This section considers some of the factors affecting recovery of household food and nutrition security which are common to many post-emergency situations and reviews the agriculture and food interventions implemented in post-emergency periods to improve household food security.
The source of the emergency ceases when peace follows war, rains follow drought or flood waters recede. But, in rural communities, food insecurity usually persists until affected agricultural households have had an opportunity to sow and reap their next full harvest, and in pastoralist households, until livestock numbers have recovered to a level which affords self-sufficiency. In post-war conditions, recovery may additionally involve returnee migration. Therefore, in the initial post-emergency period, affected populations are likely to be dependent on some form of food relief or safety net to satisfy their immediate food needs.
Lack of population information makes planning difficult
Lack of information is a major constraint to planning rehabilitation assistance, particularly post-war. This includes basic information on population statistics as well as information on the crop, food and nutrition situation. In post-war conditions this can be complicated by the state of flux of the population as returnees move around the country; thus, recovery plans cannot be based on previous population distributions.
Nutrition information needs coordination
If information is available there is a need for coordination to ensure that information gathered is used by decision makers. The information must also meet the needs of rehabilitation planners. This may require changing information collection procedures used during the emergency to inform relief decisions. For example, anthropometric data used in relief conditions, needs to be supported by more socio-economic and food consumption information which develops a picture of household food and nutrition security to inform rehabilitation planning.
Assessment during rehabilitation needs to be at micro-level
It is a characteristic of any rehabilitation phase that households recover at different speeds and start their recovery from different levels. In post-war conditions this is confounded even further because returnees return, and begin their recovery at different times. Assistance must be appropriately targeted and take account of the various stages of recovery present in the population. This requires micro-level information on the food and nutrition security condition of the affected households. There would be advantages for project formulation if this information could be linked to information on crop and food security assessments. For example, by stratifying nutrition assessments into appropriate agro-ecological zones used in agriculture assessments.
During the rehabilitation period there is a growing need to target assistance in order to make best use of resources, to cater for the legitimate needs of vulnerable households, to reduce risk of dependency, to prevent disincentives to agricultural production, and to be able to phase out distribution of free food and inputs.
Identifying vulnerable groups requires developing an understanding of the local factors affecting household food security. Problems can arise where assistance is automatically given to one group.
During the initial rehabilitation period, the diet of affected households is largely dependant on the adequacy of the general ration distribution, the availability of wild foods, and home production of short season crops and vegetables which can be eaten before the main crop harvest. For most households food will be scarce and lack variety, these are the hallmarks of a nutritionally weak diet. In post-war conditions access to health care, sanitation and clean water are likely to be minimal and adult members will be busy rebuilding houses and cultivating. The nutritional conditions of vulnerable household members may be poor. Failure to recognise malnutrition and lack of awareness of its causes may lead to increased morbidity and mortality.
Supplementary feeding centres should use local foods
Supplementary feeding centres which were opened during the emergency need to prepare for closure. In this re-orientation phase they should focus on nutrition education on preparation of suitable foods using locally available resources. Use of food blends such as Corn Soya Milk re-enforces a medical model of malnutrition as a disease which requires special commodities from outside to cure and should be phased out.
Similarly, where a take-home supplementary ration for infants and young children is distributed, as far as possible this should consist of food which can be locally produced. Distribution of take-home supplementary rations needs to be accompanied by local nutrition education to ensure appropriate intra-household distribution of the supplementary ration.
Education on making the most of relief rations
Relief food rations are usually set at maintenance level only. Practical advice on techniques to feed the family using the ration and limited resources available, and preparation of appropriate foods could lead to better utilisation of food aid rations. Infants of weaning age are likely to be vulnerable if the general ration does not include traditional weaning foods, or if traditional weaning practises are poor.
In some cases food hygiene, quality and safety at the various levels of the food system (production, storage, handling, preparation, conservation, processing and consumption) can be important limiting factors which then should be also addressed in nutrition education programmes.
Nutrition advice must be related to current constraints
Nutrition education advice needs to be appropriate to both the nutritional needs of the household and the constraints under which it operates. Advice needs to relate to the changed conditions which households face after the emergency. This requires developing a precise understanding of the factors affecting nutrition security in the post-emergency period and using this as a basis for nutrition education training.
The institutional capacity of governments, civil service, international agencies and NGOs to formulate and implement rehabilitation measures can be a major constraint. There is foremost a need for a change in mind-set from requesting and organising emergency assistance to developing and administering rehabilitation plans with a full appreciation of the dangers of reliance on external aid.
Need to invest in local capacity building
At a more local level, the end of the emergency brings new responsibilities to local administrators, particularly in post-war situations.
Because post-emergency conditions vary from one part of the country to another, district and regional administrations need to be able to identify local needs and have an input into national reconstruction plans. To do this, they need information on the local agriculture, food and nutrition situation. Whilst the local agriculture department may be able to provide information on the agricultural situation, information on food and nutrition security may be more difficult to obtain. There is a need for technical support and capacity building of regional and district administrations to respond to the challenge of rehabilitation.
