SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Integrated community-based approaches to food securityACFID Universities Conference | November 2013

JOEL NEGIN SENIOR LECTURER IN INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH

Interconnectedness of Development

We need to do more to understand and act on the synergies between action in various sectors

health

infrastructure

agricultural productivity

watereducation

gender equality

environmental management

Negin et al. Food Security 2009.

Agriculturalists focus on this Nutritionists

Health workersWho focuses on this?

Higher Crop Yield

School Lunch

Program

Better School

Results, More

Focused Students

Receive Seeds

and Fertilizer

Development Synergies Across Sectors

Agricultural Intervention Education Intervention Health Intervention

Health Education;

De-worming

Crops Inside Millennium Village5.0 tons/ha

Crops Outside Millennium Village 1.9 tons/ha

Increase in Food Production

Source: Millennium Villages Project, Sauri, Kenya

Grain Yields in Millennium Village Sites

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

Kenya Ethiopia Rwanda Malawi Uganda Nigeria 1 Nigeria 2

Pre Project

First Growing Season

Grain Yields tons / hectare

Country

Increases in Grain Yields Pre-Project and After First Growing Season in Selected Millennium Village Sites

Source: Millennium Villages Project

Proportion of Households Who Report Not Having Enough Food to Eat During At least One Month in the Past 12 Months

MDG 1: Prevalence of Stunting (Chronic malnutrition) – Under-2’s

Gross Attendance Ratio in Primary Education

Contraceptive Prevalence Rate – Modern Methods

Diversification

Diversification in practice

Food Aid Delivered

Local Purchase

Fertilizer, Hybrid Seed

$670/ton $240/ton $77 to producean extra ton of food

How to Bring this to Scale?

› This proverb has been overused, under-implemented and misunderstood

› In the poorest countries in the world, this needs to be revised:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime

Give a woman a fish, feed her for a day, teach a woman to fish, and support her with the low levels

of financing needed to buy a fishing rod, some worms, and an ice box, feed her household for a

lifetime.

Question for discussion

What cross-sectoral synergies are you missing in your work that could improve well-being and development?

16