2.1 Thematic Focus: Nutrition and Household Food Security from a Livelihood’s Perspective
Nutrition
Nutrition, as all other concepts that are being used in this guide, needs to be defined from both a local and an outsider perspective. This is important given that local people may have their own way of naming or describing specific nutrition problems and have their own understanding of the reasons for these problems. Reaching a good understanding of local perspectives is crucial to understanding how people address their problems.
From a scientific perspective, nutrition is an area of knowledge that is concerned with the provision of food and its utilisation in the body. The body needs nutrients for growth, development, health and general wellbeing. Often, people’s understanding of what nutrition is concerned with is limited to the visible effects of under- or over-nourishment on bodyweight and health. The relationship between nutrient intake and health status is clearly important. In the case of protein-energy malnutrition, this relationship is quite straightforward, even to the layman. The effects of specific nutrient deficiencies may be more insidious and remain hidden to the non-nutritionist as in the case of most micronutrient deficiencies.
Apart from the health-nutrition relationship, there are many other, but not necessarily less important, aspects to nutrition. These include the relationships between nutrition and: (1) physical activity, development and work capacity; (2) mental activity, development and educational performance; (3) social behaviour and cultural practices, etc.
Household food security
Household food security refers to the ability of a household to have year round access to an adequate supply of nutritious and safe food to meet the nutritional needs of all family members. Hence, household food security is a key determinant for the nutritional status of the individual household members.
Often, the term ‘household food security’ and ‘food security’ are intermingled. Food security is defined in its most basic form as access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life. The focus in ‘household’ food security is on the household as the most basic social unit in a society. This distinction is important because activities directed towards improving household food security may be quite different from those aimed at improving national level food security. The latter often being more related to macro-level production, marketing, distribution and acquisition of food by the population as a whole.
The focus in household food security is on how members of a household produce or acquire food throughout the year, how they store, process and preserve their food to overcome seasonal shortages or improve the quality and safety of their food supply. Household food security is also concerned with food distribution within the household and priorities related to food production, acquisition, utilisation and consumption. It is clear that the focus is not just on food but also on people and households and how they give shape to the food chain. Household food security introduces the livelihood’s perspective and looks at vulnerability factors within the household as well as external sources of vulnerability including national policies, environmental conditions, access to infrastructure and facilities, etc.
Sustainable Livelihoods
A livelihood refers to the means a person has access to for securing the necessities of life, including one’s abilities, the resources at his disposal and the activities through which he makes a living. A person’s livelihood is sustainable when one is able to cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or improve one’s capabilities and assets, and ensure that the next generation will equally have access to sustainable means of living.
There is also a collective aspect to sustainable livelihoods. Abilities and assets are developed over time and carried over from one generation to another. They are continuously exchanged and transformed within and among households, communities, nations and globally. There is also a continuous drive to adapt and change to new conditions. These may be caused by developments, stresses and shocks beyond one’s direct control as well as by changes that are taking place within one’s own household, community or society. People’s livelihoods are therefore inter-dependent across time, location, socio-economic class, ethnic or religious group, nation, etc. At a collective level, livelihoods are sustainable when all members in society benefit equitably from their combined and shared abilities, resources and activities.
From a livelihoods’ perspective, nutrition and household food security are basic livelihood outcomes that provide objectively verifiable indicators for the sustainability of people’s livelihoods, as well as for the success or failure of development. Through its impact on an individual’s health, growth, development and general wellbeing, nutrition is in itself also a key determinant of a person’s ability to make optimal use of his abilities, and the resources and opportunities at hand. Given this close relationship, the objective of this guide is to introduce relevant livelihood analysis concepts, approaches and tools in the appraisal and planning process.
2.2 The levels of the appraisal and planning process
The appraisal and planning methodology allow for the specific needs, interests, aspirations and opportunities of different stakeholders to be addressed. It is therefore important to differentiate between these stakeholders on the basis of the type of household they belong to, the form of communal organisation, their socio-economic background, the agro-ecological environment they live in, etc. When this differentiation is made during the appraisal, the planning phase will lead naturally to the development of interventions that are appropriate for these different groups.
Household
A household may be defined as a unit of people living together, headed by a household head. This is often a man or a woman, in case there is no man. Increasingly, grandparents are taking up this role, as well as adolescents, in those households where both parents have deceased. Apart from the head of the household, there may be a spouse, children and permanent dependants like elderly parents or temporary dependants like a divorced daughter or son.
Community
A community may be defined as a group of people living together in one place and considered as a whole especially in terms of social values and responsibilities. The group may have either an official or a customary form of administration. There are also cases where both forms co-exist. Local terminology may exist to distinguish between the two. There may be a more or less clear agreement and understanding regarding the application of customary versus statutory law and regarding the roles, responsibilities and powers of traditional versus government organisations.
