24 November 2020, Suva/Apia/Rome -Tourists list Fiji among the top countries they would most like to visit when borders reopen after lifting travel bans due to COVID-19. However, its iconic image as a successful destination for holidays and honeymoons does not reflect the country’s current reality.

Fiji is a middle-income country and agriculture is the backbone of its economy, comprised mainly of subsistence farming –over 80 percent of farmers are smallholders who live in rural areas.

In the wake of COVID-19, thousands of tourism workers are unemployed and remittances are drying up, a vital financial lifeline for many families. This is likely to be translated into lower household income and low purchasing power, particularly for vulnerable groups like women and children. In turn, healthy diets become less affordable, and obesity and overweight are a major problem, affecting two quarters of the adult population.

The geography of the countries in the Pacific makes it even harder in the fight against hunger and malnutrition: large distances between islands, low population densities and grave vulnerabilities to climate change. Fiji spreads over 300 islands in the Pacific, which increases labour and transport costs for small and medium sized producers.

A visit to a local market speaks for itself: together with fresh products, which can be very expensive especially in the offseason, imported and ultra-processed foods are cheaper. Obesity, closely linked with diet related non-communicable diseases, causes eight out of ten deaths in the country, affecting one in three adults, and being especially worrying among poor women in urban areas.

Against this backdrop, Fiji is gearing up towards improving people´s lives and make real progress to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. With this aim, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has set up the Strategic Development Plan (SDP). The Plan serves as a roadmap: a guiding document that regulates the basis for making decisions at country level towards food security and nutrition (FSN). It sets out what needs to be done, by whom, how and for whom. It also lays down innovative policy elements, applying human rights principles.

In this commitment, Fiji is teaming up with the Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation programme (FIRST), a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU). Since early stages, FIRST brought together different parties for discussion and facilitated the revision of the SDP, and now it is supporting the effective implementation and the elaboration of the monitoring and evaluation.

Setting the scene: policy making in action

The right to adequate food may be enshrined in international law, recognized in constitutions or included in national legislation. This aims to enable that everyone has access at all times to sufficient, affordable, safe and nutritious food that is culturally acceptable and capable of meeting each individual's dietary needs. In order to ensure the full realization of this human right, countries have to translate the right to adequate food into strong sets of rules that are adjusted to the context, clarify how to implement actions and bring long-lasting effects.  

With the SDP, Fiji brings to the fore some of the ingredients that any policy aiming towards the progressive realization of the human right to adequate food should incorporate. Let´s check out the recipe!

1. Right to adequate food at the core

The SDP contributes to the National Development Plan (NDP), launched by the Fijian Government in 2017 and focused on where Fiji intends to be in 20 years, in ensuring access to adequate food of acceptable quality and nutritional value for every Fijian. This is rooted in the normative content of the right to food adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1999.

Several strategies are developed at the country level in order to achieve these goals, including the adoption of climate smart agriculture practices, empowerment of women and youth, and school focused interventions.

Since the start of the pandemic, MoA has put efforts on ensuring availability and stability of food. As part of COVID-19 response, the Ministry has distributed seed packages to individuals so that they plant their own vegetables and fruits at home. This has increased their purchasing power from saving food on bills and fall-back provisions in the event of food shortages. It is also making domestically produced healthy food available in the local markets.

2. Coming from different backgrounds to work together

Gathering the know-how of experts from diverse areas allows issues to be addressed across distinct perspectives. This complements and bridges sector-specific agendas, resulting in a more holistic overview.

The MoA ensures the implementation of the SDP. At the same time, it is fully aware that achieving sound progress in FSN requires additional support. The involvement of other ministries in the formulation of the SDP, such as the Ministry of Health and Education are clear proof of this.

Nutrition, which was health driven in the past, is now becoming part of the portfolio of other sectors with agriculture leading this change and engaging other key players from health, education and trade.

“This model fosters long-term coherence between policies and breaks with the common way of operating in the Pacific, where most of the countries still see FSN from a sectoral perspective”, explains Eriko Hibi, FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific Islands. 

3. Seat multiple stakeholders around the table!

States have a primary responsibility for the progressive realization of the right to adequate food. At the same time, drawing together the experience and expertise of all relevant stakeholders, encompassing academia and the private sector, brings tremendous benefits.

