Over the past decades, at world summits and international conferences, several declarations have been agreed upon that aim at social and economic progress for enhancing food security and reducing poverty. Targets set during these meetings have not always been met, and expectations for the future do not promise improvements.
These declarations have assigned prime responsibility for food security and poverty reduction to national governments (FAO, 1996, 2002). For complex and dynamic matters such as food security and poverty reduction, concerted efforts among international and national institutions are needed to establish action plans that add up to a coherent strategy for achieving overarching goals. To this end, the UN and the World Bank have instigated the preparation of country reports that describe development status and the priorities for meeting targets (UN, 2003; World Bank, 2003).
By 1 September 2002, some 106 countries had produced a Common Country Assessment (CCA) report, supported by the UN Development Group Office (UNDGO), and 47 countries had produced, or were in the process of producing, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), at the instigation of the World Bank.
At the request of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this present document describes a review of 50 CCA reports and 25 PRSPs, viewed from the perspective of food insecurity and vulnerability. This chapter describes the institutional context and the purpose of the review. The review was carried out based on the terms of reference (TOR) agreed between FAO and Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), components of which have been incorporated in this document (see Appendix I).
This section discusses the institutional setting of this study. This is necessary because the objectives of the review are strongly associated with that setting.
The World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996 identified the need for the following actions to remedy problems of hunger around the world:
1. Target people and areas suffering from hunger.
2. Identify the causes of hunger.
3. Take remedial action to reduce the hunger situation.
WFS also recommended more complete and user-friendly sources of information at all levels. In order to do this, the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) concept was established to respond to the need to monitor the number of hungry people globally and to strengthen existing national information systems. FIVIMS was established to assist national governments and other institutions to make vigorous efforts towards reducing the number of undernourished people in the world by at least half by the year 2015, as targeted at WFS. FIVIMS therefore aims to provide accurate and timely information to enable the better assessment of the current situation of food insecure and vulnerable people, for the design and evaluation of possible policies and interventions, and for monitoring purposes.
FIVIMS is any system or network of systems that assembles, analyses and disseminates information about people who are food insecure or at risk: who they are, where they are located, and why they are food insecure or vulnerable. The system has a flexible structure that makes use of existing information systems, can be used in many different national situations, and is responsive to the expressed needs of national user groups (IAWG, 2000).
The Inter-Agency Working Group on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Mapping Systems (IAWG-FIVIMS) was set up as the mechanism to oversee the development of FIVIMS. It has a permanent secretariat at FAO. The IAWG includes representatives of some 30 agencies and organizations, including multilateral and bilateral aid institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
UNDGO is the main UN body promoting UN system reform. It has established a CCA process as a national follow-up tool for international summits (CCA, 1999). The CCA describes the evolution of the national situation, and compiles information from a wide range of sources and organizations as a basis for an in-depth analysis of development problems. The analysis provided in the CCA reports should not restrict itself to immediate causes, but should also uncover underlying and fundamental causes. It is perceived that the scope of the CCA reports should be extended so it can be used as a monitoring and intervention tool at subnational level for problems such as food insecurity and vulnerability.
CCA is an essential step for the preparation of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), a planning framework for the development operations of the UN system at country level. It is the foundation for collaboration between the national government and UN organizations and programmes.
PRSPs describe the macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes designed by countries to promote growth, reduce poverty and deal with associated external financing needs. Governments prepare PRSPs through a participatory process involving civil society and development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Completion of a PRSP is necessary for less developed countries to be eligible for debt relief and for concessional IMF lending under the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative. A PRSP aims to describe who the poor are and where they live. It analyses the macroeconomic, social, structural and institutional constraints to fostering growth and reducing poverty, and sets out policies that comprise a comprehensive strategy for achieving poverty reduction.
