GROUP 1 - HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
Topic 1 - Nutrition: Nutrition is an area of knowledge that is concerned with the provision of food and its utilisation in the body and also with the relationship between food consumption and human growth, development and general well-being. Often, people’s understanding of what nutrition is concerned with is limited to the obvious effects of under- or over-nourishment on bodyweight and health. The relationship between nutrient intake and health status is clearly important and in the case of protein-energy malnutrition, this relationship is quite straightforward, even to the layman. However, the effects of specific nutrient deficiencies are sometimes more insidious and remain hidden to the non-nutritionist as in the case of micro-nutrient malnutrition.
Apart from the health-nutrition relationship, there are many other and not necessarily less important aspects to nutrition. These include the much less known relationships between good nutrition and: (1) physical activity, development and work capacity; (2) mental activity, development and educational performance; (3) social behaviour and cultural practices, etc.
Ask the participants:
What do they understand by nutrition?
What do they understand by malnutrition and by under-nutrition? What are the local words used? Are they descriptive of the causes, effects, to the point?
How do malnutrition and under-nutrition manifest themselves? I.e., who is affected (what individuals, households), how (effects) and why (causes)?
Draw a basic problem tree of what they see as the causes and effects of malnutrition.
Topic 2 - Household Food Security: Household food security depends on year round access to an adequate supply of nutritious and safe food to meet the needs of all family members. Often, the term ‘household food security’ and ‘food security’ are intermingled. While 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 of household food security is on the household or family as the basic unit of activity in society. This distinction is important because activities directed towards improving household food security may be quite different from those aimed at improving food security in general. The latter often being more related to macro-level production, marketing, distribution and acquisition of food by the population as a whole.
The focus of household food security is on how people 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 intra-household food distribution and priorities related to food production, acquisition, utilisation and consumption. It is clear that the focus is not only on the food but also on the people and households and how they give shape to their food chain and are being affected by conditions and issues emanating from higher levels such as national agricultural policies, prevailing environmental conditions, available infrastructure for marketing and distribution or even international food aid programmes. These factors are referred to as the root causes of malnutrition.
In the definition of household food security, there are a number of key words that would need further clarification to provide a better understanding of what household food security is about and how it relates to nutritional well-being. These key words include: (1) household; (2) access; (3) adequate supply; and (4) needs.
Ask the participants:
What do they understand by household food security in the local context?
What are the main determinants of household food security?
What do they understand by a household and how do individual members figure in the concept of household food security? How are individual needs met, especially in a situation of shortage?
What do they understand by access and what are the main determinants of access to food? I.e. availability and stability of supplies, physical, economic and social ability to acquire food.
What do they understand by an adequate diet?
Not all resource poor households are affected by malnutrition to the same extent. How do they cope and why?
Draw a basic problem tree of the causes and effects of household food insecurity.
Indicate existing opportunities and coping mechanisms on the problem tree, starting from individuals and households that are able to cope with the same constraints and are food secure.
GROUP 2 - PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
Topic 1 - Participation and Community Empowerment: With increased emphasis on the importance of participation in development, there is also an increased awareness that a meaningful understanding of participation will inevitably imply to favour and actively support community empowerment. Community participation is a key to the sustainability of projects and programmes as it will lead to 1) a sense of ownership on the part of the target group 2) increased commitment to the outcome and objectives 3) longer term social sustainability and 4) empowerment of the target group.
Participation in development can be described as an organised effort and ongoing process on the part of women, men, youth, interest groups and marginalised groups to increase access and control over resources and related decision making in the respective institutions and organisations. Participation is a process that concerns the relationships between different stakeholders in a society (e.g. social groups, community, interest groups, policy level, service delivery institutions) and which ultimately aims at increasing self-determination and readjusting control and influence over development initiatives and resources. A concept of sincere community participation or in other words a high level of participation will put the target groups in the centre of development projects and programmes. Target groups are not only actively involved in all stages of a project but will ideally continuously drive, direct, correct and own the project.
Participation and Community Empowerment are no fixed concepts but will always depend on people interpreting them. In order to arrive at a common understanding of all involved stakeholders it is crucial to discuss the different perceptions, ideas and related opportunities at the beginning of a project, but also during all later stages of a project.
Ask the Participants to explain their understanding of the term “participation” and “community empowerment” Write their statements on the whiteboard, grouped according to different perceptions. Alternatively ask them to write it on cards and group them on a pin board. If the participants find it difficult to start, write down examples e.g.:
Joint decision making at all levels
Try to formulate a definition of the term “participation in development” and “community empowerment”.
Ask the participants to discuss why Participation has become a crucial issue in development projects. Ask them to relate their statements to their own experience and to give examples of different forms of participation, which they apply or encounter in their working environment / project activities.
Topic 2 - How to ensure participation and community empowerment in relation to our own objectives and strategies?
The purpose of a participatory appraisal is to integrate feasible local priorities and opportunities as identified by the local community into planning. The exercise not only focuses on problems. By making use of local knowledge and appreciating successful local coping-strategies, better use will be made of locally available capacities.
Appraisal is also an initial step and integral part of a longer-term commitment of all stakeholders to participatory approaches. This implies an interactive learning process whereby local co-operation and problem solving capacities are enhanced.
The development of local capacity and appropriate institutional arrangements is essential to institutionalise participation. Local institutions and capacity are needed for collective action to continue after the withdrawal of outside support. The appraisal needs to identify locally available institutional and organisational. Their experiences, strengths and weaknesses should be discussed.