Seed and tool distributions need protection with food
One of the most widespread rehabilitation interventions is the distribution of seeds and hand-tools, and where appropriate, pesticides, fertilisers and draft animals. Distribution tends to be free, although in areas where NGOs are working or where there is a well established agriculture department, credit or loan schemes may be involved. By equipping households with the means to produce food, the distribution of agricultural inputs promotes the recovery of food security. But to make use of these inputs, households must also have enough food, for example, from a general ration. Without the “protection” of a general ration, households may be forced to eat the seed, to sell the agricultural inputs to buy food, or labour on other people's farms or food-for-work schemes at the expense of cultivating their own fields.
Choice of seed needs to reflect nutritional needs
Seed distributions generally prioritise seeds for the main staple crops with a view to reducing the need for food aid, but may include pulses and vegetable seeds. The choice of seeds distributed in rehabilitation tends to reflect past agricultural practises, how easily the seeds can be obtained and farmers preferences rather than specific nutrition or food consumption considerations, thus limiting the potential to improve household food security. Instead, the choice of seeds for distribution should also be based on nutritional considerations by promoting crops to improve the nutritional quality of the traditional diet or to balance shortages due to temporary changes in food availability following the emergency.
Seeds for home gardens also need to be distributed
Households with limited access to farm land will not be helped by distributions of staple seeds. In post-drought conditions these are some of the most vulnerable households. In post-war situations, they may include households which have temporarily settled in population centres to be near distribution points as well as households with land access and tenure problems, for example, female headed households. Many could probably cultivate small-scale home gardens around the house if provided with vegetable seeds. Home gardens can provide valuable nutrients to complement food aid rations and a source of income.
The distribution of agricultural inputs provides an ideal opportunity for agriculture and nutrition extension on the value of producing and consuming a wide variety of foods, and on food production and preparation techniques to promote this.
Studies have shown that education is more effective when accompanied by inputs which increase the demand for the information being offered. In practise, however, integration of the distribution of agricultural inputs with the extensions services is limited.
Linking food production with nutrition and consumption
There is a general need for closer links between primary and community health education and agricultural extension work to ensure that nutrition advice to eat certain foods is supported by agricultural advice on producing these foods. This may include advice on appropriate horticultural techniques and methods of food preservation, storage and preparation coupled with nutrition advice to encourage cultivation and home consumption of home-garden produce. This is particularly important in the post-emergency period because households are highly dependent on home production for food. At the same time, training of agricultural extension workers needs to include basic nutrition issues so that farmers are aware of the nutritional importance of producing certain foods. The role of home agents and female community workers, which tends to focus on food preservation, cooking and home crafts should be expanded through training to include horticultural production techniques and basic nutrition concepts.
Households not covered by area-based programmes are neglected
In post-emergency situations, agricultural development activities tend to be limited to area-based agricultural or rural development programmes. These tend to concentrate on areas which are
accessible by road,
near an international border - receiving returnees, therefore projects are eligible for funding from UNHCR,
in areas where some infrastructure and administration exists to work with,
in areas with most agricultural potential,
in densely populated areas so that a larger number of beneficiaries can be reached by the programme.
It is the nature of area-based projects that a diverse range of inputs are invested in the project area, but vast areas in the rest of a country, particularly in low-potential areas and inaccessible areas, receive no assistance. This may be already because these are precisely the areas which are least likely to be reached by survey and assessment missions, so problems of vulnerability may even go un-noticed. This should be taken into due consideration when national/regional development or reconstruction plans are elaborated.
Post-war reconstruction using FFW
Food-for-work (FFW) is widely used in the early stages of post-war recovery for reconstruction of local infrastructure such as schools and health centres. In post-emergency situations the rehabilitation or building of sanitary facilities can be an important contribution to improve the nutritional and health status of the affected population.
These mini-FFW projects offer a short term employment opportunity which could usefully be targeted towards vulnerable households. In practise, however, the choice of participants, rate of payment and identification of project is often led by the availability of supplies and urgency of construction. A clearer assessment of the needs of vulnerable groups in the community and presentation of FFW as a means of income generation for those who have no alternative means of support would be valuable. This would require training and orientation of project implementors, including NGOs and community development to enable the community to decide who should get the benefit of participation in the FFW project.
Reviewing recent post-emergency rehabilitation programmes15 it is evident there are few measures which specifically address nutrition security and at best a brief acknowledgment of the need for a nutritionally balanced diet. The lack of any single agency focal point for nutrition must also contribute to allowing nutrition to fall between the gaps in the agriculture and health sectors. But without specific inclusion of nutritional considerations at the outset of planning a rehabilitation programme, improvement of nutritional status cannot be assumed to occur.
