This document summarizes lessons learned from resilience-building and nutrition programs implemented in Ethiopia, Niger, northern Kenya, and other food-insecure regions. It finds that cash transfers and seasonal safety nets alone were insufficient, and longer-term, multisectoral interventions are needed to build communities' ability to withstand shocks. Successful approaches included integrated interventions across agriculture, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and nutrition; strengthening government response capacity; and coordinating humanitarian and development actors. The document also provides recommendations for international donors, policymakers, and practitioners to adopt resilience-building approaches.

1. Applying Lessons
Learned
on
Community
Resilience
to
Chronic Hunger
Crises,
GHI, 2013
Ethiopia 2012: Watershed and Land Regeneration, Walka Melho kebele, Delante woreda, North Wollo.

2. Operational Research: 3 hunger seasons (2010-12)
Focused on cash transfers as seasonal safety net, Tahoua Region
1. Cash transfers lead to more frequent meals for children and more legume
consumption. A large portion of cash transfers are spent on household food.
2. To improve or maintain nutritional status, cash transfers alone or with CMAM
are not enough and should be integrated with other interventions that
address the causes of malnutrition and food insecurity.
3. Nutrition and food security indicators such as number of hunger days, dietary
diversity scores or global acute malnutrition rate should be monitored to
account for cash transfers’ many uses and to measure the nutritional
success of the program.

3. Niger Learning
 Cash transfers and nutrition treatment programs that focused on
seasonal hunger needs were insufficient to create resilience to
periodic hunger crises.
 Longer-term development interventions focused on building
absorptive and adaptive coping strategies would be required.

4. Ethiopia: South Wollo

Dessie Zuria woreda, South Wollo, Amhara Region, stunting =
54%, (national average = 44%).

Woreda chronically food insecure: c. 40% dependent on safety nets.

2000 and 2010 annual surveys: GAM reduced only once to <10%.

High dependence on Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP).

Coping mechanisms: PSNP, begging, eating unpalatable wild fruits, and
daily labour.

Livelihoods very vulnerable to risks and shocks: climate variability, human
and livestock diseases, pests, flooding and landslides.

5. Ethiopia Interventions
 Resilience building multi-sectoral interventions
–
–
–
–
–
–
Land and water management
Frost tolerant crops in highlands (potato)
Crop diversification
Increasing and maintaining livestock assets
Water and sanitation
Early identification of malnutrition and CMAM response
 Complementing the PSNP with Fresh Food Vouchers during the
hunger season and with IYCF support

6. Learning from Ethiopia
•
Use multisectoral approach to maximize linkages between sectors.
•
Use existing institutions’ coordination to promote a sense of ownership.
•
Map real-time, resilience outcomes to create evidence for policy change.
•
Address the environmental drivers of risk and use DRR technologies and practices for
sustainable food production (e.g. watershed management).
•
Address gender issues that are critical to achieving resilience.
•
Create a contingency plan - define surge capacity to help respond to small-scale
disasters or provide an initial response to large-scale disasters.
•
Support local governments with early warning systems and communicate during even
small disasters to ensure that food security is not threatened by the cumulative effects
of lesser shocks or stressors.

7. GAM Trends Northern Kenya 2010 and 2011
2010 and 2011 nutrition surveys were conducted between April and June.
Data from these surveys was used to construct maps

8. GAM & SAM Trends Northern Kenya
2010 and 2011
Global acute malnutrition
District
2010 rate
(%)
2011 rate
(%)
%
change
Severe acute malnutrition
2010 rate
(%)
2011 rate % change
(%)
Marsabit
13.4
27.1
102
1.3
5.0
285
Wajir
North
19.8
27.9
41
1.4
6.8
386
Moyale
12.3
13.7
11
3.0
1.5
-50

9. Interventions in Moyale, Kenya
1.
2.
3.
4.
Livelihoods and Water interventions: introducing dryland farming (alongside
pastoralism) producing kale, onion, tomatoes and fruits; introducing drought
tolerant species such as cassava; improving irrigation systems; diversifying
livestock; rangeland management; conflict mitigation on pasture access; and
improved access to water.
Strengthened Gov capacity to respond to nutritional crises: supported the
District Health Management Team through technical training to staff, establishing
technical protocols and quality of care oversight systems, adopting interventions
with the highest impact on mortality, improving budgeting, setting
thresholds, strategies, and protocols for scale up and scale down, and situation
monitoring mechanisms aimed at informing triggers for scale-up.
Early scaling up of high impact nutrition interventions when warnings rang.
Coordination: Kenyan government services, WFP, World Vision (food and cash
transfers)