The process of community empowerment may need external support. The inclusion of the poor, vulnerable and food insecure households may need to be enhanced. Capacity building may require that there is a shared interest in a collective organisation or group. These groups should have links among themselves as well as to other levels.
Ask the participants:
Referring to the objectives of the team, what kind and level of participation will be adequate for whom, when and why? What could be potential strategies to ensure and support adequate community participation? Visualise the answers on an already prepared matrix, differentiating between the different stakeholders.
On the basis of the Venn diagram of relevant institutions and matrix of roles and responsibilities of stakeholders that had already been developed by the group, ask the participants whether they feel that based on the discussion on participation any additional aspects should be added to those charts. Modify the charts accordingly.
GROUP 3 - GENDER
Gender analysis is a method for understanding the roles and responsibilities of men and women. It is based on asking several simple questions such as: who does what, who knows what, who has what, who needs what, who decides what, etc. By answering these questions, we have a better picture of the situation in a community and can therefore address the needs of both men and women. This leads to more successful development efforts.
The point of this group work should be to come to an understanding about what is meant by the concept of gender and why it is important to this project on household food security and nutrition.
Topic 1 - What is gender: Ask the group to define the following terms:
Access to and control over resources
Ask the group to translate the terms into the local language. Write the overall definitions and the translation of the terms on a flip chart.
Topic 2 - How are men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities different: You can ask your group to do a role-play to develop daily activity clocks for a typical day of a male and female farmer in a typical village during both the slack and the busy agricultural seasons. Divide the group into two smaller groups. One group will represent a woman farmer. The other will be a male farmer from the same village. Ask the groups to first discuss how their persons’ time is spent during a typical day in the slack season, and during a typical day in the busy agricultural season. Ask the groups to draw two 24-hour clocks representing how they spend their time in each season on a typical day. The clocks should illustrate what time the person wakes up, what time he or she goes to bed and what activities he or she carries out during the day. There is no need to go into great detail, but it is important to illustrate that all kinds of activities are included such as agricultural tasks, child care, leisure, wage labour, cooking, sleeping, etc. Draw the clocks on flipchart paper.
Once the clocks are done, discuss what the clocks reveal that may have an impact on (1) nutrition and (2) household food security. Summarise the discussion on a flipchart for presentation to the plenary.
Topic 3 - What is our own gender approach: A good approach to development is based on three guiding principles. These are:
Participation is essential.
Discuss these principles in your group. Ask the group to discuss what is their experience with dealing with gender issues in a rural development project. Was it easy; was it hard? Why? How is the issue best treated? What are some of the approaches and guiding principles that they use to assure adequate attention is given to looking at and responding to the gender dynamics in each situation. Ask the group to develop some guiding principles like those above in the form of a matrix of what to do and what not to do.
GROUP 4 - 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. (See handout for full range of definitions).
The point of this group work should be to come to an understanding about what is meant by the concept of local knowledge and why it is important to this project on household food security and nutrition.
Topic 1 - What is local knowledge: As an example, the following definition of local knowledge developed by Inuit Indians in Canada, is given:
It is practical common sense based on teachings and experience passed on from generation to generation;
It is about knowing the country. It covers knowledge of the environment and the relationship between things;
It is holistic. It cannot be separated from the people who hold it. It is rooted in culture, spiritual health, and the language of a people.
It is a way of life - wisdom is using knowledge in good ways. It is using the heart and the head together.
It gives credibility to people.
Ask the group to discuss this definition. Do they agree with this definition? Why or why not? Ask them to develop their own simple definition of local knowledge in their own environment. Ask them to translate the terms local knowledge, and/or indigenous knowledge, into the local language. Write the overall definition and the translation of the terms on a flip chart.
Topic 2 - Different types of knowledge: Ask the group to briefly discuss how knowledge of the people inside a typical community differs from their own knowledge and the knowledge of better educated, scientifically trained specialists. Is there conflict between these two different sets of knowledge and ways of viewing the world? Why? Summarise the discussion on a flipchart for presentation to the plenary.
Topic 3 - Who knows what: Different people have different knowledge? The type of knowledge people have is related to sex, age, education, labour division within the family, enterprise or community; occupation, environment, socio-economic status, experience, etc. For example, who are the nutrition experts in a community? Ask the group:
to list all of the people in a typical local community who know something about nutrition;
to name any people in a community who play a special role in terms of providing advice about nutrition to others;
to rank these people from the most knowledgeable to the least knowledgeable;
From this list, ask the group to draw a simple diagram on a flipchart showing all the people named. Draw each person as a circle with the name inside or underneath. The most knowledgeable person(s) should have the biggest circle, the least knowledgeable should have the smallest circle.
Topic 4 - Appraising local knowledge base and its impact on nutrition: Ask the group to list what traditional knowledge they are aware of, how it translate into different attitudes and practices under specific circumstances, and how it affects nutrition and household foods security. Participants may start from either side of the table, i.e. from the knowledge, attitudes, practices or nutrition output perspective. There may well be gaps in the participants understanding of what knowledge is underlying specific attitudes and practices. It is important to note these gaps and to probe deeper in these areas during the field appraisal.
Topic 5 - Our own approach: Discuss what approach the team should take towards local knowledge. Develop some guidelines and principles for how to recognise and build upon local people’s knowledge of good nutritional practices. Prepare a matrix of what one should do and what should not be done.
