13. Development programs aiming to enhance resilience should build local capacities and strengthen local structures. It is those struc- tures that have the potential to provide the most effective and time- ly support when shocks and stresses strike. Emergency programs should not work in parallel with these structures, but rather work with and build on them to avoid locking communities and coun- tries into a humanitarian approach.
14. Support positive coping mechanisms that people already use. For example, strengthen community-level saving networks or banks that play a large role in promoting development and providing relief from shocks.
15. Nongovernmental organizations and their national partners should use their long-term experience in development programming more proactively to lobby for resilience-enhancing policy change.
16. Poor nutrition in early childhood (especially during the 1,000 days from conception through age two) reduces resilience because it can have long-term and irreversible effects on the cognitive and physical development of children and their future earning capaci- ty as adults. The humanitarian and development communities should thus focus on improving maternal and child nutrition in developing regions, with both nutrition-specific interventions to address the immediate causes of undernutrition and nutrition-sen- sitive interventions to address the underlying causes. Nutrition indicators as specified by the World Health Assembly targets should be used to assess nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs and funding schemes.2
2
These recommendations follow from the findings presented in a special issue of The Lancet on maternal and child nutrition (June 2013).
Ernestina Amwon Lira District, Uganda
“I suggest that the government put emphasis on con- trolling population growth since it has a direct effect on how much land can be cultivated and the amount of food available during a food crisis. Households with 4–5 members are more manageable during a food crisis than those with 8–15 members.”
Raimati Kadraka Rayagada District, India
“Our crop diversity increased from 14 to 42 due to the revival of millet-based mixed cropping. It strengthens our resilience to climate change. We rejected non- renewable hybrid seeds and synthetic chemical inputs, provided for free by the government … and NGOs. We reduced our dependence on external agricultural inputs.... We are watching our debts go down and the net yield of our farm increase.”
Muhammad Amin Old Mankial Swat Village, Pakistan
“For my children to have a better future, we need to raise their awareness and educate them on disaster mitigation and management. I believe that community conflicts over forests, agricultural land, and misuse of natural resourc- es led to disasters like floods. I want to resolve them and show a commitment to controlling deforestation.”
2013 Global Hunger Index | Chapter 05 | Policy Recommendations 49
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