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Food and Nutrition security and IPC working groups seek to ensure that the technical support provided to countries and regional partners is relevant and demand driven
20 February 2023, Johannesburg – The Southern Africa Working Groups for Food and Nutrition Security and for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) met in a three-day workshop to develop their first ever joint workplan to better support countries in Southern Africa region. The joint plan will facilitate the two working groups to better contribute to enhanced programming for improved food security, nutrition and livelihoods in Southern Africa.
Southern Africa experiences a number climate-induced and socioeconomic shocks and hazards such as flooding, drought, malnutrition as well as transboundary pests and diseases.
“This joint meeting is happening at the time when most countries in the Southern Africa region are experiencing floods, and the weather forecasts show that floods are going to be here for a while. Therefore, we need your joint efforts and planning to mitigate the impacts of such hazards in the region,” Lewis Hove, FAO Resilience Team Leader for Southern Africa, said addressing participants.
Harmonizing regional support
The joint workplan has expanded its scope to incorporate other cross cutting issues such as disaster risk reduction and resilience which influence food and nutrition security in the region. Through this collaboration stakeholders’ individual activities and workplans will be synchronized focusing on the main areas of food security, nutrition, disaster risk reduction and resilience.
The plan will be used as a tool for coordinating regional support to members in a way that food and nutrition security outcomes are aligned, and meeting the needs of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“Working together with Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) means that our analyses are not going to be in conflict. We will be able to provide coordinated messaging on food insecurity in the region. The workplan should be reflective of the needs that we have in the region,” Godfrey Kafera, Regional Representative of Southern Africa Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and FNSWG co-chair.
Both working groups seek to contribute to reduced food insecurity and livelihood vulnerability in the region through improving analysis, building capacities of the countries, monitoring shocks and stressors to inform early warning and early action, as well as improve access to information and knowledge.
The food and nutrition security practitioners who attended the meeting were drawn from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), WFP, UNICEF, IOM, FEWSNET, World Vision International, International Federation of Red Cross, and CARE International.
About FNSWG
The Food and Nutrition Security Working Group for Southern Africa (FNSWG) facilitates inter-agency efforts and partnerships that support the coordination of food and nutrition security monitoring, analysis, and reporting in southern Africa. The goal of the FNSWG is to contribute to enhanced programming for improved food security, nutrition, and livelihoods in Southern Africa. The FNSWG also aims to link and network relevant regional food security practitioners to facilitate knowledge sharing beyond the Southern Africa regional to promote experience sharing.
About IPC
IPC is an innovative, multi-partner initiative that aims to enhance food security and nutrition analyses used by Governments, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society, and other key stakeholders to assess the severity and magnitude of acute food insecurity, chronic food insecurity and acute malnutrition. In Southern Africa IPC food security and nutrition analysis outcomes are used in decision-making. The IPC classification and analytical tools provide evidence- and consensus-based analysis of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition situations that support in emergency responses as well as medium- and long-term policy and programming. At the moment, 11 out of 16 countries implements IPC to inform the food security situation.
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Related links:
· Food and Nutrition Security Working Group for southern Africa (FNSWG)
Contacts: Teopista.Mutesi@fao.org , Communications Specialist, FAO Resilience Hub for Southern Africa, Johannesburg.