West African monsoon 2012

Living up to its reputation as a highly variable climate system, the West African Monsoon (WAM) 2012 contrasted strikingly with the previous year. In 2011, the West African rainy season was delayed, patchy, and irregular. In 2012, whilst it was anomalously wet in many area, the Guinea coastal countries and some crucial agricultural regions remained very dry, persisting from the previous year. As a result, 2012 generated the third big food crisis to hit the region in the last seven years. The 2012 WAM forecast, observed climate conditions and the ongoing socio-economic implications for the region are reviewed here

Food production and consumption in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan: the challenges of sustainability and seasonality for dietary diversity

In Asia, high levels of malnutrition threaten the health and livelihoods of millions of households. This paper concentrates on linkages between agriculture and nutrition in Afghanistan where food and nutrition insecurity are increasing and agricultural sustainability is increasingly compromised by climate change. We explore seasonal patterns of food production and consumption in the remote and robust ecological environment of Shah Foladi, Bamyan Province. Analysis of qualitative data from household interviews in eight villages has provided a wealth of insights into the seasonality of diets. Even within a broadly homogeneous environment, households were found to be markedly heterogeneous in respect of their assets, production, market, finance and employment strategies. The so-called ‘lean season’ was found to vary accordingly. Nevertheless, a general lack of dietary diversity during much of the year is likely to cause micronutrient malnutrition, especially for the vulnerable groups of children, adolescent girls and women. Potential interventions are proposed which need to account for the local context in order to overcome the natural and political constraints. These strategies include agricultural innovation and multi-sectoral policy approaches. In the end, reducing national insecurity is a pre-requisite for sustainable improvement in nutrition-sensitive agricultural development

Findings from a cluster randomised trial of unconditional cash transfers in Niger.

Unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) are used as a humanitarian intervention to prevent acute malnutrition, despite a lack of evidence about their effectiveness. In Niger, UCT and supplementary feeding are given during the June-September "lean season," although admissions of malnourished children to feeding programmes may rise from March/April. We hypothesised that earlier initiation of the UCT would reduce the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) in children 6-59 months old in beneficiary households and at population level. We conducted a 2-armed cluster-randomised controlled trial in which the poorest households received either the standard UCT (4 transfers between June and September) or a modified UCT (6 transfers from April); both providing 130,000 FCFA/£144 in total. Eligible individuals (pregnant and lactating women and children 6- 0.05), despite improved food security (p < 0.05), possibly driven by increased fever/malaria in children (p < 0.001). Nonfood related drivers of malnutrition, such as disease, may limit the effectiveness of UCTs plus supplementary feeding to prevent malnutrition in this context. Caution is required in applying the findings of this study to periods of severe food insecurity

Social protection and socioeconomic security in Nepal

Nepal, with a population of 27.6 million people, is a ‘least developed country’ in many ways. The country is characterised by significant socioeconomic insecurity, comprising structurallygenerated income poverty, a politically and socially fragile post-conflict situation, threats to the environment, and deeply entrenched forms of social exclusion. At the same time, it is a country characterised by interesting socio-political policy innovations, triggered by the end of a ten-year violent conflict. Building on a discussion of the country’s challenges, the paper explores the policy responses in the domain of social protection devised by the interim government to address the various dimensions of insecurity, and to show their novelty as well as their limitations. The final section offers some ideas on policy areas which would be needed to improve socioeconomic security. Keywords: socioeconomic security; social protection; social policy; poverty; social exclusion; Nepa

The relevance of market prices for the design of transfer programs in response to food insecurity

This paper focuses on the use of market prices as discriminatory factors for the selection of strategies in response to conditions of food insecurity according to the comparative efficiency of different strategies. A classical production model has been used to define the conditions of relative advantage of different response options and to capture the effect of some contextual variables on such conditions. This type of approach can be quite useful when trying to optimize response strategy through its geographical diversification or adjustment over time. While such analytical approach reflects mainly a static cost-efficiency perspective, it can be sharpened through the partial inclusion of an effectiveness perspective

