Methodology for addressing food security in development projects - Experiences from Kigoma, Tanzania

The aim of the paper is to propose a simple cost-effective field methodology to address food security in development projects. Food security is regarded as an organizational principle requiring targeted and integrated interventions to reach the food insecure within an overall development policy. With development projects, only a selective and participative approach towards food security guarantees a sustainable development process that encompasses the most vulnerable groups in society. The paper demonstrates the importance of identifying food insecurity at the local and regional levels before field interventions aimed at improving food security are planned. All too often, it is assumed that the nature and causes of food insecurity are sufficiently well-known to warrant immediate actions in the field. Interventions then fail to reach the target group (the food insecure) adequately and do not fundamentally address the root causes of food insecurity. Reliance is on trickle-down effects for the food insecure and this is known to fail. Field research in the Kigoma region in Tanzania has shown that it is possible to identify the food insecure efficiently and effectively using a simple methodology. The food insecure, the causes of food insecurity and relevant indicators of food insecurity were identified for each main socio-economic livelihood system over a period of 5 weeks. Six steps can be distinguished in the methodology and the paper describes them in detail The concrete planning of the interventions demands an additional step. Once insight is reached at the top of the pyramid and the priorities of the very poorest are duly established, the other levels need to be passed through once more in order to guarantee the durability of the planned intervention within existing systems and network on national, regional, village and family level. Four main principles guide this methodology: identification per main socio-economic system, analysis of intra-household patterns, a participative approach, and selection of appropriate actions to overcome food insecurity in terms of their priorities and cost effectiveness in the short, medium and long term. It is hoped that the proposed methodology will help to make the food security concept more operational in the field, at the local level, where it really matters. This does not in any way diminish the macro-economic importance of food security and food policies, but the gist of the concept of food security is that the individual stands first and that the subjective perception of food security matters most.