Program Details: 
Food Security Programs: From Sustenance to Self-Sufficiency

Hunger afflicts more than one billion people worldwide, and malnutrition accounts for 11 percent of the global disease burden, greatly hindering efforts to reduce poverty and suffering. The effects of malnutrition endanger the health, mental capacity, economic productivity and well-being of people in the world’s poorest communities. Without sufficient quantity and quality of food, as well as the ability to withstand food shocks – such as droughts or sudden price spikes – people cannot live healthy, productive lives.

Mercy Corps works to help poor communities get sufficient, safe and nutritious food – now
and in the future. We provide immediate relief to hungry families and we help people achieve self-sufficiency, through economic and agricultural development, so they can feed themselves over the long term.

Our global programs are sensitive to cultural norms and local customs. We collaborate with
local producers to ensure that foods are available and accessible, and we work with families to make sure they have the means to provide healthy meals for themselves.

There are four key components of food security:

• Food Availability. At the community level, sufficient quantities of food must exist through production or market activity.
• Food Access. At the household level, people must have the resources to obtain foods that make up a nutritious diet; this often depends on family income and food prices.
• Food Utilization. At the individual level, humans require a diet that provides sufficient energy and essential nutrients, adequate health to make use of the food that’s eaten, as well as potable water and adequate sanitation.
• Risk Management. As many communities are vulnerable to food shocks, establishing safety nets or natural resource management systems helps increase their long-term security.

Food Availability Programs
Mercy Corps is improving the availability of food in poor communities worldwide. For example, over the last five years in Afghanistan, the country’s eastern region has accepted tens of thousands of returned refugees. They are a positive indicator of stabilization, but returnees also tax the resources of a vulnerable population — particularly since almost half of rural households already report food insecurity. Through a collaborative effort funded by the European Commission, Mercy Corps is improving the food security of 2,000 households in eastern Afghanistan. Twenty new community groups will identify and put in place projects to boost agricultural production and get a larger and steadier supply of food on the table.

Food Access Programs
Mercy Corps collaborates with the private sector to nurture the growth and stability of local economies and ensure that people have access to food in the long term. Programs include:

• Uganda. Most of the population in the north was displaced by a 20-year war. As people return home they are eager to resume their agricultural livelihoods, the core of the region’s economy. Mercy Corps is helping more than 4,000 rural farmers earn higher incomes by marketing their sunflowers directly to the private sector for the production of oil. Our project is ensuring farmers a ready market and a reliable means of purchasing food for their families.
• Indonesia. As part of our larger urban poverty reduction strategy, Mercy Corps is helping to expand a new niche business in Jakarta’s slums. It’s focused on providing healthy and convenient food choices for young children, a time of special nutritional need. Our new business model will make inexpensive, nutritious meals available to children while generating much-needed additional income for 1,000 entrepreneurial families.

Food Utilization Programs
We support people to improve and maintain their health and the health of their families while promoting nutritional diets as well as good feeding and hygiene practices.

In Tajikistan, Mercy Corps’ USAID-funded program in the Rasht Valley is spreading practices that are improving the nutrition and overall health of mothers and children. We’re teaching crop diversity and more effective canning and drying techniques to help people preserve nutritious food safely between harvests. We are helping mothers understand the importance of breastfeeding and healthy weaning practices. And, we are teaching households about good hygiene. In the areas where we work, childhood diarrhea is 37 percent lower and 10 percent fewer children are underweight.

Vulnerability to Food Shortages
Poor communities are especially vulnerable to food supply disruptions. Mercy Corps programs like these improve food security.

• Somalia. With help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are bringing sustainable food security to 40,000 people in the southern part of the country, where natural disasters and conflict render locals especially vulnerable to food shortages. Mercy Corps is training community animal health workers in basic veterinary practices; workers earn an income while helping villagers keep their livestock healthy during periods of food insecurity.
• Niger. A Mercy Corps program will improve purchasing power and food security, and diversify livelihoods, by strengthening the entire dairy production system. We are building profitable market relationships for subsistence farmers and pastoralists, providing them with sustainable livelihoods to weather future shocks. The program also offers business training and economic opportunities to entrepreneurs. Along with 3,775 direct beneficiaries, an additional 100,000 individuals will benefit from more readily available and affordable dairy products; cleaner markets; and improved food security and nutrition.