Community group
For the purpose of this manual, a community group can be defined as a group through which community members co-operate. These may be informal groups such as mutual assistance societies or more formal organisations such as co-operative societies. In a self-help group, all members benefit from their combined skills, resources and activities. Common social and economic interests of members may help to keep the group together.
Socio-economic group
A socio-economic group is a group of people who share similar social norms and valued and have a comparable economic status.
Agro-ecological zone
An agro-ecological zone can be defined as an area or stretch of land that is particular in terms of what organisms live in it, how they relate to one another and their physical surroundings, and how people make use of these natural resources for agriculture.
2.3 A Participatory Approach
In the context of program and project design, broad stakeholder participation is key to sustainability as it leads to increased local ownership, commitment to achieve objectives, durable social organisation, and empowerment.
Participation in development
How local people understand participation depends on their specific social and cultural background. Reaching a good understanding of local people’s perceptions is key to the successful incorporation of objectives and considerations related to people’s participation in development policies and programmes.
Participation in development can be defined as a process of equitable and active involvement of all stakeholders in the formulation of development policies, strategies and programs. It implies that people from different socio-economic, cultural, religious, gender, age and other groups take part in an equitable manner in appraisal, analysis, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. For a fair and impartial development process to take place, disadvantaged stakeholders need to be empowered to increase their level of knowledge, influence and control over their own livelihoods, including the development initiatives affecting them.
Participation in development is also seen as an organised effort within institutions and organisations to increase people’s access and control over resources and decision making. Participation implies an iterative process involving the continuous re-adjustment of relationships between different stakeholders in a society in order to increase stakeholder control and influence over development initiatives that affect their lives.
There are various levels of participation ranging from providing information and consultation, over joint planning and decision-making, to empowerment and self-management by the stakeholders themselves.
Stakeholder participation
For the purpose of this guide, a stakeholder is defined as an individual, group of individuals or organisation with an interest or concern in development. These comprise in the first place the local people whom are directly affected by development or the lack thereof, including individuals, households, community-based interest groups and their associations, socio-economic groups, local businesses, etc. A second group comprises those agents that work directly with the local people, including local government, government support services, non-governmental and private sector organisations. The third group comprises those who are remote and work with the local people through local intermediaries, like those belonging to the second group of stakeholders. They include policy makers, development agencies and government ministries.
The level of participation of the different groups of stakeholders in the development process depends on their negotiating power. In the absence of effective democratic institutions and processes, the balance may be biased towards those belonging to the second and third group, depending on the institutional arrangements.
Indigenous knowledge
There are many closely related concepts in use - local knowledge, indigenous knowledge, traditional knowledge, etc. - which refer to the knowledge that people in a given place and culture have developed over time, and continue to develop. Local knowledge, or indigenous knowledge, is thus based on experience, often tested over centuries of use, adapted to local culture and environment and dynamic and changing. Local or Indigenous knowledge is often contrasted with “scientific” or “modern” knowledge - the knowledge developed by universities, research institutions and private firms using a formal scientific approach.
In the context of project design, it is important to consider that knowledge of the people inside a typical community may differ from the knowledge of those tasked with appraisal and planning who are often the better-educated, scientifically trained specialists. There may be considerable conflict between these two different sets of knowledge and ways of viewing the world.
It is also important to realise that different people within a community have different knowledge. The type of knowledge people have may be related to gender, age, education, labour division within the family, enterprise or community, occupation, environment, socio-economic status, experience, etc. The type of traditional knowledge people have translates into different attitudes and practices under specific circumstances, and often affects nutrition and household foods security.
Gender
Gender refers to the state of being male or female with reference to the social and cultural differences between men and women rather than to the biological ones. One of the key concepts used in this manual is people’s participation and people centred development. People are not a homogenous group, but include both men and women. Within and among households, communities, socio-economic groups, cultures, agro-ecological zones and geographic areas, the lives of males and females may be organised very differently.
Gender is one of the many important social characteristics, along with ethnicity, religion, age, socio-economic group and other features that need to be considered to better understand people’s livelihoods and their ability to achieve good nutrition. Because of gender, men and women have different roles, responsibilities, access to resources and capabilities, constraints and opportunities. It is therefore important when appraising a livelihood situation that all information and findings should be disaggregated by gender - meaning that information should be collected and findings analysed separately for men and women. Also for planning purposes, gender should be considered to make sure that interventions are appropriate and acceptable for and will benefit both women and men.
Even interventions that are technically successful may lead to social changes and trends that are not desired and had not been anticipated. If women are not involved in planning, interventions that aim at increasing food production may be biased towards cash crops under the control of men. Because of social norms, women may have to provide their labour without having access or control over financial benefits. Having less time and resources available for child-care and home gardening, household food security and child nutrition may suffer. It is therefore important to determine who does what, whom has access over assets and who controls the benefits. Apart from including specific gender analysis tools, all appraisal and planning tools should also be designed and applied in such a way as to be gender-sensitive.
