Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

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Sr. Jeston Lunda

Miembro desde
Organización: Action Aid
País: Zambia
Campo(s) de especialización:
I am working on:

Policy analysis on sustainable agriculture, natural resource management & climate change, governance, women's rights - to engage with policy makers on finding more effective ways of strengthening policies around these areas so as to contribute effectively to addressing inequalities and enhancing participation of the vulnerable and marginalized groups of society.

Este miembro contribuyó a:

    • Evidence based research can be key in n informing policy. Researchers and knowledge holders have the feel of how a piece of legislation impacts on the target group. By interacting with issues downstream they have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't and should be in a stronger position to advise policy makers as such. Unfortunately there is always a gap between researchers and policy developers. Policy developers have their own research unit which informs the process but that may not be enough as you need wider research and knowledge input from different perspectives such as gender , livelihood status, community priorities etc.  These are key factors to take into consideration for effective policy development . 

    • Policies and strategies should be tailored in the context of Human Rights Based Approach. This should be with recognition that poverty is one of the drivers of human rights abuse and especially the people living in poverty who are so vulnerable to abuse. Secondly, the policies should provide for localisation of protection mechanisms which empower local communities to report any form of abuse whilst ensuring victims are protected from victimisation. 

    • For a long time now, AEAS have been male dominated; due to mainly the patriarchy arrangements. Knowledge and exposure is perceived as a preserve of men. The problem is even deeper in rural areas where agriculture is the mainstay of people's livelihoods. This approach is however in contrast with the situation on the ground; women are more involved in provision of agricultural labor, they are responsible for providing food for the family. They are however doing all that with little or no knowledge as the knowledge is sitting with the man. The extension workers in most cases are male; who may have barriers to effectively connect with women to get to the underlying causes of the inequalities women experience and how these can be addressed. This is the gap and food insecurity continues to widen and deepen. Unless we begin to addressing the underlying causes which mainly touch on culture and tradition; unless we begin to transformatively empower women to understand their rights but also acquire reasonable levels of education and begin to create spaces for them to engage based on their needs; we will continue to experience these high levels of food insecurity and poor nutrition.

    • Nutrition sensitivity with regard food value chains is constrained by the lack of diversification due to land limitations and lack of diversity of seeds. Ever increasing populations coupled with unsustainable methods of farming make huge parcels of  land to become unproductive to support plant growth and pressure mount in terms of demand for limited arable land. This constrains diversification. The second point on lack of seed diversity  has increasingly worsened over the past years with the reinforcement of commercial agriculture which builds dependence on external seeds supplied by commercial entities. These seeds are hybrid in nature and therefore have to be bought every season. With the poverty levels among the rural farming households; they become dependent, lose food production sovereignity and can only bank on hybrids supplied by commercial entities. Further, due to the use of chemicals in the production, these can have adverse effects on human nutrition endangered by GMOs and residual chemical elements which compromises the quality of food.