Integrating gender and nutrition in Ugandan policy: An assessment

Lead:
A recent study on Ugandan climate and food security policies assesses gender and nutrition mainstreaming in national policy.

This story was originally published on the CCAFS blog.

Most of Uganda’s population relies on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change: decreasing soil fertility, rainfall variability, extreme weather events, as well as pests and diseases, are only some of the challenges farmers are facing. Rural women in Uganda are especially vulnerable to these challenges, given their cultural responsibility to provide their families with nutritious food, fuel and safe water–resources that are becoming scarce following weather extremes.

The challenges notwithstanding, Uganda is still considered the “regional food basket” due to its high agricultural production. However, undernourishment has been on the rise, despite recent improvements in child nutrition. Adult obesity has also somewhat increased in the last few years, adding to the issue of malnutrition in the country.

Adequate focus on gender and nutrition in climate change and food security policies could help tackle these challenges. A recent study carried out by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)* shows that there is evidence of government efforts to include gender and nutrition perspectives in national policies, but that these are not consistently mainstreamed across climate change and food security policy documents.

Recognizing the importance of agriculture, nutrition and gender in national plans
Uganda’s Comprehensive National Development Planning Framework consists of the major national plans and policies, such as their Vision 2040 and five-year national development plans, as well as sectoral policies, among others.

This framework acknowledges the impacts of climate change on the environment and economy, including agricultural production, productivity and incomes. It highlights agriculture as a key sector to be supported to improve access to food, boost income and increase nutrition security. The framework also emphasizes the major role of women in agricultural production and that women should be empowered to participate as equal partners in development.

This shows that gender and nutrition are being considered relevant to national policies. While this is promising, to help the government advance on these commitments, the study looked at how well a number of policy document integrates gender and nutrition, and made specific recommendations based on the findings.

Taking a closer look at gender and nutrition sensitivity in policy documents
The study examined 26 policy documents across 10 criteria to assess gender and nutrition sensitivity. The policy documents were selected from the vital sectors of water, environment, agriculture, health and education; 10 relate to climate change and 16 documents focus on food security.  The 10 criteria were adapted from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) key recommendations for improving nutrition through agriculture and food systems and the UN Network for Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) criteria and characteristics of “good” national nutrition plans. The criteria used are described in Table 1 of the Policy Brief.

The figures below show how many of the examined documents were gender and/or nutrition sensitive, listed by the 10 criteria.

In climate change policies:

 In food security policies:

Signs of ambition but still room for improvement
There is evidence of efforts to mainstream gender and nutrition in national policies. However, the study finds that gender and nutrition aspects are integrated unsystematically in both climate change and food security policies.

While effective policy implementation will require a systematic and coherent development of guiding documents (policies, implementation strategies, implementation guidelines, action plans and budgets), the study reveals the absence of some important documents along the hierarchy of guiding documents in both sectors. Other key documents, such as the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan 2018-2025 and the National Nutrition Policy are still in draft form.

There is also a lack of financial frameworks in more than half of the documents, which makes it difficult to track explicit sector allocations on gender and nutrition. Lastly, gender, climate change and nutrition are cross-cutting responsibilities of multiple sectors, however, very few policy documents provide for joint sector performance reviews.

Recommendations for policy-makers
The study makes some recommendations for policy-makers to consider:
1.    Sectors should systematically develop policies and guiding documents and align their provisions for gender, climate change and nutrition with the national targets set by the Comprehensive National Development Plan Framework.
2.    Sectors should systematically mainstream gender and nutrition throughout sections of the national guiding documents by stating explicit commitments. This should be informed by sector-specific gender analyses.
3.    Joint performance reviews involving various stakeholders should be held regularly to evaluate progress snd alignment with national vision as well as reduce the duplication of efforts.

Implementing these recommendations will advance Uganda’s efforts to improve gender, climate change, food, and nutrition outcomes, and thereby contribute to a more food-secure, resilient and equal world.

Read the Policy Brief: Climate change, food and nutrition policies in Uganda: Are they gender- and nutrition-sensitive?

The PDF Version can be downloaded here [ CCAFS_IITA_blog ]


* The study was done as part of the CCAFS Policy action for nutrition-sensitive climate-smart agriculture in Uganda and Ethiopia project, led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).


Authors:
Written by Lili Szilagyi (CCAFS) and Patricia Bamanyaki (IITA)

Lili Szilagyi is the Communications Consultant for the CCAFS Priorities and Policies for CSA Flagship. Patricia Bamanyaki is the Project Leader for the Policy action for nutrition-sensitive climate-smart agriculture in Uganda and Ethiopia project in Uganda and Ethiopia, based at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Uganda. Edited by Leanne Zeppenfeld, Communications Student Assistant for the CCAFS Program Management Unit.


Header image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/38204231186/
Credit: Georgina Smith (CIAT)

CSAYN 5TH ANNIVERSARY ( 2014- 2019) REPORT IN 14 MEMBER COUNTRIES ACROSS THE CONTINENTAL OF AFRICA , EUROPE AND AMERICAS Slated for December 5- 20 2019.

