Building livelihoods resilience and recovery from COVID-19 challenges in East and Southern Africa.

Globally, poverty is concentrated disproportionately among rural populations, most of whom depend, at least in part, on agriculture for their livelihoods and food security. Forecasts suggest that without significant shifts in policy, extreme poverty will still be in the double digits in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. About 79 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. The poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2 per cent—more than three times higher than in urban areas. Close to half of extremely poor people are children under 14 years of age.  

Covid 19 and other shocks such as droughts, floods, plant and animal pests and diseases have exacerbated this dire situation. 

To meet the global poverty reduction and food security objectives of the SDGs requires measures that address the unique constraints faced by rural households and that enable them to actively engage in a beneficial process of agricultural growth and rural transformation. This process must be inclusive, which also implies considering rural women who experience significant additional deprivations due to gender-based discrimination and disparities in economic well-being, food security and nutrition. Furthermore, during the current COVID-19 crisis, rural women have had to face specific constraints, not only because they are more likely to be involved in the informal sector, but also because they have limited access to information and participation in decision-making. In this context, agrifood systems, which are the biggest source of employment in rural areas, can play a major role.

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 have compounded these challenges by disrupting markets for agricultural inputs and outputs, reducing mobility, and undermining employment and income opportunities in the rural on farm and off-farm sectors. This has had a direct negative effect on the livelihoods, incomes and food and nutrition security of the rural poor, who depend on agriculture and related activities.

Both the Government of Kenya and Malawi are concerned that delivering social and financial services to rural areas is a challenge. Due to lack of services and weak institutional structures in the region, which makes rural workers organizations even more important for the expansion and improvement of delivery of these services. There is an urgent need for policies and programmes that address the immediate livelihood constraints placed on the rural poor as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, while laying a foundation for more effective and inclusive food systems to respond to covariate shocks. 

Strengthening coherence between social protection, livelihood interventions, early warning information and people’s engagement is critical for responding to the immediate challenges posed by Covid-19. This requires strengthening the institutional linkages between social protection and livelihood interventions, and the institutions, service systems and collective action capacities required to manage these linkages as well as strengthening gender inclusion of community-based organizations so that these are better able to actively engage in shaping development processes.

Three outputs are expected:

Output 1. Community-based organizations are better able to provide women- and men-headed rural housesholds working in the agrifood system with access to formal and informal social protection and to complementary services (social, productive/market-oriented, early warning information, NRM).   

• Kenya:  Community-based organizations of pastoralists, livestock breeders, and fisher folk are better able to support women- and men-headed households involved in pastoralism and livestock production and fisheries in accessing formal and informal social protection and complementary services (social, productive/market-oriented, early warning)  
• Malawi:  Community-based fisheries’ organizations are better able to support women- and men-headed households involved in small-scale fishing and aquaculture in accessing adequate formal and informal social protection and complementary services (social, productive/market-oriented, microfinance, early warning, NRM)  

Output 2. Rural, including gender-focused, institutions have increased capacities to engage in advocacy and policy dialogue with central and sub-national government agencies on issues related to expanding access to adequate social protection and complementary services (social and productive/market-oriented services, early warning information). 

• Kenya:  Community-based organizations of pastoralists, livestock breeders and fisher folks are better able to engage in /influence policy dialogue related to expanding adequate coverage of the National Safety Net Programme (NSNP) and the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) and on policies affecting their livelihood activities (e.g. harmonization of cross-border and country border levy on movement of animals and livestock, access to land)     
• Malawi: Community-based fishers’ organizations are better able to engage in/influence policy dialogue related to the updating of the implementation of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy, National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP), the National Resilience Strategy and the ten-year implementation plan for the Malawi 2063. 

Output 3: Increased understanding among policy makers, community-based organizations and practitioners in Africa and Latin America of community-based approaches to expanding access to social protection and complementary services and for strengthening the agency of community-based organizations - see link with FMM subprogramme “Building Livelihoods resilience, response and recovery from COVID-19 challenges in Latin America”.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

The subprogramme has been carefully designed to avoid and mitigate significant risks through the development of a detailed analysis of risk factors including political/security, financial/economic and environmental aspects along with their respective estimated scores for impact and likelihood and defined mitigation measures.

Overall, possible risks are low to medium. Limited interest and engagement of national counterparts could reduce impact.