Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi

Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi PDF Author: Babu, Suresh Chandra
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
Following poor harvests in the 2015/16 cropping season in Malawi, vulnerability assessments found that nearly 6.7 million people, primarily in the Southern and Central regions, were likely to suffer from food insecurity before the next harvest. The government of Malawi and its development partners designed the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme (FIRP) in Malawi to meet the food needs of many of the households affected, mobilizing approximately USD 265 million in resources to do so. In the wake of this intervention, a team led by the International Food Policy Research Institute was contracted to assess the quality of this humanitarian response along four primary dimension: Assess the quality of the national food security assessments which began the response; Investigate the accuracy of the geographical and beneficiary targeting within selected areas; conduct an operational assessment of the humanitarian response design and implementation; and Assess overall programme and draw technical, market, and methodological implications for the design of future humanitarian responses and their contribution to resilience building. This Discussion Paper provides considerable detail on which facets of the implementation of FIRP were successful and where implementation fell short in addressing the needs of the affected population, in ensuring that Malawi was better prepared for future food crises, and in laying a foundation for improved resilience in the face of such shocks for both the affected households and Malawi as a whole. The 2016/17 FIRP was largely successful in preventing disaster and saving lives and livelihoods. However, the assessment of the design and implementation of the FIRP highlighted the high level of dependency of the Malawi government on its development partners for resources to undertake such humanitarian responses and the significant deficiencies in the technical and institutional capacity of the institutions responsible for responding. Unless the cycle of food insecurity is broken and the resilience of Malawian food systems increased, the government of Malawi and its development partners will continue to depend on FIRP-type interventions to save people’s lives and protect them from food insecurity and hunger.

Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi

Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi PDF Author: Babu, Suresh Chandra
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Get Book Here

Book Description
Following poor harvests in the 2015/16 cropping season in Malawi, vulnerability assessments found that nearly 6.7 million people, primarily in the Southern and Central regions, were likely to suffer from food insecurity before the next harvest. The government of Malawi and its development partners designed the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme (FIRP) in Malawi to meet the food needs of many of the households affected, mobilizing approximately USD 265 million in resources to do so. In the wake of this intervention, a team led by the International Food Policy Research Institute was contracted to assess the quality of this humanitarian response along four primary dimension: Assess the quality of the national food security assessments which began the response; Investigate the accuracy of the geographical and beneficiary targeting within selected areas; conduct an operational assessment of the humanitarian response design and implementation; and Assess overall programme and draw technical, market, and methodological implications for the design of future humanitarian responses and their contribution to resilience building. This Discussion Paper provides considerable detail on which facets of the implementation of FIRP were successful and where implementation fell short in addressing the needs of the affected population, in ensuring that Malawi was better prepared for future food crises, and in laying a foundation for improved resilience in the face of such shocks for both the affected households and Malawi as a whole. The 2016/17 FIRP was largely successful in preventing disaster and saving lives and livelihoods. However, the assessment of the design and implementation of the FIRP highlighted the high level of dependency of the Malawi government on its development partners for resources to undertake such humanitarian responses and the significant deficiencies in the technical and institutional capacity of the institutions responsible for responding. Unless the cycle of food insecurity is broken and the resilience of Malawian food systems increased, the government of Malawi and its development partners will continue to depend on FIRP-type interventions to save people’s lives and protect them from food insecurity and hunger.

Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi

Assessment of the 2016/17 Food Insecurity Response Programme in Malawi PDF Author: Suresh Chandra Babu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Examining perceptions of food assistance on household food security and resilience in Malawi

Examining perceptions of food assistance on household food security and resilience in Malawi PDF Author: Margolies, Amy
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
Improving social assistance programs is imperative to addressing problems of poverty and vulnerability in Malawi. Emergency aid has played an important role in alleviating hunger during humanitarian crises such as those in 2015-16 and 2016-17. However, the Government of Malawi and development partners recognize that emergency responses are not a sustainable solution to address vulnerability. This qualitative study examines the characteristics of resilient households and perceived effects of programs to improve food security and resilience from the perspectives of the beneficiaries and communities they serve. This beneficiary-centered approach explores socially-defined concepts of resilience, associated coping strategies, norms and political dynamics affecting programs. These findings can provide useful insights to improve the effectiveness of social assistance programs in this context.

Impacts of the 2016/17 food insecurity response program on maize prices in Malawi: Synopsis

Impacts of the 2016/17 food insecurity response program on maize prices in Malawi: Synopsis PDF Author: Baulch, Bob
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
In early 2016, Malawi suffered its second consecutive year of harvest failure. An emergency was declared in April 2016 and the resulting humanitarian response, known as the Food Insecurity Response Program (FIRP), was of unprecedented scale: almost 40 percent of the population received in-kind food or cash transfers (or both) at an estimated cost of US$ 287 million. Yet despite the extensive nature of the response, prices for the main food staple, maize, stayed relatively ‘flat’ throughout most of the year and then declined during the pre-harvest lean season. This paper examines this paradox, focusing on why in-kind food distribution did not depress maize prices while cash transfers did not raise them. Using daily information on maize prices, and food and cash transfers from ten major markets during the height of the FIRP, we employ time series methods to analyze the properties of the series and model the formation of maize prices using autoregressive distributed lag models.