WUR is a knowledge centre with international experience in the fields of food and nutrition, agriculture, natural resources and rural development. Over the past years, a group of over 30 Wageningen scientists from a wide range of disciplines - from the social to the biophysical - have discussed the issue of food security in a series of workshops. They developed a comprehensive view on the various aspects of food insecurity and their interrelations, as well as on the structural and dynamic patterns that cause food insecurity in different countries (Koning, Bindraban and Essers, 2002). The interdisciplinary nature of this team provides a solid basis from which to address the complex problem of food insecurity.
Incorporating FIVIMS into CCA and PRSP offers two significant potential benefits: first, it can greatly improve CCA, UNDAF and PRSP documents by linking them to a subnational database improvement process, focused on the better identification and targeting of food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty, and, second, it can enhance the institutional sustainability of FIVIMS-type data collection, analysis and dissemination efforts through closer integration into key development planning mechanisms (such as CCA/UNDAF and the PRSP process) involving national governments and their key development partners. Recognition of these potential benefits resulted in an agreement between UNDGO and the FIVIMS Secretariat concerning integrating FIVIMS work into the CCA processes. It was considered equally beneficial if the same could be done with the PRSP processes.
The main objective of the joint FIVIMS/CCA/PRSP project is to define a global strategy on how to incorporate national FIVIMS into the CCA/UNDAF and PRSP processes. An important activity of the joint FIVIMS/CCA/PRSP project is, therefore, to analyse to what extent problems of food insecurity and vulnerability are reflected in CCA reports and PRSPs, and to identify information gaps. To foster our understanding on these issues, a desk study of selected CCA reports and PRSPs was undertaken.
The objective of this review were:
to assess the extent to which problems of food insecurity and vulnerability are being considered, and how they are analysed in CCA reports and PRSPs; and
to identify information gaps where FIVIMS can make a valuable contribution to the CCA reports and PRSPs.
FAO and WUR agreed to the carrying out of the review of the CCA reports and PRSPs, with the objectives noted earlier. The terms of reference (TOR) between FAO and WUR formed the basis for the review process, and included a checklist of twenty items (see Appendix I). These twenty items provided the starting point for the selection of the country reports to be included in the review, and for the development of a predefined framework for analysis of the country reports (see Appendix VI). An interdisciplinary team at WUR was responsible for carrying out the review, and was asked to produce a document on the following basis:
review the “CCA/UNDAF Status” table and outline the number and status of CCA reports and PRSPs by region;
select a representative sample of 50 CCA reports and analyse their contents;
similarly, select 25 PRSPs, choosing where possible countries already selected for the CCA report review, and conduct a similar analysis (allowing for comparison between the CCA and PRSP for each country);
assess the extent to which problems of food insecurity and vulnerability are being considered and how they are analysed in each document, and in various groupings (all CCA reports; all PRSPs in Africa; etc.);
describe and analyse the major findings of the desk study in a final document, including consideration of the extent to which CCA reports and PRSPs agree with (i) the IAWG-FIVIMS conceptual framework of possible causes of food insecurity and vulnerability; (ii) indicators as defined in the CCA indicator framework (CIF); and (iii) the mandate for monitoring the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and
finally, based on integrated analysis, by region across cases, identify information gaps where FIVIMS can make a valuable contribution to the CCA reports and PRSPs processes.
Chapter 2 provides a description of the review team and their mode of operation. The country selection process is concisely described, and the development of the predefined framework for analysis for the actual review is explained.
Chapter 3 addresses the first 19 items in the TOR checklist (see Appendix I) in a logical order and presents an overall view of the status of the country reports with respect to food insecurity and vulnerability.
In Chapter 4, the consistency among various domains and cross-linkages has been critically examined. Are policy recommendations and interventions in line with, for instance, data analyses that support intervention measures?
Chapter 5 discusses findings, reflecting the TOR checklist of items up to and including No. 19.
Recommendations are made in the final chapter. Suggestions are also given for ways to improve the organization, preparation process and conceptualization analysis of the CCA reports and PRSPs. Differences and possible synergies between CCA reports and PRSPs are highlighted. Recommendations on how FIVIMS can effectively contribute to strengthen the process of developing CCA reports and PRSPs are made, responding to checklist item 20.