Identifying an essential package for school-age child health: economic analysis

This chapter presents the investment case for providing an integrated package of essential health services for children attending primary schools in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). In doing so, it builds on chapter 20 in this volume (Bundy, Schultz, and others 2017), which presents a range of relevant health services for the school- age population and the economic rationale for adminis- tering them through educational systems. This chapter identifies a package of essential health services that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can aspire to implement through the primary and secondary school platforms. In addition, the chapter considers the design of such programs, including targeting strategies. Upper- middle-income countries and high-income countries (HICs) typically aim to implement such interventions on a larger scale and to include and promote additional health services relevant to their populations. Studies have docu- mented the contribution of school health interventions to a range of child health and educational outcomes, partic- ularly in the United States (Durlak and others 2011; Murray and others 2007; Shackleton and others 2016). Health services selected for the essential package are those that have demonstrated benefits and relevance for children in LMICs. The estimated costs of implementation are drawn from the academic literature. The concept of a package of essential school health interventions and its justification through a cost-benefit perspective was pioneered by Jamison and Leslie (1990). As chapter 20 notes, health services for school-age children can promote educational outcomes, including access, attendance, and academic achievement, by mitigat- ing earlier nutrition and health deprivations and by addressing current infections and nutritional deficiencies (Bundy, Schultz, and others 2017). This age group is partic- ularly at risk for parasitic helminth infections (Jukes, Drake, and Bundy 2008), and malaria has become prevalent in school-age populations as control for younger children delays the acquisition of immunity from early childhood to school age (Brooker and others 2017). Furthermore, school health services are commonly viewed as a means for build- ing and reinforcing healthy habits to lower the risk of non- communicable disease later in life (Bundy 2011). This chapter focuses on packages and programs to reach school-age children, while the previous chapter, chapter 24 (Horton and Black 2017), focuses on early childhood inter- ventions, and the next chapter, chapter 26 (Horton and others 2017), focuses on adolescent interventions. These packages are all part of the same continuum of care from age 5 years to early adulthood, as discussed in chapter 1 (Bundy, de Silva, and others 2017). A particular emphasis of the economic rationale for targeting school-age children is to promote their health and education while they are in the process of learning; many of the interventions that are part of the package have been shown to yield substantial benefits in educational outcomes (Bundy 2011; Jukes, Drake, and Bundy 2008). They might be viewed as health interventions that leverage the investment in education. Schools are an effective platform through which to deliver the essential package of health and nutrition ser- vices (Bundy, Schultz, and others 2017). Primary enroll- ment and attendance rates increased substantially during the Millennium Development Goals era, making schools a delivery platform with the potential to reach large num- bers of children equitably. Furthermore, unlike health centers, almost every community has a primary school, and teachers can be trained to deliver simple health inter- ventions, resulting in the potential for high returns for relatively low costs by using the existing infrastructure. This chapter identifies a core set of interventions for children ages 5–14 years that can be delivered effectively through schools. It then simulates the returns to health and education and benchmarks them against the costs of the intervention, drawing on published estimates. The invest- ment returns illustrate the scale of returns provided by school-based health interventions, highlighting the value of integrated health services and the parameters driving costs, benefits, and value for money (the ratio of benefits to costs). Countries seeking to introduce such a package need to undertake context-specific analyses of critical needs to ensure that the package responds to the specific local needs

Efficiency, food security and differentiation in small-scale irrigation agriculture: Evidence from North West Nigeria

Ambiguity over the effectiveness of agricultural intervention is more pronounced in rural areas where the majority of North West Nigeria’s poor population, and those involved in agriculture, reside. Further characterising these areas is the paucity of research on the issue of differentiation within the smallholder community. Specifically, definite classification of households based on efficiency, food security and income status remains inadequate. The study explores smallholder households’ differentials on the basis of these three phenomena, and other factors that affect smallholder typologies. Data was collected from 306 randomly selected smallholders involved in the Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Project, Sokoto State, Nigeria. Smallholders’ technical efficiency and households’ Food Consumption Score (FCS) were assessed. Also, Pearson correlation analysis, a segmentation approach using cluster analysis and multinomial regression model were used for the study. The study showed that the mean efficiency level of smallholder farms was 85.9% and that the majority of the households were food insecure

Assessing the impact of microfinance programming on children: an evaluation from post-tsunami Aceh

This paper presents an evaluation of the long‐term impact of microfinance programmes on Acehnese children during the post‐tsunami recovery. The study, conducted from June to August 2010, examined the impact of microfinance programming six years after the tsunami. The sample consisted of 185 microfinance participants, with a comparison group of 192 individuals who did not participate in microfinance programmes. All respondents were parents, interviewed through a structured survey. The study used four child protection indicators—diet, health, childcare and education—in contrast to traditional repayment rate indicators. The primary results were insignificant with respect to all four child protection indicators, suggesting that, with respect to these indicators, there was no long‐term difference between the impact of microfinance on beneficiaries' children and non‐beneficiaries' children. These findings signify a need for microfinance actors to move beyond traditional indicators of economic success to evaluate the social changes microfinance programmes are presumed to effect

The impact of adoption of conservation agriculture on smallholder farmers’ food security in semi-arid zones of southern Africa

BACKGROUND In southern Africa, conservation agriculture (CA) has received a lot of research and promotional support from various organizations in the past decades. Conservation agriculture is largely promoted as one of the few win–win technologies affordable to farmers, in the sense that potentially it improves farmers’ yields (in the long term) at the same time conserving the environment. This is because conservation agriculture reduces nitrogen loss in the soil, promotes water and soil conservation and improves agronomic use efficiency of applied nutrients. However, some concerns have been raised over the feasibility of conservation agriculture on smallholder farms given constraints imposed by the biophysical and institutional realities under which smallholder farmers operate. The main aim of this study is to answer the question whether conservation agriculture is resulting in tangible livelihood outcomes to smallholder farmers. The counterfactual outcome approach was used to estimate ex post impact of conservation agriculture adoption on one of the key livelihood outcomes—food security. RESULTS The study that utilized a data set covering 1623 households in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique found no significant impact of conservation agriculture adoption on Food Consumption Score of farmers in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Possible reasons for the insignificant of CA impact on food security in Zimbabwe and Malawi could include the small land areas currently devoted to CA, and the failure to implement the full complement of practices necessary to set off the biophysical process that are expected to drive yield increases. In Mozambique, conservation agriculture significantly improved the Food Consumption Score for farmers exposed to the technology. A possible reason for effectiveness of CA in Mozambique could be due to the fact that often CA is being promoted together with other better cropping management practices such as timely weeding and improved seed varieties, which are poorly practiced by the generality of farmers in a country just emerging from a war period. CONCLUSION This paper provides one of the few ex post assessments of the impact of conservation agriculture adoption on household livelihood outcomes—food security. Given the mixed findings, the study suggests that conservation agriculture farmers in the three countries need to be supported to adopt a value chain approach to conservation agriculture. This entails the introduction of commercial or high-value crops in the conservation agriculture programmes, value addition on farmers produce, access to the necessary support services such as markets for seed, fertilizer, herbicides and equipment as well as reliable extension. We believe that under such circumstances conservation agriculture can effectively reduce food insecurity and poverty in the medium to long term