Feeding hunger and insecurity

6. what more is needed?inpatients. This community-based approach hasdramatically increased the coverage of malnutritiontreatment programmes and can be easilyscaled-up (WHO et al 2007). Community-basedmanagement should represent a major pillarwithin any social protection package targetinghunger or malnutrition.Growth Promotion ProgrammesGrowth promotion programmes are aimed at preschoolchildren and pregnant/lactating women.These programmes include: growth monitoring;antenatal care; breastfeeding promotion; health,hygiene and nutrition education; and supplementaryfeeding of pregnant women, lactatingmothers and preschool children (Devereux et al.2008). Shown to reduce malnutrition by 1 to 2percentage points each year, child growth promotionprogrammes have the ability to prevent severalmillion children succumbing to malnutritioneach year if implemented worldwide (Devereux etal 2008).Employment Guarantee SchemesWith labour being the prominent asset availableto many poor households, especially during thehunger season, employment schemes providea source of income (or food) during a timewhen labour work is difficult to find. The mostcomprehensive national employment scheme isfound in India, where all citizens are guaranteed100 days of work at minimum wage. This formof social protection is only effective whengovernments are able to deliver work in responseto households’ demands for work. India’sNational Rural Employment Guarantee Schemehas shown that an active judiciary supporting theright to information may be a necessary conditionto creating an effective national employmentsystem. India may provide a model for similarschemes to be adapted and implemented in arange of countries.Social PensionsSocial Pensions are regular unconditional cashtransfers for either all elderly citizens or just targetedgroups of the population. (Devereux et al.2008). A number of countries have introduced socialpensions, including Brazil, Botswana, Mauritius,Lesotho, Nepal and South Africa; pensionshave improved living standards for the elderly aswell as their families. In South Africa, childrenin families receiving social pensions were morelikely to attend school (Edmonds 2006). Thesepensions are feasible and accessible for low-incomecountries. ILO (2008) estimates that providinguniversal basic old-age and disability pensionsin some countries, including Burkina Faso,Ethiopia, Kenya and Nepal would cost between1.1 and 1.5 percent of GDP annually. For others,such as Cameroon, Guinea and India costswould be below 1 percent of GDP (ILO 2008);though the costs of social pensions will increaseas people live longer and the average age increases.Future schemes should also cater forlactating mothers to allow women to breastfeedtheir children.Food AidThough alternative forms of treatment areneeded to address severe acute malnutrition,food aid remains an important interventionagainst hunger. Musopole (2004) of Action AidMalawi, clearly explains how food aid, whenhandled correctly, has the potential to alleviatethe dependence of smallholder farmers oncasual labour as a source of income or foodduring the hunger season and free-up time tocultivate one’s own crops. Still, food aid is ashort-term response, a blunt tool, predominantin regions experiencing serious food supplyshortfalls or poor distribution.Index-Linked Cash and Food TransfersCash and food transfers offer a way to reducethe risk of malnutrition in the medium and longterm.An example of this type of social protectionscheme is food-for-work, which provides food inexchange for labour – often building local roadsand other infrastructure. Participants in thesetransfer schemes often prefer receiving cash insteadof food as it enables them to meet food andACF International Network Feeding Hunger and Insecurity 53