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Monitoring commitment and capacity to act on food insecurity and malnutrition: the Food Security Commitment and Capacity Profile methodology

There is a global consensus that strong political commitment by Governments and development partners is key to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. It is against this background that FAO has developed a methodology to assess and track efforts of national stakeholders to act on food insecurity and malnutrition: the Food Security Commitment and Capacity Profile (FSCCP) ( http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3998e.pdf ).

The methodology provides a tool that helps stakeholders to:

1. Carry out a systematic assessment of political commitment and capacity of countries to act on food insecurity and malnutrition;

2. Engage in evidence-based policy dialogue, planning and prioritization of investments in food security and nutrition; and

3. Monitor performance over time;

The methodology has been applied since 2013 in the context of FAO’s corporate Results Framework (http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/030/mk234ea1.pdf) for planning and monitoring progress of efforts to reduce hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

The food security commitment and capacity country profile is designed as a balanced score card which provides a concise view of countries’ commitments and institutional capacities in terms of four key dimensions of the enabling environment, namely:

i. Policies, programmes and legal frameworks: i.e. the country has comprehensive policies/ strategies and investment programmes (based on evidence, addressing underlying causes of food insecurity and adopting a twin-track approach) that are supported by a legal framework;

ii. Human and financial resources: i.e. policies/strategies, programmes and legislation that are translated into effective action through the allocation of the necessary financial and human resources and solid administrative capacity of governments;

iii. Governance, coordination mechanisms and partnerships: i.e. the government regards food security and nutrition as an interdisciplinary priority by setting up a high level inter-ministerial unit responsible for the design, implementation and coordination of food security and nutrition responses, while ensuring accountability through its support to independent human rights institutions that provide people with means to file violations of the right to food. Furthermore, a government that takes on a lead role in managing partnerships and coordinated action across a broad range of actors and sectors involved in food security and nutrition at national/decentralized levels, creating space for civil society participation;

iv. Evidenced-based decision-making: i.e. decision-making on food security and nutrition that draws on evidence generated from functional information systems that make it possible to monitor trends; track and map actions; and assess impact in a manner that is timely and comprehensive, allowing for lessons learned to be fed back into the policy process.

For each of these four dimensions, the methodology paper outlines:

1. A set of core indicators and associated qualifiers;

2. The approach to producing a score for each of the qualifiers and indicators;

3. Details on the sources of the required data and information.

4. A survey instrument and secondary data collection tools.

Apart from helping FAO to measure the outcome of its work on food security and nutrition, it is expected that the country profiles will also stimulate debate on how to improve the enabling environment for food security and nutrition and promote more systematic learning and sharing of experiences.

It would be interesting to hear from the experiences of other agencies and sectors that are monitoring political commitment.

SOFI 2014 presents updated estimates of undernourishment and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets.

The 2014 report also presents further insights into the suite of food security indicators introduced in 2013 and analyses in greater depth the dimensions of food security – availability, access, stability and utilization.

In addition, this year’s report examines the diverse experiences of seven countries, with a specific focus on the enabling environment for food security and nutrition that reflects commitment and capacities across four dimensions: policies, programmes and legal frameworks; mobilization of human and financial resources; coordination mechanisms and partnerships; and evidence-based decision-making.

You can read the key messages or download your full copy from the FAO website: www.fao.org/publications/sofi. 

Due to continuing rural-urban migration, over 50% of the world’s population now lives in densely populated urban areas. They rely heavily on all sorts of markets for their daily food needs. These are supplied through overstressed, complex agro-logistical networks that often fail. This course offered by the Centre for Development Innovation of Wageningen UR focuses on how rural production and urban market systems can be integrated such that rural and urban communities can access nutritious food that is both affordable and acceptable.

The fourth issue of the IPC Newsletter highlights important initiatives and technical developments undertaken at global level, among them the Global Event on the Use and Impact of IPC, the Launch of the IPC Chronic Food Insecurity Classification and the new IPC Nutrition Classification initiative. It also features recent IPC impacts, results and progress achieved at Regional and Country Level in Africa, Asia,  Latin America and Near East.