Introduction

Over the past 20 years, since its first Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) grant from the United States Agency for International Development, Office of Food for Peace (USAID FFP), Africare has focused on learning from its experience designing and implementing Title II food security initiatives and its applied research and collaboration with a number of leading, African, regional and national centers of excellence. Africare has also focused considerable effort on harmonizing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems between its different country programs. Now Africare is launching the Africare Food Security Review (AFSR) paper series. This technical paper series is designed as a forum in which to publish important findings and tools from Africare's Title II food security programs. One of the most important aims of this series is to provide a user-friendly mechanism through which Cooperating Sponsors (CS) can access and use the reports and tools published in the series in design, implementation, and M&E of their own Title II food security initiatives. This is another step on the road to meeting objectives stated by USAID FFP related to improving the capacity of Title II Cooperating Sponsors and beneficiary communities through sharing of information and lessons learned.

The AFSR series has three main categories of publications. The first two are distinguished by the sub-titles of "Guidance" and "Brief." Guidance documents are manuals that provide clear step-by-step instructions for using or adapting the tools for assessing or describing program impacts. The first guidance manuals to be posted on the AFSR website are the Success Stories guidance, the Food Security Community Capacity Index (FSCCI) guidance, the Food Security Program Capacity Index (FSPCI) guidance, and the Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning based on Participator Rural Appraisals (MAHFP-PRA) guidance. There will be other guidance tools added in the near future, including a guide on the use of MAHFP based on survey data (MAHFP-average). Briefs are designed to distill the important and cross-cutting lessons from Africare's longer field and evaluation reports. These are meant to get to the meat of the issue in order to reach a wider audience. Those documents that are not included under the sub-titles of Guidance and Brief are a compilation of more lengthy and detailed documents on Africare's field experience through case studies and comparative research. Each paper provides a summary of the lessons learned that apply not only to Africare's own programs, but also that can be applied to the programs of other cooperating sponsors.

This series is presented in pilot form January through March of 2008 and will be finalized in the spring of 2008. One of the elements that will be included in the finalized Web site is a downloadable abstract for each of the papers in the series. During this pilot period any feedback on the logistics, organization, or content of the Web-based series is greatly appreciated and will feed into the finalization in 2008; to provide feedback, please e-mail offd@africare.org.

 

Papers currently available in the AFSR series:

1. "Guidance: How to Measure the Number of Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) Based on Participatory Rural Appraisals in Food Security Interventions" (13 pp., 210 KB, PDF). Africare uses its measure Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) to assess the extent of food insecurity in project areas, to develop and initiate intervention strategies, to target vulnerable households, and to assess and track progress made in improving food security throughout the life spans of food security interventions (FSI). This guidance has been developed as a practical tool for field agents of Africare and other Cooperating Sponsors (CS) for measuring and using MAHFP based on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques with community food security committees to qualitatively reach an agreement about the percentages of households in different categories of food security based on the group's perception of MAHFP (hereafter referred to as MAHFP–PRA). The paper also includes guidance on autonomous use by communities of MAHFP based on census data and information on the use of MAHFP-PRA for tracking risk management strategies of vulnerable groups, stratifying MAHFP by relevant characteristics, and other potential uses of MAHFP.

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2. " Guidance: How to Measure the Food Security Community Capacity Index (FSCCI)" (13 pp., 210 KB, PDF). Over twelve years ago Africare developed the Food Security Community Capacity Index (FSCCI) to measure the beneficiary community's technical ability and knowledge (capacity) needed to deal successfully with issues related to food security in their community. In the most recent revision of the tool in 2004, the FSCCI was revised to better take into account the special capacities needed to cope with cyclical risks and shocks, specifically including HIV/AIDS. This guidance has been prepared to provide staff of Africare and other Cooperating Sponsors, and the communities they serve, with a brief background on the evolution of this tool, a clear set of steps to use in measuring the FSCCI within beneficiary communities, and the different ways this tool can be used. Annex C., Part 2: "Tool for Entering Rankings and Calculating Scores for the FSCCI" is the MS Excel spreadsheet with the necessary mathematical formulas embedded that will automatically update the score as data are entered.

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3. "Draft Guidance: How to Measure the Food Security Program Capacity Index (FSPCI)" (28 pp., 208 KB, PDF). The Food Security Program Capacity Index (FSPCI) is a self-assessment tool that food security programs can use to measure their knowledge of important guidance and staff capacity in key programming areas. It currently consists of 10 elements, each of which measures one of the core capacities needed to design and execute a food security program. Aside from its use in measuring key program capacity, the consensus-based method used to calculate the FSPCI is an important and effective tool for orienting new staff and refreshing existing staff on the key concepts that Africare uses in its Title II programs. This document is intended to be a draft guide for food security staff within Africare and other Cooperating Sponsors (CS) on how the tool is being revised and how it should be calculated. Although the index provided here focuses on the basic skills and guidance needed for food security programming, the basic template could be adapted to other types of programming. Annex A., Part 2: "Africare Food Security Program Capacity Index Review Form" is the MS Excel spreadsheet with the necessary mathematical formulas embedded that will automatically update the score as data are entered.

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4. "Guidance: How to Compile a Success Story" (13 pp., 632 KB, PDF). By Judy C. Bryson and Nicole Eley. In developing this guidance, Africare aimed to produce a simple and concise guidance for writing "success stories" to be used by Africare field staff and report writers, as well as relevant staff of other Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) and Cooperating Sponsors (CS). A success story illustrates a positive change in a Title II program by telling the "who, what, where, why, when, and how" of an individual, household, or community in an anecdotal story that represents the case of many describes the six-step process for identifying a success story during routine project discussion groups, presents a suggested template for writing the success story, and makes suggestions for using photographs to enhance the success story's impact.

