Tackling Food security in areas of transition
Action – Learning process APF-Uganda
Terms of Reference
1.
Introduction and rationale
Food security in Uganda1
Food security is defined as “A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have
physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets
their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FIVIMS 2).
Food insecurity (chronic, seasonal or transitory) may be caused by:
- The unavailability of food
- Insufficient purchasing power
- Inappropriate distribution or lack of social or economic access to adequate food
- Inadequate use of food at the household level
Although many parts of Uganda enjoy adequate food security throughout the year due to
favorable weather conditions, some parts of the country experience food insecurity
situations. Many factors contribute to food insecurity in these areas, varying between
regions and livelihood systems. These include unreliable climatic conditions (particularly
recurring droughts and floods), low productivity, crop and animal pests and diseases, and
declining soil fertility (WFP/VAM and EC, 2006). Food insecurity is also the result of manmade factors, such as prolonged conflicts and civil insecurity, particularly in the northern
region.
Food security group in Uganda
Over the last year ICCO, ZOA and Oxfam have indicated to be interested to link their
work on Food Security in Northern Uganda with the work of APF. ICCO, ZOA and Oxfam
GB have had a number of meetings, which were mainly focused on sharpening the focus
of the food security group in relation with the objectives of AgriProFous in Uganda. In the
annual APF meeting the group presented their initial ideas to members of other thematic
groups and members expressed interest in a thematic group on Food Security linked to
Farmer entrepreneurship. The interest of the current members is in sharing different
organizations' work in relation to food security in Northern Uganda, learning from each
other good practices and challenges esp. in the uniqueness of the areas in transition and
in identifying opportunities within APF to integrate food security in farmer
entrepreneurship.
Outcome of the various meetings was the decision to focus the initial learning around
Food security in areas that are in transition from emergency to development.
Broader objective
The main focus of the thematic group will be on:
- Empowering farmers to move from subsistence to farmer entrepreneurship
without jeopardizing their household food security.
The thematic group will be open to food security issues in the whole of Uganda. In other
words it is not limiting to the transition from emergency to development, however, this
will be the focus of the three initial members (and others with the same area of interest).
1
2
Uganda Nutrition Profile – Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, FAO, 2010
http://www.fivims.org/
1
Other APF members can initiate action research around new cases on food security in
other areas of Uganda, depending on the member’s interest.
The three current members of the thematic group will focus on Lango and Acholi regions
because the organizations are active in livelihood/food security/farmer entrepreneurship
in those regions. Apart from the common geographical focus, the members have a
special interest in the region because the farmers are currently in transition from life in
IDP camps to development with all the specific challenges that are common to transition
e.g. lack of capital to invest in agriculture, dependency syndrome, lack of trust, disrupted
social fabric in communities, land rights challenges etc.
Apart from joint learning within Uganda, the group is confident that the learnings within
this thematic group could help other stakeholders and APF members working in Food
security/livelihood in similar areas like DRC, Sudan etc. Linkages also exist with the APF
theme of food and climate (see NING http://apf-uganda.ning.com/)
2.
Expected outcomes
To start this thematic discussion an action-research could be implemented. This actionresearch would help the members (and others) to:
- Learn and adapt the strategies that are being used to enable innovation by the
different organizations and stakeholders in addressing food security and farmer
entrepreneurship.
- Identify 1 or 2 pilots to jointly learn from the experiences in these pilots (this could
be done by collaborating in a small coalition). The first pilot identified is food security
in transition from emergency to development in Lango and Acholi region.
3.
Approach and outputs
The group aims at a multi stakeholder representation within the group. Through the
NING (http://apf-uganda.ning.com/), more organisations will be encouraged to
participate in this thematic group. Most of the interactions of the thematic group will be
through e-mail, with meetings when necessary. Exchange and learning visits between
members is encouraged. Regular updates on progress will be shared on the NING.
The group will start with a (desk) study to identify the challenges and opportunities that
farmers in Lango and Acholi are facing if they want to access the market and how this
could affect their food security. The study will be outsourced. Based on the findings the
joint research agenda will be set.
Agenda setting phase:
- To identify other partners within the APF network in Uganda who are working on this
focus area of food security in Northern Uganda:
- Who is working in this focus area of food security in Northern Uganda?
- What they are doing (programmes)?
- How do they want to participate in the thematic group
- How can working through the platform add value to their core business and to
improving livelihoods of farmers?
- To identify how this work can be linked and what can be done together (joint analysis
of possibilities for collaboration (gaps)
- Organize a meeting with selected APF Uganda members, who are interested to be
part of a working group:
- Set the joint action-research agenda for Lango and Acholi regions.
2
-
Decide on how will the action-research be done
Decide on who will guide the action-research
Implementation phase:
- Implementation of the action-research
Outputs would be:
- Mapping of partners, work and linkages on focus area of food security in Northern
Uganda
- A joint learning agenda
- Input for the network day, in order to present the food security group to a wider
public
- Results of the action-research on experiences with different food security intervention
strategies (in relation to chosen focus)
- Sharing of the process and outcomes of this mapping and the meeting on the NING
- New developments (process) and ideas (topics/issues) on the NING
- Resources on Food Security (on the news section)
5.
Planning and budget
The activities will be mainly made possible through contributions by the different APF
members and their partners.
For the assignment co-funding will be needed from the organisations. APF can make
€2500,- available to support some of the activities, from their budget (based on the
contributions of the member organizations). CDI can support 4 days for the facilitation of
the process.
Activity
Identify ICCO/ZOA/Oxfam
practices in the field of FS
Identify the focus of the
Food security group
Finalise ToR and desk
study ToR
Identify other partner’s
working on FS
Identify linkages and
possibilities for
collaboration
Desk study
Meeting to set action
research agenda
Responsible
ICCO/ZOA/OXFAM
When
January
Budget
-
ICCO/ZOA/OXFAM
January/February
-
March
-
March/ April
-
Wageningen/Makerere
student,
ICCO/ZOA/OXFAM
ICCO/ZOA/OXFAM
ICCO/ZOA/OXFAM
March
-
April
May
Action-research
Wageningen/Makerere
student
Theme group lead +
members
June/July
€ 1000
Small
workshop
costs
€ 1500
Sharing on NING
3
Continuous