Download Full Report in PDF

Climate change presents one of the biggest threats to sustainable development worldwide. Its widespread unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable majority –a
significant number of whom live in Africa.

So far, the most prominent global policy responses to climate change are currently covered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). [ Read More ]

By: Yvonne Uwase Munyangeri (CIAT-Rwanda), Seble Samuel (CCAFS), Desire M. Kagabo (CIAT-Rwanda), Gloriose Nsengiyumva (CIAT-Rwanda) and Livingstone Byandaga (CIAT-Rwanda)

Key stakeholders in Rwanda learn the ins and outs of the country’s Climate Maproom.

Maps are powerful tools, breaking down language barriers and gaps across disciplines to translate complex concepts. Rwanda’s Climate Maproom, a collection of maps and figures of the national meteorological agency, Meteo Rwanda, does just this.

In April 2019, Meteo Rwanda, a public institution that facilitates access to reliable weather and climate data, organized a three-day training workshop on the use of the Climate Maproom. The system monitors climate conditions and provides guidance on historical, present day and seasonal climate forecasts.

The training workshop was organized in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA). The workshop brought together the provincial directors of agriculture and district development programs, district directors of agriculture and natural resources, government institutions, international and local non-government organizations and research centers concerned with the production and use of weather and climate information. The Rwanda National Police, media, academia and other stakeholders involved in climate information production and use were present as well.

Different Climate Maproom products were presented, including climate data across time scales, malaria historical analysis, and the intersections of climate information and agriculture outputs, among others. Participants learned how to navigate the Climate Maproom and explored different products available on this platform. Through practical sessions, participants learned to interpret and use Climate Maproom products in planning and decision making depending on their sectors. Through deep analysis, participants learned how onsets, cessations, dry and wet spells, length of the season, and other climate factors, are calculated and forecasted. They also learned to analyze and monitor diseases vis a vis weather and climate variabilities, such as malaria.

It is very helpful to know that the climate situation of your region can be easily available before the season starts,” said Theogene Mugabonake, Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management in Nyanza District in southern province. “This will help us in planning our agricultural activities and reduce the risk of losing some crops.”

The workshop outcomes included ensuring that:

• a) climate information products, including their uncertainties and limitations are understood and communicated to users
• b) user opinions were discussed on how to make climate information accessible, user-friendly and applicable
• c) a user feedback mechanism was created between Meteo Rwanda and weather and climate users to promote and enhance co-production of weather and climate information products

“Meteo Rwanda’s Climate Maproom is available for you. It intends to help you in planning and decision making,” said Desire Kagabo, the chairperson for the board of directors of Meteo Rwanda. “There should not be any planning without taking into consideration the climate information.”

Through the 5Q approach, a simplified and innovative monitoring and evaluation method developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and CIAT, participants were trained to share their feedback on climate information services via mobile phones. This approach has been harnessed to ensure that information provided by Meteo Rwanda is suitable for users, and that they may provide feedback for improvement where needed, hence promoting the co-production of climate information.

At the end of the training, participants visited the weather radar located at Maranyundo in Nyamata District to learn more on the process of climate information production and dissemination.

Original Document in PDF Format

By: Kathlee Freeman

“For Africa to realize a food secure future, the majority need to take part in agricultural solutions, and that means young people,” according to Seble Samuel, Communications and Knowledge Management Officer with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security’s (CCAFS) East Africa region.

Indeed, young people are having something of a moment. From an increased focus on youth in agriculture by a number of international development agencies to Rwandan-born, U.S.-based choreographer Sherrie Silver celebrating the powerful role of young farmers. One thing that sets young people apart is their comfort with information and communication technologies (ICTs), including cellphones and their use to access the internet.

This trend was explored through an online discussion, held between 15 April to 17 May, on the Climate & Agriculture Network for Africa (CANA) platform in the run up to World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Participants responded to questions about barriers to youth participation in agriculture, the role of ICTs in agrobusiness, and how non-farmers can use ICTs to support agriculture. Continuing this online conversation, a webinar was held on 29 May to further discuss youth, agriculture, and ICTs.

Panelists included:

• Catherine Mungai, Partnerships and Policy Specialist with CCAFS East Africa
• Joan Kerr, Director for the Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities (FBSC)
• Victor Mugo, Country Coordinator with the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) in Kenya and an Agricultural Risk Management Associate with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
• Seble Samuel (moderator)

Audience members were invited to ask questions, which ranged from how to incorporate innovative financing into ICT projects to engaging stakeholders in youth-led agriculture initiatives.

During the webinar, participants were also asked to provide their thoughts on barriers for youth adoption of ICTs. The majority of those who responded, 45 percent, felt infrastructure was the most serious constraint young people faced when trying to incorporate ICTs into the agriculture sector. Availability of culturally appropriate, relevant resources was another barrier to ICT use by young farmers.   

The importance of education was made clear by panelist Kerr. “Agriculture education sows the seeds for elevating the status of young farming professionals to prosper,” she explained. Indeed, in a follow-up survey for webinar participants, training, along with costs and gender concerns, were noted as areas of interest for future discussions.

