This study investigates the determinants and characteristics of women’s income in Mali. Malian men and women do not entirely pool their incomes within the household, and women’s income is particularly important in influencing child health and nutritional outcomes. The study estimates two different models: an income determinants model and a model that describes different categories of women based on their income-generating activities. Results from model 1 show that women in the irrigated rice zone have the highest incomes, ceteris paribus, followed by women in the coarse grains zone. The cotton zone produces the lowest women’s incomes, despite having the highest men’s and household income levels. Other significant determinants include the women’s age, being married to the head of the household, the composition of the household and asset levels. In the second model, different income-generating activities have different impacts on incomes, depending on the region in which the women live. Women in the cotton and coarse grains zones receive the highest marginal benefit from participating in the sale of wild products, such as shea butter, but not in the irrigated area, where more profitable agricultural activities exist for women. The results imply that agricultural growth and higher household incomes do not automatically lead to gender equity or better welfare for women and children. In the cotton zone, particularly, complementary interventions are needed to counteract the negative impact of cotton production on women’s incomes.

The Project on Linkages between Child Nutrition and Agricultural Growth (LICNAG) seeks to identify means of strengthening positive linkages between agricultural development and factors that influence child health and nutritional status. LICNAG is surveying rural households in Mali was to understand the positive and negative repercussions that agricultural-led growth has on children’s health and nutritional status. This report on preliminary survey findings describes child health and nutritional status across three agricultural zones in Mali. Early results of the survey indicate that increasing access to food and income requires measures to reduce price and climatic risk (e.g., water management and transport infrastructure, and diversification of incomes) for agricultural households.

A Policy Synthesis of the findings is available here. The full report can be accessed below.

Following the introduction in the US Senate of the Global Food Security Act, USAID and development implementers will soon be faced with new policy and program choices.

On November 3rd, at the outset of the SEEP Annual Conference, AED and the USAID FIELD-Support Program will host a day of workshops, panel presentations and debate on food security, livelihoods, and economic strengthening. FIELD Day will include a track of sessions on how the topic affects child and youth well-being.

At the close of FIELD Day, please join the Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening Network for a reception celebrating the first anniversary of the CYES Learning Platform.

Registration for FIELD Day and the SEEP Annual Conference is open at the link below.

Please contact Jennine Carmichael at jcarmichael@aed.org for more information about the CYES reception.

With 27 percent arable land and no permanent crops, the West Bank and Gaza suffer from periodic food insecurity. Using proceeds derived from the monetization of commodity donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ACDI/VOCA funds drought relief and agricultural training activities for Palestinian farmers and pastoralists.

The ACDI/VOCA program in the West Bank and Gaza works with agricultural communities to mitigate the devastating effects of recent drought and reduce the risk of future drought loss. Under the project, the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) distributed emergency coupon subsidies and feed. From November 2001 to January 2002, the ministry distributed a total of 13,453 out of 13,582 subsidy coupons, supporting 912,000 sheep and goats in 12 districts. ACDI/VOCA reimbursed feed/fodder suppliers for 13,303 coupons totaling approximately $1.2 million. The feed subsidy program also served to strengthen cooperation between the extension service and MOA district offices, and provided economic stimulus to the livestock sector.

ACDI/VOCA is also working with at-risk agricultural communities to improve local community preparedness and response capability to drought events through the build-up of water catchment and collection structures, improved community awareness and water conservation education. To build capacity among rural inhabitants to better manage scarce water resources, PARC held training workshops for women, as well as students on water awareness and conservation, benefiting 1,098 participants. PHG held 60 workshops and conducted 49 home visits for 500 women, visited 27 schools to conduct awareness campaigns for 450 male and 455 female youth and held 20 workshops benefiting 130 men. These training workshops complement the building of water catchment structures in many of the localities where rainwater harvesting is carried out and an important source of water for irrigation.

In Gaza, ACDI/VOCA worked with World Vision to complete the construction of 36 agricultural ponds, and also led in projects to rehabilitate wells and conduct training workshops covering the following topics:

• strategies for reducing water consumption,
• maintenance of irrigation networks,
• water efficient irrigation systems and
• crop diversification

Alex Gebrehiwot
agebrehiwot@acdivoca.org

Feb 2001 – Dec 2001

USAID/West Africa is seeking applications from qualified organizations to implement a program to promote food security and improve the livelihoods of families in selected communes and villages of southern Niger. The main objective of the Niger Food Security Program (NFSP) is to increase food production and incomes, and ensure livelihood protection and health for food insecure farming households through the use of improved agricultural and livestock production technologies, increased market participation, innovative approaches to strengthening the household asset base and provision of safe drinking water.

