Nunu Desalegn Addis Ababa, Ethiopia


“Life is very difficult due to inflation. Teff [Ethiopian grain] is very expensive. I used to buy 100 kilograms for 300 birr; now the price is 2,000 birr.... Previously we consumed lentils, vegetables, and meat, and now due to inflation we cannot afford to eat all these.... Now, we can afford to eat meat only for holidays


like Easter. I have no savings. I don’t know what will happen in an emergency.”


The program helped strengthen community resilience to food and n utrition insecurity by consistently addressing the structural root causes of food and nutrition insecurity and simultaneously making thoughtful use of emergency instruments, such as food- and cash-for-work. Look- ing at the program through a resilience lens allows us to identify key resilience factors for future programming. The program in the North-West Department integrated several


components in order to holistically protect a distinct watershed, to ensure access to remote areas, and to provide irrigation and water supply sys- tems to the households involved. Flexible funding mechanisms for emer- gency interventions were included from the outset in order to offer an opportunity to react to acute needs when natural disasters struck (Kun- dermann, Excéus, and Almqvist 2012). Figure 4.1 illustrates the outputs and impacts achieved by the program and shows how the different types of interventions and programming levels are interrelated. The external program analysis found the following direct and


indirect impacts between 2000 and 2011: > Despite recurring shocks and stresses in this period, 4,800 house-


holds sustainably improved their food security, mostly by acquiring access to irrigation and water supply systems and benefiting from protected crop areas with high yield potential.


> Household incomes grew thanks to agricultural yields that rose by 50–200 percent. Factors that contributed to these improved yields included irrigation systems, soil protection measures, better water supply systems, and better access to markets via newly constructed rural roads.


Maria Naok Karamoja District, Uganda


“When my husband was still alive, we had some ani- mals, cattle, and goats. We lost them all due to raids. The last chicken I had died from poultry cholera. That’s why I have no more animals at all.... Last


year, I cultivated the land and sowed, but there was no harvest at all. The rain was strong, the field was flooded, and all the plants died....”


“As I harvested nothing last year and have no animals, I have to count on other sources to survive till the harvest comes. I cut firewood and produce charcoal, which I sell on the market. From the income, I buy some sorghum and make local beer from it, which I sell. I am actually preparing a garden and am planting some vegetable seedlings, grown in a nursery from seeds that we got from Welthungerhilfe.”


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> For many households, not only food availability and access, but also the quality of the food consumed improved. Vegetable consumption increased as a result of irrigated agriculture and diversification, and access to safe drinking water improved health (reducing the inci- dence of diarrhea by 20 percent) and nutrition.


> Food deficits during acute crises were reduced by an estimated 30–50 percent, mostly because of the introduction of flexible and well-targeted food-for-work and cash-for-work programs during acute emergency phases. As a result, households were better able to avoid harmful coping strategies such as the sale of animals, loss of assets, or charcoal production leading to further deforestation.


Ingredients of Resilience An analysis of programming through a resilience lens revealed that many factors are important for strengthening community resilience to


undernutrition. > By addressing several underlying, structural causes of vulnerabil- ity (such as inadequate infrastructure, inappropriate technologies, and difficult-to-access markets), the program contributed to positive long-term prospects of moving people out of hunger and


Building Community Resilience to Undernutrition | Chapter 04 | 2013 Global Hunger Index


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