improving future programming. A more detailed description of these recommendations is provided towards the tail end of the report. Read More...
Over and above the program performance parameters, the beneficiaries overwhelmingly indicated that the program had had significant positive impacts. The program was considered timely as it was delivered when beneficiaries were getting into months of food insecurity. When asked whether the cash transfer had improved their livelihoods, 93% of the household survey respondents reported that their livelihoods had improved, mainly in terms of improved purchasing power (93%), ease of meeting their basic needs (78%), better social status (22%), better and more recognition (17%), taking children to school (14%), access to healthcare (9%) and in other (non-described) areas (7%). In the household survey, 94% of the respondents received three cycles of the correct amount, whilst 5% who were targeted under the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) received two cycles enabling households to purchase their preferred foods, at least 25Kg of rice, 25Kg of sugar, 25kg wheat flour, 3kg of cooking oil, 10kg of pasta and some vegetables.
The program had a positive impact on the 52,299 households enrolled. The programme resulted in a reduction of distress coping strategies, with an average rCSI of 12.8 reducing from 20.4 at the program baseline. This supports the effectiveness of the program in enabling the beneficiaries to reduce the number of negative coping strategies that they were previously employing in order to meet basic household needs. In addition, as planned, all the households used the cash transfer to meet their basic needs, with 97% of them using the cash transfer to purchase food for the household, indicating that the cash intervention has directly contributed to the enhancement of the household food security during the drought. Trend analysis shows that throughout the program there was a downward trend of the rCSI scores, while there was an increase of household dietary diversity index to 20.4 compared to the baseline of 12.8. Similarly, an analysis of household hunger shows that in general the beneficiaries were experiencing little to no hunger, with only 13% experiencing moderate hunger and 86% of households experiencing little to no hunger. This again indicates that the programme has achieved positive outcomes.
While the evidence suggests that the program generated a number of positive impacts, across many domains, demonstrating effective and efficient implementation, and that the beneficiaries used the cash as per the original objectives of the program, households continue to faces challenges in their capacity to fully recover from the impacts of conflict and drought. Increasing the scale of interventions and developing additional holistic livelihood strategies for the target areas, creating linkages with market-based interventions and improvement in access to water, education and healthcare, experimenting with graduation models combined with local savings (VSLAs) were among some of the areas identified for improving future programming. A more detailed description of these recommendations is provided towards the tail end of the report. Read More...
Somalia Resilience Program Third Party Monitoring: Midline Assessment
The Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) is a consortium of seven international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). The aim of the consortium is to enhance the resilience of vulnerable households and communities in Southern Somalia against cyclical shocks and stressors. The program’s activities focus on securing livelihoods and increasing adaptive capacities of communities and households in Somalia.
Overall, positive developments from the baseline was noted for most of the indicators analyzed in this report. Most of these positive developments could be attributed to different programme interventions. The attribution was tested through statistical correlation analysis and by synthesizing programme documents and the data collected at various stages throughout the project. The food security status of the respondents had improved, both in terms of food consumption and coping strategies. For example, the proportion of the respondents categorized as having an acceptable level of the Food Consumption Score (FCS) had increased from 48.5% in the baseline to 80.4% in the midline. The income of the respondents had also improved with both a significantly higher average income as well as more diversified income being reported. Those respondents that were part of a savings scheme as well as those that had received cash distributions through Cash for Work (CfW) or Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) reported higher FCS than those who had not. Respondents that had received cash distributions were also positively associated with higher incomes. As such, it is recommended that both VSLA and cash programming interventions should be sustained and if possible scaled-up. It is worth noting that livelihoods were still largely climate sensitive, with day labour in agriculture being the most common and important livelihood strategy, especially for male respondents. This implies that most people are still highly vulnerable to climatic shocks, such as drought. Read More...