This paper looks at the impacts of the food price crisis on developing countries and examines the direct and indirect effects on consumers and producers. It analyses the implications of these impacts on children’s wellbeing. The distinct features of childhood poverty and vulnerability mean that children are likely to be affected by the food price crisis in different ways at both the household and intra-household level.

There are two major effects of higher food prices on developing countries and their populations.

• One is direct: as the higher international prices of food push up local prices, food becomes less affordable for consumers but provides an incentive for local farmers to increase their production of foodstuffs. In both cases real incomes and welfare of the population, including the poor, are affected.
• The second is indirect: as the higher cost of imported food leads to trade deficits that depress the level of activity in the economy leading to unemployment and lower government revenues that might depress spending on public services.

The STRIVE Mozambique project aims to improve child well-being in Nampula Province, which has the highest level of food insecurity in the country. An alarming 63% of children in the province are chronically undernourished. The factors contributing to food insecurity in Nampula include lack of and limited access to food, poor food utilization and vulnerability in the form of economic, health and market shocks. Save the Children is addressing the issues of access to food and vulnerability by targeting individuals in households – particularly women with children under the age of 5, who face the highest risks of food insecurity – with interventions that increase household income and social capital.

By mobilizing, training and mentoring village savings and loan (VSL) groups, STRIVE Mozambique provides a mechanism for asset building, income generation and risk mitigation. VSL participation enables women to purchase more or better foods, invest in better income earning strategies and/or enter into and expand participation in agriculture value chains that increase their earning potential. The VSL groups, along with the community support networks formed under rotating labor schemes (called the Ajuda Mútua) that Save the Children is promoting in Nampula, will create a stronger social capital base for households, increasing their resilience to shocks.

Working in concert with an on-going food security project in the province, STRIVE Mozambique expects to improve nutritional outcomes for children under 5 by expanding both the amount and quality of food they eat. Specifically, by increasing household access to cash through savings and income earning opportunities, it is expected that dietary diversity and months of adequate food provisioning will increase, particularly through the prolonged “hungry season.” STRIVE Mozambique is one of five initiatives under the AED STRIVE Program exploring effective means of reducing the vulnerability of children and youth through economic strengthening.

STRIVE

Thierry van Bastelaer
tvanbastelaer@savethechildren.org

October 2008-August 2012

This training manual details how to set up and run a Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) programme. The programmes are designed to empower orphans and other vulnerable children aged 12 to 18 years who live in communities where HIV/AIDS has had a strong impact on food security. This Getting Started manual comprises two parts. The first part provides background information on the JFFLS approach, its origins and guiding principles. The second part describes how to initiate and manage a JFFLS. This part is divided into nine chapters, each representing a step that needs to be taken to implement a school.

The manual incorporates experience from people working with orphaned and vulnerable children living in areas with high HIV prevalence levels in Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The manual is generic and is meant to be used in different regions of the world. It can be adapted for use in areas where HIV prevalence is still very low but children are made vulnerable by extreme poverty, trafficking and conflict.

For many years, Mexico has been challenged by the loss of a valuable segment of the workforce as youth from poor rural areas migrate to the United States in search of economic opportunity. Recently, the Mexican government decided to take a new approach to combating this emigration by adopting an idea initiated by Fundacion E, a Mexican organization that works to generate an entrepreneurial culture in emerging economies. Fundacion E believes that, in poor rural communities where livelihoods depend on income from small farms, training youth leaders to begin approaching farming from an entrepreneurial perspective might help youth to recognize the opportunities in agribusiness, and thereby encourage youth to stay in their home communities.

EcoVentures International (EVI) is working with Fundacion E in this initiative, training lead trainers and youth in very low-income areas in South Mexico in EVI’s AgriPlanner Curriculum. Through this training they learn to understand the business aspects of farming, which encourages approaching their farms from an entrepreneurial perspective. This helps change youth attitudes toward farming, increase farmer incomes, and keep youth on the farms.

The trainings simulate the planning, planting, selling, and contracting processes in agribusiness. Participants learn to understand, among other principles, changing markets, whether and when to invest in their farm, and how to value their own time. They learn to view their farms as businesses and assess the disadvantages and benefits of different contracting and selling options. In times when food security is becoming more of an issue, such training is particularly pertinent for individual and national security.

Margie Brand
margie@eco-ventures.org