Feeding hunger and insecurity

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6. what more is needed?Table 6.3: The estimated global costs of a ‘minimum essential package’ to fight seasonal hungerInterventionAnnual CostsLow Estimate(US$ billion)High Estimate(US$ billion)1. Community-based management of malnutrition 1.69 3.282. Employment guarantee schemes 20.40 36.723. Social pensions 8.20 16.614. Child growth promotion 5.20 10.12TOTAL 35.49 66.73(converted at 1GBP:1.36USD)Source: Devereux et al. 2008Pre-positioning ResourcesHunger is not constant throughout the year, butfollows seasonal fluctuations in the availabilityand price of food. Yet donors, governments andNGOs frequently adopt reactive and uniformstrategies for addressing malnutrition, food securityand poverty year round. The funding andbudget process also ignores the seasonal realitiesfaced by ‘target households’. Reactive reliefinterventions are slow, ineffective and oftenpolitically motivated, as is visible in the contextof the Global Food Price Crisis and the 2005/06famine in the Horn of Africa and severe food crisisin Niger. Action Against Hunger is proposingthat supplementary feeding resources, like foodaid and nutrient-rich therapeutic foods, and associatedfunding be pre-positioned before thehunger season in a regular and transparentmanner. Combined with effective surveillancesystems, able to reveal the early signs of a hungercrisis, pre-positioned treatments could allowfor rapid interventions to food crises and savehundreds of thousands of lives.The Cost of a ‘Minimal Essential’ PackageIn earlier work Action Against Hunger provideda ‘minimal essential package’ for protectingthe poor from seasonal hunger, in areas wherecomprehensive health care is not available. Thecost of this package is shown in table 6.3 (seeDevereux et al. 2008). Approximately US$40 toUS$70 billion dollars per annum are needed toimplement a combination of four social protectionschemes globally. They are communitybasedmanagement of malnutrition, employmentguarantee schemes, social pensions andchild growth promotion. More will be needed toeradicate hunger, but these provide a sufficientbuffer to household vulnerability to malnutritionto make substantial progress. Communitybasedmanagement and child growth promotionprotect children from severe acute malnutrition,employment guarantee schemes provide familieswith income and/or food during the hungerseason, while social pensions protect those whocannot work (such as the elderly and disabled).The seasonal approach can be extended beyondthe mere pre-positioning of resources. Interventionsaddressing power, health and education,protecting purchasing power, preservingincome, providing food and those directed atstress migration all have significant seasonaldimensions, and would benefit from a similarresource and funding package (see annex 9).Seasonality has been sidelined too long fromdiscussions of governance and development, itis time to resurrect it.8This number is based on the amount of therapeutic feeding products (RUTFs and F100) needed to treat all cases of severe acute malnutrition and totalestimated consumption in 2008.60ACF International NetworkFeeding Hunger and Insecurity
6. what more is needed?Table 6.4: Costs of a pilot investment for the treatment of one million severely acutely malnourishedchildrenApproximate numberof children under age5 who are severelyPercentage of childrenunder age 5 who areseverely acutelyApproximate costof treatment,LOW estimateApproximate costof treatment,HIGH estimatemalnourished malnourishedEthiopia 656,171 4.7% $44,619,644 $88,346,895Kenya 130,259 2.4% $8,857,607 $17,538,061Malawi 74,153 3.2% $5,042,390 $9,983,933Niger 104,753 4.3% $7,123,215 $14,103,966Zambia 43,718 2.3% $2,972,847 $5,886,291Total 1,009,054 3.9% $68,615,703 $135,859,1456.3.2 Scaling-up the Treatment ofMalnutritionA particular priority of Action Against Hungeris the scale-up of treatment of severe acutemalnutrition. Despite improved coverage throughthe community-based management approach,Doctors Without Borders (MSF) estimated thatonly 9 percent of severely malnourished childrenhad access to treatment with ready-to-usetherapeutic foods (RUTFs) in 2007 (ACF andMSF 2009). Successful scale-up will requireintegrating treatment of SAM into primary healthcare, strengthening health systems, increasingavailability of RUTFs, possibly through localproduction and commitment of donors for moreand predictable funding.Action Against Hunger proposes a pilot investmentof about $68-$140 million which would allowfor the treatment of one million children infive priority countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi,Niger and Zambia). Although this is only a smallproportion of malnourished children worldwide, ifsuccessful, scale up in these countries could beused as an example for scaling up treatment inother countries.About three quarters of the funding would beused to operate community-based managementprogrammes, including the cost of producingand purchasing all therapeutic foods, with therest going to establish nutritional treatment inpatientfacilities. With this funding, the lives ofone million children could be saved and severeillness and permanent stunting among hundredsof thousands prevented – at a cost of only US$70to US$140 per life.Greater effort is needed to establish quality,year-round health services in many developingcountries, and is the only permanent solution tosevere acute malnutrition. However, these systemsand institutions cannot be built overnightand external aid often provides the only viableshort and medium-term response to combatinghunger. Counter-seasonal interventions providea number of proven tools which can help to curbmalnutrition and food insecurity, but seasonalityalso provides a way to adapt budgeting processesand project design. Pre-positioning resourcesbefore the annual hunger season is but one exampleof how a seasonally-sensitive approachcan save lives that our current strategies will not.The Food Crisis has shown that organisationsand governments must be more aware of the impactsof globalisation and the link between globalACF International Network Feeding Hunger and Insecurity 61
Page 3:
Feeding Hunger and InsecurityField
Page 6 and 7:
Executive SummaryKey MessagesThe cr
Page 8:
executive summarybuffers and greate
Page 11 and 12:
List of FiguresFigure 1.1Figure 1.2
Page 13 and 14:
List of AbbreviationsACFCARCFACFSCR
Page 15 and 16:
© ACF / S. Hauenstein Swan1. Intro
Page 17 and 18:
1. IntroductionFigure 1.2: Map depi
Page 19 and 20:
© ACF / S. Hauenstein Swan2. What
Page 21 and 22:
2. what caused the global food pric
Page 23 and 24: 2. what caused the global food pric
Page 25: © Julien Goldstein3. Households in
Page 28: 3. households in crisis: who loses?
Page 31 and 32: 3. households in crisis: who loses?
Page 33: 3. households in crisis: who loses?
Page 36 and 37: 3. households in crisis: who loses?
Page 38 and 39: 4. The Hunger Crisis:4. What Happen
Page 40 and 41: 4. the hunger crisis: what happens
Page 50 and 51: 5. the global response to high Food
Page 52 and 53: 5. The global response to high food
Page 66 and 67: 6. What More is Needed?The global f
Page 68 and 69: 6. what more is needed?non-food nee
Page 70 and 71: 6. what more is needed?Box 7: Hunge
Page 72 and 73: 6. what more is needed?Box 8: Malaw
Page 76 and 77: 6. what more is needed?and local in
Page 78 and 79: 7. ConclusionData from Ethiopia sho
Page 80 and 81: ReferencesAbebe, Y., Stoecker B.J.,
Page 82 and 83: Referencesable at: http://www.iht.c
Page 84 and 85: AnnexesAnnex 1: Real international
Page 86 and 87: annexesAnnex 5: Percentage househol
Page 88 and 89: annexesAnnex 7: Harriss’ typology
Page 90 and 91: A HUNGER WATCH PUBLICATIONhunger Wa
Page 92: ACF INTERNATIONAL NETWORKSiège d
show all

Feeding hunger and insecurity

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?