Global forum on food security and nutrition

Md. Sirajul Islam, BRAC, Bangladesh (third contribution)

Bangladesh has achieved considerable progress in agriculture and food security. The country has achieved self-sufficiency in its staple food, rice. There is also surplus production of table potato and many vegetables in the peak growing season. Bangladesh also stood fourth in the world in producing inland fish through pond aquaculture. In spite these achievements, the country is well behind in achieving the major nutritional indicator especially for the children. The food safety and hygiene is also contribute in human nutrition. In order to ensure contaminant free and food safety for the people, the Government has started implementing the ‘Food Safety Act, 2013’ from the 1st of February, 2015. Eventually, ‘Bangladesh Food Safety Authority’ was activated on the 2nd February, 2015. Along with the inception of the implementation of the ‘Food Safety Act, 2013’, the Government has also taken steps to raise people’s awareness of food safety and about the fundamental concepts of the law. The awareness of the women in the household is the key since the overall food preparation is done by them in Bangladesh.

Georgina Njiraini, Center for Development Research, Germany

Women work for long hours in the farms and in their household chores thus taking up most of their time. Investment in technologies that would save on their time is likely to be valuable and enable re allocation and prioritisation of the freed time to important aspects of child care and nutrition. For example, research in some regions shows that investment in water infrastructure saves on the time spent by women fetching water from long distances. Additionally giving water rights to women is part of empowerment and goes a long way to foster healthcare and nutrition.

Mahtab S. Bamji, Dangoria Charitable Trust, India

Apart from technological intervention, education of women for behavioural change is extremely important. In that context, I would like to share the paper on 'Impact of Enriching the Diet of Women and Children through Health and Nutrition Education, Introduction of Homestead Gardens and Backyard Poultry in Rural India' published in Agriculture Research. Here we have targeted pregnant women and mothers with 6-24 months old children registered at Anganwadis in India.

Dr Ms Mahtab S. Bamji

INSA Emeritus Scientist, Dangoria Charitable Trust, Hyderabad & Director Grade Scientist, Retd.National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India.

Attached document “Impact of Enriching the Diet of Women and Children Through Health and Nutrition Education, Introduction of Homestead Gardens and Backyard Poultry in Rural India” in Annex 4

Bhavani R. Vaidyanathan, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, India (second contribution)

Nutrition awareness and education for women is definitely important. It should not however be limited to women and adolescent girls. Men too need to be sensitized and made to realise the burden of work on farm and at home being shouldered by the women and its consequences. Better understanding and sharing or responsibilities at work and at home can help a great deal in addressing undernutrition in women. Easier said than done though!

Ghady Chedrawi, FAO, Italy

I am glad to share with you a transformative gender approach implemented by FAO in several sub-Saharan African countries. Dimitra, a gender sensitive participatory communication approach promotes individual and collective socio-economic empowerment of rural populations, women and youth in particular. These clubs are informal spaces for dialogue and action at community level. The members are women, men, mixed or not, who meet regularly to discuss their development priorities and challenges, exchange experiences with other clubs, make informed choices, and take collective action to solve their problems – mainly related to agriculture and nutrition, as the clubs decide on which issues to tackle, all kinds of topics are discussed as well.

Today, about 1.500 Dimitra Clubs exist in five countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (DR Congo, Senegal, Niger, Burundi, and Ghana) with more than 300.000 direct beneficiaries and at least 1 million indirect beneficiaries, two thirds of which being women.

The Niger experience is of particular interest. In the framework of the UN joint program “Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women” (RWEE), the Dimitra Clubs have been chosen by the four agencies of the Programme (UN Women, IFAD, WFP and FAO), as the entry point for all the activities. The approach was selected because the clubs ensure, at field level, efficient coordination among all agencies, participation of rural communities and feedback to the programme coordination, in general, transparency of all activities.

In the framework of the RWEE, specific training sessions on nutrition have been organized in five villages in the region of Dosso, where the programme is implemented. Participation was at the heart of these sessions in which the clubs identified themselves local nutritious ingredients and were trained to classify these ingredients into three main groups: energetic, constructive, and protective. The clubs were trained on the seasonal crop calendar, an activity that helped them brainstorm and find solutions when nutritious crops are not available around the year. They came up with some new conservation and processing methods, such as conserving cowpeas in vegetable oil and transforming it into Beroua. Participatory culinary demonstrations (millet couscous, cowpeas and squash with peanut sauce) also highlighted the importance of combining the three groups in one dish, in order to have a diversified nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

In order to assess the role and impact of the Dimitra Clubs approach on nutritional education, the Dimitra project conducted a survey after three months, focusing on participation levels, nutritional knowledge, knowledge transfer and community mobilization and actions. 125 members of the clubs (1 group of men, 1 group of young men, 1 group of young girls and 2 groups of women) were interviewed.

The survey results showed high participation in discussions among all club groups (women, men, and youth) and an improved knowledge base related to nutrition, malnutrition and its consequences. As a result, collective actions within the clubs have been mainly focused on sensitizing the communities to the benefits of a diversified diet and good hygiene. It was also evident that several households began to diversify their diet for all family members. Results also showed a high level of networking among people, indicating that the information had circulated among friends, relatives and even reached other villages. Once again, Dimitra Clubs proved to be an innovative and efficient gender sensitive transformative approach for changing behaviours, here for improving nutrition.

A video showing another successful experience regarding the key role of FAO- Dimitra clubs in the Province of Tshopo (DR Congo) for improving food security and nutrition and promoting gender equality for men, women and youth is available on the following link: https://youtu.be/jHG07gQ2H8Q