Photo © FAO/ Precious Chitembwe

06 June 2017, Lusaka - The Government of Zambia and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have launched a Technical Cooperation Project (TCP), which will strengthen coherence between agriculture and social protection in the country. The project will mainly focus on developing human capacities within the ministries of Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock as well as the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services.

Speaking at the launch, the acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Cecilia Kamanga noted that the stimulation of economic growth and the achievement of a more equitable distribution of its benefits were key concerns of the Government. Kamanga emphasized the importance of agriculture and social protection interventions in reaching these goals.

Research has demonstrated that in the short term access to social protection benefits alone protects poor households from adverse impacts of shocks, reduces the erosion of productive assets and other negative coping mechanisms as well as contributing to improving food security and agricultural production. Similarly, agricultural interventions on their own can also promote growth in the productivity of poor small-scale farmers by addressing structural constraints that limit access to land, water resources, inputs, financial services, advisory services and markets.

However, coordinated and coherent agriculture and social protection interventions can ensure that poor small-scale farmers break out of the cycle of poverty, invest in agriculture using more productive technologies, allocate labour to on-farm activities, invest in human capital development and better manage risks. These impacts will enable them to engage in more productive livelihood and agricultural activities.

Poverty, food insecurity - still widespread among smallholders

FAO Zambia Country Representative, George Okech noted that case studies of African countries demonstrate that coordination between agriculture and social protection is not always pursued at policy and programmatic levels even when they have similar aims and stakeholders.

“Efforts at combating poverty and hunger need to focus on increasing production, productivity and while ensuring the adequate coverage of the rural poor by social protection interventions,” he said.

Poverty and food insecurity are still widespread in Zambia and concentrated among smallholder family farmers. Coherent agriculture and social protection interventions have an important role to play in combating poverty and food insecurity among this population group.

Despite some recent progress in the inter-ministerial coordination, much remains to be done. This is mainly due to the massive agricultural interventions that do not reach many of the poorest households and the limited understanding of the need for more coherent agricultural and social protection interventions. This project will work at addressing these challenges.

The Technical Cooperation Projects enable FAO to make its know-how and technical expertise available to member countries upon request. These projects ensure sustainable impacts, address a critical gap and lead to a transfer of technical knowledge in the country. They catalyze change; foster capacity development and assist countries in mobilizing resources, in line with the Country Programming Frameworks agreed to with governments.

The project is a two-year project to be implemented by FAO in close collaboration with Government Ministries and the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).