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
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.
Thierry van Bastelaer
tvanbastelaer@savethechildren.org
October 2008-August 2012
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
