Improving food security and nutrition through cash+ in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked, lower-middle-income country in Central Asia with a population of 7 million. Between 2012 and 2019 the level of poverty declined significantly, but poverty rates in rural areas remained higher than in urban areas, with healthy diets unaffordable for 48 percent of the rural population and a stunting prevalence of 11.8 percent in 2018. Economic constraints in affording healthy diets continue to hinder the country’s efforts to address undernutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiency, including the rising number of adults and children overweight.
Against this background, FAO implemented the project “Developing capacity for strengthening food security and nutrition in selected countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia” to improve the livelihoods, productive capacities, and food and nutrition security of poor and vulnerable households. This promising practice factsheet documents the intervention implemented in Kyrgyzstan from late 2017 to the end of 2018, with selected beneficiaries among households benefiting from the country’s main social assistance programme, which transfers cash assistance every month to households with children under 16 years of age and with earnings below the country’s guaranteed minimum income.
SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS
- On social protection: The intervention benefited from a coherent and multisectoral approach that combined social protection and agricultural assistance to deliver positive changes in terms of food security, nutrition, income and livelihoods. As a result, it attracted the interest of both the government and the beneficiaries, with good local ownership and strong support from local administrations. The intervention shows that building coherence between social protection and other rural development programmes and policies is a promising way to reduce rural poverty. The intervention successfully increased the collaboration between government ministries in charge of social protection and agriculture and demonstrated the benefit of working in a coordinated manner to reduce rural poverty. Moreover, leveraging an existing national social protection programme facilitated the government’s uptake of the approach. For example, the evidence of positive impacts generated by the intervention informed a new programming approach to support food-insecure households, which was integrated in the Kyrgyzstan national food security and nutrition programme 2019–2023.
- On community engagement: FAO designed the assistance package based on a quick field assessment of the profile of poor and vulnerable households and consultations with local communities. The consultations with the communities helped identify crops that were easy to grow and manage, requiring limited labour and water. They also helped identify nutritional needs that could be addressed by providing beneficiaries with nutritious crops such as green leafy vegetables and pulses. However, future projects should be fully based on a participatory approach, with a strong emphasis on engaging beneficiaries from the very beginning leading to a more robust and efficient project design.
- On nutrition: The intervention improved food security and dietary diversity in beneficiary households, particularly for children and women, who increased their consumption of fruit and vegetables, and food rich in protein and vitamin A. Nutrition education contributed to this outcome by improving nutritional awareness within households and communities. Data from a microsimulation showed that the intervention would positively impact dietary diversity if it were expanded to cover all poor rural households in the country.
- On cash: The cash+ intervention aimed to support livelihoods enhancement and agricultural productive capacities of beneficiaries while improving their knowledge of nutrition. Households received one of three assistance packages, including a greenhouse and various types of seeds, as well as nutrition and agricultural training focused on saving technologies, integrated pest management, basic home food processing and climate-smart agriculture practices. In fragile or emergency contexts, social protection schemes and rural development programmes can provide rapid, timely and adequate support to vulnerable households in anticipation of and/or in response to shocks using cash+ as a delivery mechanism.
- On gender: The intervention facilitated the integration of beneficiaries into the community and contributed to their empowerment. For instance, female beneficiaries acknowledged that they felt more included in public life and reported the emergence of new social networks: they reported meeting new people in the community, making new friends and communicating more with neighbours and other community members. However, no significant change in women’s decision-making power was observed. Further improvements are needed to address women’s specific needs and constraints, starting from the project design phase and throughout project implementation. A comprehensive study of gender roles in the local context could improve the impact of the intervention on household dynamics, distribution of labour between women and men, and women’s economic empowerment.
- On climate: Future similar interventions should integrate climate-change adaptation and resilience-building, where possible, to prevent rural households from falling deeper into poverty due to the impacts of increasing climate risks. These actions can include climate-smart agriculture practices, distribution of drought-tolerant seeds, or water harvesting techniques, among others. Moreover, a comprehensive package of support is necessary to achieve better agricultural production, related incomes and livelihood outcomes. Such a package includes better organization of producers, providing support for resolving irrigation challenges, the provision of productive inputs and extension services, and rural finance support. Stronger linkages with stable markets are also needed and could be facilitated by providing support infrastructure including logistics, storage and processing.