To watch the entire recorded webinar, click here. You will be prompted to provide your name and email address, and then taken directly to view the webinar.  

Kathlee Freeman is a communications consultant with the CGIAR Research Program on Cimate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Original Article in PDF Format

Against the backdrop of changing climatic conditions in Africa, scientists, administrators and seed enterprises have urged the farming community in Tanzania to adopt hardy crops like sorghum.

“Farmers, mainly those in low rainfall areas, can embrace sorghum which is tolerant to drought. This will ensure food security in the country and across the region, bringing economic development,” Mr John Palingo, Commissioner for Songwe Region in Tanzania’s Mobzi District, said during a farmers’ field day organized recently in Magamba.

Full Original Article

by Claudia Ringler and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

As people and organizations around the globe mark World Environment Day (June 5), all signs point to an unprecedented and rapid decline in planetary health. A preview of a global report on biodiversity, the most comprehensive to ever be completed, somberly notes that 1 million animal and plant species are on the brink of extinction, many within mere decades. Since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled and human-induced warming reached approximately 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and is growing at around 0.2 degree Celsius per decade. The impacts of climate change on this scale are only starting to be fully understood.

Human health depends intimately on planetary health. The loss of ecosystem services erodes the social and economic support systems of people around the world, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Higher temperatures and extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes destroy agricultural systems, impoverishing the communities that depend on them for their livelihoods and food and nutrition security for years, decades and can even have inter-generational effects.

Full Article

By:Ronoh Nathan

The Feed the Future Kenya Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program implemented by a consortium of CGIAR centers, sought to harness the technologies and innovations within the research system ‘to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger in Kenya with the objective of increasing inclusive agricultural growth and improving nutritional status of communities.

In phase 1, the potato value chain, led by the International Potato Center (CIP), supported 46,700 smallholder farmers with technologies to improve farm productivity and engage in market systems. The seed system for potato was scaled out to reach farmers who previously did not have access to quality seed by transforming 150 progressive farmers into seed multiplier businesses. One such progressive farmer is Samuel Kibet Sugut who is providing clean seed to potato farmers using a newly introduced technology—rooted apical cuttings. A few months ago, his story was published in the weekly magazine insert, Seeds of Gold, in the Saturday Nation newspaper in Kenya. A crosspost is available below:

In the quiet Kipsirigo village in Nandi County, a new agribusiness is picking up.

Samuel Kibet Sugut is among those who have embraced the new agribusiness, which involves the multiplication of Irish potato planting materials, having abandoned dairy farming to concentrate on the cash cow.

Sugut, who was a dairy farmer for 15 years, has seen a bright future in the production of the disease-free materials that many farmers are turning to. As he prepares his small piece of land for planting, his phone keeps ringing every few minutes, with nearly all the callers enquiring about the availability of seeds given that the short rain season is just around the corner.

By Kristina Roesel

In Uganda, around 70% of all households keep at least one kind of livestock (including poultry). Livestock production is primarily a family business, but only a fraction of the food produced is used for home consumption. Most of it is sold at local markets, which are mainly informal markets. Pathogenic diseases are one of the constraints that limit livestock production, often resulting in death of animals and loss of income and livelihoods for livestock keepers. Zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis and Rift Valley fever threaten the health of producers, processors and consumers. Improved animal health, therefore, directly contributes towards improved livelihoods and human health through better diets and fewer zoonotic diseases.

Knowledge and awareness about animal diseases, their risks and intervention options are limited in Uganda. For many of the animal health problems, there are effective solutions at hand, for example, vaccines. However, lack of infrastructure and institutions in low- and middle-income countries does not allow last-mile delivery of solutions or implementation of disease control. Lack of awareness on the benefits of vaccines results in unwillingness to purchase them. This problem is compounded by lack of trained personnel to deliver vaccines. There is little investment in capacity building and professional development of processors, which leads to gaps in research and surveillance of transboundary and zoonotic diseases. This project thus aims to support existing structures by helping to scale solutions through a collaborative effort in research, extension and partnerships.

The project has four main components:

•     Support for ongoing campaigns to eradicate the transboundary disease, peste des petits ruminants
•     Control of zoonotic diseases
•     Control of antimicrobial resistance
•     Improved veterinary public health at the point of slaughter

Food loss and waste drains $940 billion from the global economy each year. The private sector, with support from government and partners, can change that.

The incredible scale of global food loss and waste – an estimated one-third of food produced – causes economic losses of US$ 940 billion per year. Besides economic losses it also consumes a quarter of all water used by agriculture and accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gases. Reducing food loss and waste is a critical strategy for addressing sustainable development goals to reduce poverty, improve nutrition and take climate change mitigation action.

In a peer-reviewed study published this month, we examined the business case for reducing food loss and waste in three supply chains: dairy in Kenya, grains in Tanzania and tomatoes in Nigeria. We found that reducing food loss in these supply chains is a low-hanging fruit; investments are profitable and benefit supply chain actors.

Read More