Overall, positive developments from the baseline was noted for most of the indicators analyzed in this report. Most of these positive developments could be attributed to different programme interventions. The attribution was tested through statistical correlation analysis and by synthesizing programme documents and the data collected at various stages throughout the project. The food security status of the respondents had improved, both in terms of food consumption and coping strategies. For example, the proportion of the respondents categorized as having an acceptable level of the Food Consumption Score (FCS) had increased from 48.5% in the baseline to 80.4% in the midline. The income of the respondents had also improved with both a significantly higher average income as well as more diversified income being reported. Those respondents that were part of a savings scheme as well as those that had received cash distributions through Cash for Work (CfW) or Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) reported higher FCS than those who had not. Respondents that had received cash distributions were also positively associated with higher incomes. As such, it is recommended that both VSLA and cash programming interventions should be sustained and if possible scaled-up. It is worth noting that livelihoods were still largely climate sensitive, with day labour in agriculture being the most common and important livelihood strategy, especially for male respondents. This implies that most people are still highly vulnerable to climatic shocks, such as drought. Read More...
Somalia Resilience Program Third Party Monitoring: Baseline Study
The Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) is a consortium of seven Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), the activities of which aim to enhance the resilience of vulnerable households and communities in Southern Somalia against cyclical shocks and stressors. This report serves as the baseline for the Third Party Monitoring (TPM) of SomReP in two districts in South and Central Somalia: Afgooye and Baidoa. The TPM study is undertaken by Forcier Consulting on behalf of SomReP, with the aim to rigorously monitor the progress and outcomes of the program.
The data indicates that resilience differed among livelihood groups (agro-pastoralist, pastoralists, and peri-urban), between women and men, and across seasons. This means that program approaches should take these differences into account when targeting groups for various interventions. For instance, people in peri-urban areas tended to have less diverse diets, while pastoralists tend to engage in more severe and frequent coping strategies. Out of the different livelihood types, pastoralists were also the most likely to report no access to risk transfer or sharing. Further, women tended to have less diverse incomes than men and incomes tend to be lowest in the dry season of Jilaal, the season in which most agriculture-related work was replaced with unskilled work. These findings indicate that women should be more frequently targeted for income diversity interventions, and pastoralists should be targeted with interventions that aim to increase social safety nets, such as risk sharing.
Capacities to deal with stressors in both the short and long-term were low across the targeted areas. Natural resource management (NRM) was poor in both districts and in and across communities. Sustainable access to natural resources is an important factor in ensuring long-term resilience and should therefore receive more attention across the communities. Response capacities were also absent across the communities. Only 9.7 of all respondents said their community had a community-based early warning system in place. Further, only 5.7% of the respondents said community initiatives existed that aimed to access support from sub-national and national institutions and authorities to respond to and cope with the recurrent shocks and stressors. Hence, moving forward, the program should ensure a focus of combined approaches to achieve improvements in system-wide resilience. Read More...
The data indicates that resilience differed among livelihood groups (agro-pastoralist, pastoralists, and peri-urban), between women and men, and across seasons. This means that program approaches should take these differences into account when targeting groups for various interventions. For instance, people in peri-urban areas tended to have less diverse diets, while pastoralists tend to engage in more severe and frequent coping strategies. Out of the different livelihood types, pastoralists were also the most likely to report no access to risk transfer or sharing. Further, women tended to have less diverse incomes than men and incomes tend to be lowest in the dry season of Jilaal, the season in which most agriculture-related work was replaced with unskilled work. These findings indicate that women should be more frequently targeted for income diversity interventions, and pastoralists should be targeted with interventions that aim to increase social safety nets, such as risk sharing.
Capacities to deal with stressors in both the short and long-term were low across the targeted areas. Natural resource management (NRM) was poor in both districts and in and across communities. Sustainable access to natural resources is an important factor in ensuring long-term resilience and should therefore receive more attention across the communities. Response capacities were also absent across the communities. Only 9.7 of all respondents said their community had a community-based early warning system in place. Further, only 5.7% of the respondents said community initiatives existed that aimed to access support from sub-national and national institutions and authorities to respond to and cope with the recurrent shocks and stressors. Hence, moving forward, the program should ensure a focus of combined approaches to achieve improvements in system-wide resilience. Read More...