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Food security in Southern Africa: Causes and responses from across the region
18 March 2003, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria
A meeting hosted by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network in collaboration with CARE International and the French Institute of South Africa
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[Background and purpose]
[Programme]
[Participants]
[Papers]
[Related papers]
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Food security in Southern Africa: Causes and responses from across the region
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4. Recommendations
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Regional emergency Food Security Assessment Report,
December 2002
The workshop provided a “series of conversations” on the food crisis in the region with a diverse range of
perspectives presented and debated. The recommendations emanating from the workshop touched on a
number of issues although a particular need to understand and influence policy processes was raised by a
number of participants. Thus the need for different kinds of strategies to inform and influence key
government and donor agendas that integrated long and short-term responses to the food crisis were major
concerns of the workshop. It was particularly important to note that a range of civil society organizations
indicated a desire to engage with policy making at both the national and regional level but lacked a clear
framework or set of guidelines as to how this might be done.
Issues.
Issues raised in the final plenary included:
4.1 The challenge of engaging and influencing policy
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The lack of capacity in policy analysis across the region in all sectors but particularly in the public
sphere;
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The lack of access to policy documentation, strategies and discussions;
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Poor institutional capacity within civil society to participate in policy-making processes;
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The lack of inter-sector dialogue to feed into food security policies and programmes at national and
regional levels;
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The lack of intra-sector dialogue to feed into food security policies and programmes at national and
regional levels. This reflected a failure to communicate between different directorates or sectors
within national government departments;
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The challenge for civil society to become more influential in order to engage with their own
governments in order to better influence policy;
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The challenge of finding creative ways to feed into and effectively engage with policy-making
processes. This raises questions around who to target, how best to communicate, and how to
identify those who undertake the strategic thinking;
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Suggestions around how to influence policy included:
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The development of policy briefs
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Small roundtable meetings with key personal within the policy-making processes to
ensure dialogue – for example, for workshop participants to take forward the main
issues into small meetings at national level
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The development of short presentations to be made to relevant policy makers – it
was noted that these presentations had to be readily “digestible” for policy makers
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It was suggested that food security debates needed to feed into the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers to influence national poverty reducing frameworks.
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Proposed Follow-Up:
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In terms of policy dialogue breakdown, SARPN undertook to link with the SADC Food,
Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), considering particularly
their emphasis on building networks related to food security and to develop local capacity to
engage in policy-making processes (see www.fanrpan.org).
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SARPN would develop some key policy briefs, which covered issues discussed at the workshop.
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SARPN would explore the viability for a workshop focused on “Influencing Policy-Making” to be
held as a matter of priority.
4.2 A need to have a comprehensive understanding the current food security crisis from a
policy perspective
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The “new” debate on HIV/AIDS and food security has not been clearly understood by a number
of regional organizations engaged with food security;
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More attention was required on long-term solutions for food security, particularly on achieving and
securing the capabilities and assets of affected people;
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More research was required into the issue of food security – and funding found to support such
research.
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Proposed Follow-Up:
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SARPN would compile a poverty brief around some of the main issues pertaining to
HIV/AIDS and food security drawing on the two Lesotho papers presented at the workshop.
In addition it would further disseminate its poverty brief on HIV/AIDS and land.
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SARPN would continue to collect and disseminate information on its website around food
security (with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS) and ensure that these penetrated the region
through strategic partnerships.
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SARPN would continue to update delegates on the workshop on “Mitigating the Impact of
HIV/AIDS through Agriculture and Rural Development” organized by FAO/GTZ and
OXFAM-GB (27th to 29th of May 2002, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria).
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Participants were encouraged to link with the analytical process driven by the Overseas
Development Institute (ODI) in their review of regional food security (see “way forward”).
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Participants were encouraged to link with the analytical exercise driven by CARE, which
formed a central component of the papers presented at the workshop (see “way forward”).
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Participants were encouraged to engage with the commissioned research undertaken by SADC
FANRPAN, the SADC Hub and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)
on understanding the current food crisis (see www.fanrpan.org and http://www.fews.net).
4.3 More effective regional co-ordination and accountability
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A major gap identified in the workshop, and in food security debates in general, was around
effective co-ordination of understanding food security and a need to develop frameworks to guide
responses;
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A standard guideline was required for the region to better co-ordinate responses to food insecurity;
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Scenario planning and mapping was required to support long-term response to the crisis, to better
anticipate the impact;
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The issue of accountability, particularly for recipient governments, was raised as a key requirement
for an effective response to food insecurity – this was raised in terms of tracking what was
happening to food aid and its distribution (e.g. Zimbabwe);
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Questions around the NEPAD peer-review mechanism were raised in the context of ensuring
national food security and effective response to ensure regional stability.
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Proposed Follow-Up:
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Participants were encouraged to engage with FANRPAN and other existing institutions set up at
the regional level on the issue of regional co-ordination, the development of guiding frameworks
and the improvement SADC member accountability.
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