10. Lessons from Kenya ASALS:
 Strengthening of resilience at community level: contextually
appropriate, multisectoral interventions worked!
 Strengthening government capacity to respond to a nutritional
emergency (―surge capacity model‖)
 Early scaling up of high impact interventions
 Coordination between government and other partners

11. Health system strengthening
Caseload
Health
System
Capacity
External
support
Ongoing health systems
strengthening efforts
Time
*Adapted from P. Hailey and D. Tewoldeberha, ENN, 2010, issue 39

12. Community Resilience to Acute Malnutrition (CRAM)
Linking Humanitarian and Development Programming
 Text

13. 1. Conservation Agriculture
Community Resilience to Acute trees)
2. Soil Fertility (including Malnutrition (CRAM)
3. Integrated Pest
In an IntegratedManagement
Programme
4. Extension Messages
1. Increased access to safe
water
• Borehole drilling
• Water conveyancing
2. Promoting improved
sanitation
• CLTS and PHAST
• Community Latrines
3. Community Water
Management Groups
5. Decreasing post harvest
losses
6. Homestead Gardening
7. Support small scale irrigation
8. Support IGAs
9. Support the development of
the PS
1. Improved Community Health
Outreach
• Community Case
Management and Care
Groups
• Effective MAM
2. Health System Strengthening
• Management of the health
system
• Mobile clinics
1. Increase capacity of
3. Changing Feeding Practices
community groups and
women's participation in
them
2. Community Conversations
3. Targeting Community
Leaders for attitude and
behaviour change

14. Wk 1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 5
Wk 6
Wk 7
Wk 8
Wk 9
Wk 10
Wk 11
Wk 12
Wk 13
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Wk 19
Wk 20
Wk 21
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Wk 26
Wk 27
Wk 28
Wk 29
Wk 30
Wk 31
Wk 32
Wk 33
Wk 34
Wk 35
Wk 36
Wk 37
Wk 38
Wk 39
Wk 40
Wk 41
Wk 42
Wk 43
Wk 44
Wk 45
Wk 46
Wk 47
Wk 48
Wk 49
Wk 50
Wk 51
Wk 52
Expected SAM Outcomes between Treatment and Control Areas
Treatment Area
Control Area
Response Threshold
Normal Year

15. Concern and Welthungerhilfe Conclusions:
Guiding Principles for Resilience Building
1.
Undertake systematic risk analysis incl. analysis and planning for future
uncertainty and worse case scenarios.
2.
Reduce the causes of vulnerability by building assets and supporting
sustainable livelihoods.
3.
Address drivers of inequality.
4.
Build up communities’ absorptive and adaptive capacities, including better
access to safety nets and deepening or diversifying livelihoods.
5.
Support enhanced capacity for effective and timely emergency responses.
6.
Build institutions for governance and risk management at local level.
A presentation to Karina Howley, KPMG — 4th April 2011

16. Targeted Recommendations
(Note: large overlaps across the target groups)
1.
International development, humanitarian, and donor
communities.
2.
Country-level policymakers in food-insecure countries.
3.
Development and humanitarian practitioners.
Resilience is not a panacea!!

17. Selected policy recommendations:
int’l development, humanitarian & donor communities
• Break down the institutional, financial, and conceptual
walls separating development and humanitarian
assistance in donor and UN agencies to achieve greater
synergies in strategies and implementation plans.
• Support a coordinated approach to monitoring resiliencebuilding measures and building an evidence base on the
impact and effectiveness of such measures.
• Support a pro-poor resilience approach.

18. Selected policy recommendations:
country-level policymakers in food-insecure countries
• Develop national approaches to food and nutrition
security that are resilient to shocks and other stresses.
• Encourage and facilitate a multi-sectoral approach to
resilience, coordinating plans and programs across line
ministries.
• Evaluate national sectoral strategies and action plans
using disaster-proofing and resilience-building lenses.

19. Selected policy recommendations:
development and humanitarian practitioners
• Focus on improving maternal and child nutrition in
developing regions, with interventions to address the
immediate and underlying causes of undernutrition.
• Support positive coping mechanisms that people already
use, such as community-level savings networks or banks.
• NGOs and their national partners should use their longterm experience in development programming more
proactively to lobby for resilience-enhancing policy
change.