Foreword

Every year, floods, droughts, earthquakes, outbreaks of plant and animal pests and diseases and other natural disasters adversely affect the lives of millions of people in the developing world. In many countries, armed conflicts, natural disasters and other forms of crisis have caused widespread destruction and have forced families to abandon their homes, farms and villages. Access to adequate food becomes difficult, and this hardship contributes to high rates of malnutrition. The provision of food, water, shelter, protection and medical care is essential if refugees and internally displaced persons are to survive until such time as they can return to their homes or establish new ones.

Temporary food distribution and supplementary feeding for vulnerable groups are common humanitarian interventions that are necessary to help people to cope under emergency conditions. However, at the same time, assistance is also often needed to help restore local food production and to reduce the dependency on food aid. Creating the conditions in which households can meet their own basic needs and sustain their nutritional well-being is a fundamental aspect of the recovery process. Through its Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division, FAO plays a vital role in the aftermath of natural disasters and conflicts in saving and enhancing rural livelihoods.

The Food and Nutrition Division has prepared this book as a complement to the Technical Handbook Series on FAO's Emergency Activities. It offers guidance to programme planners and technicians in the fields of nutrition, food security, agriculture and community and social development in adopting a longer-term perspective to addressing problems of household food insecurity and malnutrition during periods of crisis and recovery. It provides a framework for an implementation strategy that focuses not only on saving lives in the short term, but also on strengthening livelihoods to ensure that households are less vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity in the future.

Actions and interventions for saving lives and livelihoods need to be designed in a way that helps households to realize their right to food and ensure the nutritional well-being of their members, not only in the short term, but also in the medium to long terms. Making improved nutritional well-being a distinct goal within the context of a broad-based livelihoods approach when dealing with crisis has two advantages. First, it focuses on people and emphasizes the need to strengthen local capacity to protect and promote nutritional well-being. Second, a focus on improved nutritional well-being provides a number of entry points for different sectoral interventions in health, agriculture and community development. Such multisectoral interventions are key to supporting communities' efforts to overcome long-term threats to their livelihoods and nutritional well-being.

The resource material in this book has been drawn from a range of publications, reports and documents related to experiences of crises around the world. As sub-Saharan Africa has had a large share of crises during recent decades, many examples are taken from this region. Nevertheless, the general information, principles and approaches promoted in this book are of universal application.

As experiences in this area are continually evolving, this is a working document for use in different working environments, countries and regions. We would like to encourage users to make comments and suggestions for future editions. It is hoped that the document will stimulate government organizations, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to pilot some of the proposed strategies and approaches, and to provide feedback in the form of case study material and lessons learned. Academic institutions may use the materials for training nutritionists and other technical staff wishing to acquire basic skills in programme planning and implementation in emergency situations.