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5. "Brief: Two Methods for Measuring Household Food Security and Vulnerability — Evidence From the Zondoma Food Security Initiative, Burkina Faso" (5 pp., 84 KB, PDF). By Simeon Nanama and Karim Souli. Monitoring project impact on the most vulnerable portion of the population has been a central objective of Phase II of Africare's Zondoma Food Security Initiative in Burkina Faso. Given this focus, this paper provides the results of an analysis (conducted in 2005) of two methods of classifying vulnerable households: the Africare measure Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) and a questionnaire-based method for assessing food security and vulnerability developed by Cornell University and FANTA.

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6. "Brief: Community Based Use of the FSCCI to Identify and Manage Risk in Uganda" (11 pp., 114 KB, PDF). By Florence Tushemerirwe and Della E. McMillan. This paper presents the results of the research on the use of the Food Security Community Capacity Index (FSCCI) in Africare's Uganda Food Security Initiative project (UFSI) and summarizes the lessons learned; including recommendations for how the FSCCI can be used to increase the capacity of communities to manage risk. These lessons have fed into the revision of the FSCCI guidance (see above) that was completed at the Institutional Capacity Building (ICB)-supported workshop in September 2007.

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7. " Use of a Revised Version of the FSCCI to Identify and Manage Health and Nutrition Risks and Vulnerability in Guinea" (12 pp., 131 KB, PDF). By Prosper Pogba, Sékou II Condé, Della E. McMillan, and Bonaventure Traoré. Africare's Food Security and Community Capacity Index (FSCCI) is normally used to summarize different aspects of community capacity by converting rankings on variables and indicators into one total score that serves as a standardized measure of community capacity. As important as general community capacity is to sustained food security initiatives, there are situations in which specialized capacities are also critical. This paper describes a new index (the FSCCI-SIAC or Food Security Community Capacity Index – Systeme d'information a asise communautaire). This index was developed by the Guinea Food Security Initiative (GnFSI) and uses some of the basic principals of the FSCCI to target the more specialized capacities that Title II programs need to implement effective growth monitoring promotion and nutritional rehabilitation programs. This paper shows ways that the FSCCI-SIAC can be used to identify districts that are vulnerable in terms of weak capacity to design and manage village-based growth monitoring and rehabilitation programs.

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8. " Identifying and Managing a Major Shock: Case Study of the Title II Funded Guinea Food Security Initiative" (9 pp., 110 KB, PDF). By Sidikiba Sidibé, Della E. McMillan, and Bonaventure B. Traoré. Africare has used its experience in the Title II funded Guinea Food Security Initiative (GnFSI) to examine how investments in organizational capacity of village and district community groups have facilitated the early detection of a major shock, monitoring of famine conditions during the food crisis, and emergency food aid distribution, as well as assistance in managing the response to the shock with project and non-project resources. This paper provides:

• A brief background review of USAID's emerging concern with better understanding the role of shocks and risk in food security planning;
• An analysis of the role played by the GnFSI growth monitoring promotion system in the early identification of a major shock that occurred during the life time of the project;
• An analysis of the role of the project in managing the crisis; and
• An assessment of the extent to which the impact of GnFSI's crisis management can be detected through the project's existing monitoring and evaluation indicators, in particular the MAHFP (Month of Adequate Household Food Provisioning) and the FSCCI (Food Security Community Capacity Index).

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9. " The Link between Health/Nutrition and Household Vulnerability for Phase II of the Zondoma Food Security Initiative in Burkina Faso: MAHFP as a Tool for Targeting Project Interventions" (12 pp., 105 KB, PDF). By Ambroise Nanéma, Jean Parfait Wenceslas Douamba, Koudougou Achile Segda, and Rosine Cissé. This paper demonstrates the utility and identifies the challenges of using Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) as a tool for linking vulnerability and health/nutrition practices, based on the findings of the baseline study of the Zondoma Food Security Initiative, Phase II (ZFSI Phase II) in Burkina Faso. This paper specifically explores feeding practices and nutrition of pregnant or lactating woman and young children, child and mother health and treatment practices, and household access to water to see if they varied by household food security level. This data is intended to be used to inform ongoing intervention strategies with specific goals of improving mother and child health.

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10. “Comparative Research/Analysis – Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning in Africare’s Title II Food Security Programs.” (34 pp., 232 KB PDF). By Judy C. Bryson and Leah A.J. Cohen.  Africare identified the need to review the relationship of one of its key measurements of food security, Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP), across different country programs, both in absolute terms and as compared to other impact indicators. This report presents the results of that research.

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11. “Direct Distribution of Commodities for People Living with HIV/AIDS: Lessons Learned from Rwanda and Burkina Faso.”  (12 pp., 118 KB PDF). By Stacey Maslowsky, Sidikiba Sidibé, and Leah A.J. Cohen.  This paper presents some of the initial experiences and preliminary observations from Burkina Faso and Rwanda where two Title II pilot projects (FY05-FY09) are being executed in which food aid is used to improve the living standards and nutritional status of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

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12.  “The Success of the Hearth Model in Guinea.”  (17 pp., 202 KB PDF). By Stacey Maslowsky, Sidikiba Sidibé, and Bonaventure B. Traoré.  This paper contributes to USAID’s ability to document field-level impacts of Title II activities through success stories by describing an early impact of one of Africare’s Title II success stories: the Hearth Model program in Guinea.

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These publications were made possible through support provided by the Office of Food for Peace, Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Award No. AFP-a-00-03-00052. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

 

For comments or questions about this series, please contact Africare's Office of Food for Development: offd@africare.org.

 

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