Are Malawian Diets Changing? An assessment of nutrient consumption and dietary patterns using household-level evidence from 2010/11 and 2016/17

Are Malawian Diets Changing? An assessment of nutrient consumption and dietary patterns using household-level evidence from 2010/11 and 2016/17 PDF Author: Gilbert, Rachel
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This paper provides an updated analysis of the dietary patterns of Malawian households and their consumption of select nutrients - calories, protein, iron, vitamin A, zinc, and folate - using data from the third (2010/11) and fourth (2016/17) rounds of the Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS). Changes in food and nutrient consumption patterns between the two survey periods are examined across household wealth categories and across regions. Dietary diversity and patterns of food and nutrient consumption are found to differ significantly between rural and urban areas. Whereas urban households largely saw slightly increased or stable nutrient consumption between 2010/11 and 2016/17, most households in rural areas saw declines over this period. We also document small shifts in the relative amounts of foods consumed over this six-year period in both rural and urban households, with increased consumption of fish and pulses, legumes, and nuts, and decreases in meat, fruit, dairy, and root and tuber consumption. The contribution of animal-source foods as a share of total protein consumption remains low at between 10 and 20 percent, depending on the region, with the overall share of protein from animal-source foods falling slightly between the two surveys. With regards to adequacy of household diets for meeting nutrient requirements, in the absence of nutrient supplementation, many individuals will be subject to iron, vitamin A, and folate inadequacies. Of particular concern, the poorest households have very low nutrient consumption per person and have diets that rely on only a few foods from a small number of food groups. For all six nutrients, nationally just over half of the total amount of nutrient consumed came from food that was purchased. While we would expect this for urban households, even for rural households more than half of all calories and protein consumed came from foods that were purchased. For micronutrients consumed by rural households, between 40 and 50 percent came from purchased foods. While in the past, own production of food may have provided most Malawian households with most of the nutrients they consumed, this is no longer the case. For most Malawian households, including in rural communities, their food security and dietary nutritional needs now are equally tied to the market as to their own farming, if not more so. Drawing lessons from the analysis here for improving the food consumption data collected in the IHS surveys, more detailed and further disaggregated data would be beneficial, particularly to help estimate nutrients derived from fortified and processed foods. Additional information on how food is shared within households would also allow for a better understanding of nutrient inadequacies at the individual level. Collecting more information on the content of the meals that household members eat away from home would also be helpful in removing some uncertainty in the nutrient consumption estimates made from the data. Finally, additional information on food gifts received could clarify aspects of household coping strategies, the performance of formal social safety nets, and food choice.

Targeting hunger or votes? The political economy of humanitarian transfers in Malawi

Targeting hunger or votes? The political economy of humanitarian transfers in Malawi PDF Author: Duchoslav, Jan
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Do electoral considerations play a role in the targeting of humanitarian transfers? We analyze the targeting of direct cash and food transfers distributed in Malawi in response to an exceptionally poor harvest following a late and erratic rainy season of 2015-16. Combining household survey data on transfers with a remotely sensed measure of drought and with the results of the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections, we show that transfers were disproportionately targeted at marginal constituencies. Rather than distributing the transfers based solely on need or mobilizing its tribal base, the government attempted to persuade swing voters to support its candidates in the next elections. We nd no evidence that this strategy was successful at increasing the vote of ruling party candidates in subsequent elections.

Disentangling food security from subsistence agriculture in Malawi

Disentangling food security from subsistence agriculture in Malawi PDF Author: Benson, Todd
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896294056
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


Building resilient food systems: An analytical review

Building resilient food systems: An analytical review PDF Author: Iyappan, Karunya
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
In this paper we undertake an analytical review of the extant literature on the building food system resilience. While the concept of food system resilience has become a topical issue in global and national policy discussion, there is little research on how to develop operational procedures to design and implement interventions from the food system and resilience perspective. This review identifies five major entry points to strengthen food system resilience in the national context: policy, institutions, technology, capacity, and governance. Measurement issues and analytical approaches to studying food system resilience are reviewed. We conclude that while there is a large gap in the methodological approaches to study the food system resilience, beginning with the case studies of understanding specific elements of a food system and their role in enhancing resilience would be good starting point for addressing thematic issues, challenges and constraints facing resilience of the food systems.

The quality of agriculture and food security policy processes at national level in Malawi: Results from the 2017/18 Malawi Agriculture and Food Security Policy Processes Endline Survey

The quality of agriculture and food security policy processes at national level in Malawi: Results from the 2017/18 Malawi Agriculture and Food Security Policy Processes Endline Survey PDF Author: Benson, Todd
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Over the past ten years, there have been several initiatives in Malawi to strengthen the processes through which the design and content of policies, strategies, and programs in the agriculture sector that affect the nation’s food security are established. In this report we present results of a study to assess the quality of these policy processes and the institutional framework through which they are conducted and how perceptions of the quality of those processes and institutions is changing over time. The study is based on a two-round survey of national stakeholders in Malawi on issues centered on agriculture or food security that was conducted in 2015 and 2017/18.

Evaluation of FAO’s contribution to building resilience to El Niño-induced drought in Southern Africa 2016-2017

Evaluation of FAO’s contribution to building resilience to El Niño-induced drought in Southern Africa 2016-2017 PDF Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251320217
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
During the 2015–2016 agricultural season, Southern Africa experienced intense drought due to one of the strongest El Niño events in 50 years. With 70 percent of the population reliant on agriculture, El Niño had a direct impact on food security and caused loss of income across crop and livestock value chains. FAO activated a corporate surge support and launched its Southern Africa El Niño Response Plan, appealing for USD 109 million to support government efforts to rebuild and fortify agricultural livelihoods, restoring agricultural production, incomes and assets and increasing household access to nutritious food. FAO country teams translated the regional plan into tailored intervention packages on the ground. But while agro-meteorological and early-warning alerts were timely, they did not trigger early action. The evaluation calls on FAO to initiate a systematic approach to adaptive programming, to conduct an in-depth analysis of the factors that slowed delivery in Southern Africa, to expand on the targeting of different groups, so as to meet the needs of farmers with varying degrees of vulnerability, and to bolster learning, information-sharing and advocacy efforts across countries.