“One of the advantages of such a participatory process with inputs from other Ministries’ staff and sectoral stakeholders is that the strategies, outcomes and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the SDP become validated from a wider perspective, that makes them more legitimate and relevant”, points out Ritesh Dass, Fiji’ s Permanent Secretary for Agriculture. “It also created a deeper sense of ownership amongst the different actors, since they were able to identify their own contributions, and more targeted achievements at the end of each year.”

4. Nutrition adds value

The right to adequate food is not only about feeding people, but nourishing them. It is also about having access to enough food, in quantity and quality, to meet the nutritional needs of people for a healthy life. In sum, a very important part of being healthy depends on having a good diet.

“The SDP includes in its first priority a decisive pledge not only for food security but also for nutrition, understanding that actions need to be taken from the agriculture sector in order to make real progress on SDG 2”, underlines Dass.

The backyard gardens initiative (also used for the response plan for COVID-19) aims to raise awareness about the importance of producing and accessing local food for the consumption of root crops, vegetables and fruits, away from ultra-processed cheap foods high in salt, fat and sugar content. Here, beneficiaries receive packages of up to 25 potting bags, 5 bags of garden soils, seeds and seedlings for crops and fruit trees; and must complete Gardener Profile Forms for the monitoring and evaluation of their gardens.

4. Monitoring

Monitoring can significantly contribute to protect the enjoyment of the right to adequate food. Policies need to be measured, to check and keep track about how far they have progressed and if they are meeting the expected results.

The SDP contains a set of indicators to make sure there are no inconsistencies in the information, and any changes to the planned actions are justified and provided on time. In addition, the MoA supports officers to consolidate their technical skills to carry out data analysis. Catching the right information gives a realistic overview of the state of agriculture, and makes projects or plans more feasible and closer to success.

5. Financial resources

Policies, plans and programmes cannot be implemented without funding. Budgets are the most concrete and objective measure of a government’s commitment to the recognition of the right to food.

Obtaining adequate financial resources is always a challenge. “But we are improving in how connected are priorities in the SDP to the programme budgets to make sure that resources allocation is aligned with the main MoA objectives”, underlines the Permanent Secretary.

Looking ahead: open pathways for consolidating the right to food

The design and implementation of the SDP is certainly a good reference in the region. But securing FSN, at a time when COVID-19 is spreading across the world, will require extensive efforts.

“Putting the Human Rights agenda including the Right to Food in practice and addressing existing challenges requires additional capacities and knowledge, greater level of resources and strengthened institutions that need to be underpinned by strong political commitment at all levels”, expresses Hibi.

Empowering famers is crucial to make their voices be heard in the policy arena. This is the purpose of the Fiji Crop and Livestock Council (FCLC), the Government´s umbrella body for Fiji's non-sugar agricultural sector, comprised of 15 national commodity associations that represent almost 60,000 farmers. The Council, in coordination with the extension officers of the MoA, facilitates capacity training development. “It is like having a shopping list from the farmers: we identify their needs and align them with the priorities of the government”, explains Jiu Daunivalu, chief executive officer (CEO) of FCLC. If farmers have the knowledge –they understand the market, the value chain, who are the actors and the enablers, etc., they are more capable to claim their demands and hold a stronger position, she adds.

Almost 90% of land is owned by indigenous Fijians (iTaukei), whose cultural identity determines the household economy. They are confronted with the difficult task of trying to maintain their beliefs and values (kerekere) against the influences of the market economy. It is a kind of dichotomous thinking between modernity and tradition. For instance, on the occasion of a wedding, a farmer shall give to the family half of the harvest, as moral obligation. As a consequence, less of the production remains available to commercialize. FCLC is working to help farmers to find a balance between maximizing their profits and fulfilling their social obligations. Professionalization and education allow them to upscale their skills and to practice not only subsistence agriculture but also commercially oriented, comments Daunivalu.

From the top of the political agenda, the SDP is driving Fiji to move forward towards the realization of the right to food for all people. Meanwhile, recovery from COVID-19 can mean an additional opportunity to hit the reset button and building back better, embracing a more sustainable future.