Evaluating and improving resilience programming to relieve chronic food insecurity
Agriculture and agrarian-based livelihoods are becoming increasingly precarious. As weather patterns become more uncertain due to climate change and global markets fluctuate under increased demands for agricultural products, agrarian communities are facing considerable economic and environmental risks.
Chronically poor communities in the Horn of Africa are often socially and politically marginalized, typically surviving on degraded lands where they construct precarious livelihoods on a limited natural resource base. Considerable programmatic effort must be geared towards strengthening livelihoods in these marginalized communities in order to enhance food security. Additionally, livelihood and food security initiatives must promote social and ecological resilience in the face of increasing climatic and economic stresses.
Focusing on resilience requires a broadening of the understanding and practice of adaption to deal with complex and changing systems, especially in the context of climate change. It requires a shift from short-term emergency response to long-term planning and preparedness amongst development agencies.
EcoAgriculture Partners works with international development and food security organizations to evaluate and improve their resilience programming, so they can move communities from short-term emergency aid to long-term stability and sustainability. We partner with local landscape leaders to help build resilience into landscape planning and management.
We reimagine the aid and development programs of anti-hunger organizations and governments to find pathways out of the cycle of famine and food aid and toward local resilience, productivity, and food security.
We deliver on the ground technical solutions to resilience challenges by empowering local organizations with training, resources, and a knowledge network of other landscapes working to build resilience. In Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, we are working with partners to deliver capacity building and knowledge sharing for local leaders to scale resilience solutions.
We measure resilience in creative ways that help organizations and communities see where efforts and investments will have the most impact.
We’ve helped international organizations rethink resilience programs, transitioning from piecemeal agriculture or climate projects to integrated approaches. In Kenya, chronically poor communities have increased livelihoods thanks to new resilient, sustainable, and diverse production activities like beekeeping and poultry production that we helped landscape leaders plan, implement and evaluate.
To strengthen food security and livelihoods, programs must help vulnerable communities build socially and ecologically resilient landscapes. Landscape-scale management of socio-ecological systems offers a promising strategy for this task.
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