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Intensive Interventions
for
Sustainable
Food Security
Background
The World Food
Programme’s (WFP) current country programme for India will come to an end in
December 2002. To formulate the next country programme (2003-2008), WFP has
identified three districts in India to carry out Intensive Interventions
Projects(IIP) for a duration of one year. The IIPs were initiated in
September 2000 and are expected to run over a period of 12 to 18 months.
These projects entail intensive interventions through food assistance
programmes in selected areas. These experiences in turn will help evolve
replicable models for wider implementation during the next India Country
Programme.
The areas selected for
the Intensive Interventions Project (IIP) are characterised by a large
proportion of tribal population, high levels of poverty and illiteracy, inadequate
nutritional levels, and unbalanced diets. There is a heavy direct dependence
on natural resources for obtaining food and meeting other daily needs. This
dependence becomes more acute due to the remoteness of these areas, degraded
lands of poor agricultural quality, almost total lack of irrigation
facilities, regular natural calamities such as droughts and floods, and lack
of infrastructure such as roads, health care centres, and telecommunication
facilities.
Underlying Principles
The approach is built on
five principles:
- Decentralized management: Greater decentralization and
participation in planning, implementation and monitoring of food
assistance programmes is the single most important chance of improving
their effectiveness. An informed strategy of decentralized management
through clear understanding of the respective roles and limitations of
local entities such as panchayat institutions, user groups, NGOs and
local administration will be key to the success of IIP.
- Synergy: IIPs seek to maximise
benefits from convergence of various food assistance programmes, which
address different dimensions of food insecurity at the household level;
and focus on complementarity of resources to maximise the number of
beneficiary households
- Better targeting: Targeted food is a fast
track to the poor. Reaching the right people depends on identifying who
they are, where they live, and when and why they are food insecure. It
also requires understanding food insecurity at both national and local
levels; responding with appropriate activities to reach the right people
at the right times; developing clear programme objectives, sound
activity selection and design and monitoring to ensure that targeting is
consistent with overall programme objectives and activity design.
- Women as key agents of
change:
WFP's commitment to improve the condition of women is based on the
fundamental premise that strengthening opportunities and options for
women is the key to the solution of the problems of hunger and poverty.
Women's educational level, nutritional status and their control over
food resources and assets are inter-linked determinants of household
food security and largely determine the physical and mental potential of
the next generation.
- Improved disaster
responsiveness: Food assistance is most essential and accepted where it
mitigates disaster induced food shortages. Disaster responsiveness is a
distinct element of IIP. This involves knowing when to respond (early
warning, trigger points) and how to respond (what food rations, which
procedures, how to coordinate).
Major Activities
The IIPs will attempt to
reduce food insecurity mainly through:
- Food-for-Work (FFW): Activities such as field
bunding, creation of dug wells and minor water tanks will be undertaken.
These will improve immediate food security and assist in long-term food
security through creation of assets, which will increase agricultural
productivity and water supply in the region.
- Food-for-Education (FFE): Food aid is effective in
reducing the opportunity cost of sending girls to schools, ensuring that
short term hunger does not inhibit their capacity to learn and freeing
time for poor women to learn new skills, acquire basic literacy or gain
access to other development activities
- Vulnerable Group Feeding
(VGF): This activity
is linked to the ICDS programme of the government. WFP will continue to
go beyond the simple distribution of food and will promote the regular
provision of complimentary inputs. The focus will also be on the
outreach of the services, especially to the under 3’s and to the remote
areas which are currently not covered under the regular programmes.
- Coping mechanism:Preparedness arrangements
will involve preparation of contingency plans which includes the
assurance that in a government declared drought year WFP-funded
food-for-work and ICDS activities will double their volume of food
transfers. Additionally, women’s group run grain banks will be
encouraged and strengthened.
- Public Distribution System
(PDS): An
effective PDS can be the backbone of food availability and food
security, especially in remoter tribal areas. IIP would test better ways
of managing PDS outlets and an overall improvement in food movement so
that food reaches the beneficiaries and reaches in time.
Implementation
While the IIPs will be
implemented through the Zila Panchayat/District Rural Development Authority;
WFP, Panchayats, user’s groups and NGO’s will be partners in the process
providing technical inputs and other non-food inputs.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Continuous monitoring and
evaluation of IIP activities will help improve activity design and reporting
mechanisms followed. WFP will assist District administration in developing
improved reporting formats, a set of indicators and other regular mechanisms
such a Steering Committee meetings to track progress
Also See Future India
Country Programme(2003-2008)
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