In most of the geographical areas, where DRC is working, agriculture is the mainstay and main source of income. At the same time it is one of the sources of livelihood most vulnerable to disruption by conflict and displacement, as the conflict-affected population looses access to land and the investments often made in the land, as land becomes infected with landmines and other remnants of war, and as land rights and/or access often stands at the core of the conflict.
Nevertheless, these are the livelihood skills most of DRC's target population bring with them, and will depend on in the future, and hence, contributing to the target populations’ food security through rehabilitation and development of agricultural production and infrastructure forms an essential part of DRC ’s activities in many country operations.
Definitions
DRC adopts the following definition of food security;
"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of concern".
Adopting this definition entails that DRC sees food security in a wide perspective, where a complex mixture of factors affects the food security of a population. These can be clustered in four areas of potential vulnerability:
- the socio-economic and political environment
- the performance of the food economy
- care and nutrition practices
- hygiene practices, and water and sanitation.
This means that to be successful, food security strategies need to address all these underlying drivers by working in a diversity of sectors such as agriculture, nutrition, health and sanitation, education, social welfare, economics, public works and the environment.
DRC seeks to partly address this using the Intensive Delivery Mode – through its sectors of production and income generation, housing and small-scale infrastructure, as well as social rehabilitation, partly by seeking complementarity with other organizations or the Government in sectors such as health, education and environment.
No global commonly agreed upon definition exists for agricultural rehabilitation, but DRC chooses to define it the following way:
"Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development entails (re)establishment of capabilities, assets (material and social) and activities necessary to develop agricultural production and infrastructure such that agriculture becomes a viable livelihood strategy for the population".
Embedded in this definition is the notion that the ultimate goal for DRC ’s engagement in agricultural rehabilitation is to contribute to the ability of the target group to protect, restore and develop their livelihoods. Hence, it embraces an aim to support the rehabilitation and/or development of the agricultural sector as an “industry” that creates employment. This subsequently means that – depending on the pre-conflict context – the regional/country/operation specific objective may be to rehabilitate agricultural production and infrastructure to its pre-conflict level, or beyond. Hence, it may equally entail changing the pre-conflict structures or systems for e.g. agricultural extension, if these are no longer viable, functional and/or relevant.
Combining the broad scope of food security interventions with the longer-term perspectives ingrained in agricultural rehabilitation and development is directly linked to the mandate and Global Assistance Framework of DRC , and specifically to the achievement of durable solutions for conflict-affected persons.
As indicated above, the food security and agricultural rehabilitation and development sector is closely intertwined with several of DRC’s other sectors. When designing and implementing interventions within this sector one should take into account and consider linkages with Grant & Micro Credit, Housing and Small-Scale Infrastructure (particularly Water & Sanitation), Humanitarian Mine Action, Displacement-related Law and Information, and Information Management and Coordination. In some cases the full potential of food security and agricultural rehabilitation and development interventions may not be achieved without complementing with activities of other sectors, in other cases linkages with other sectors may be outright necessary as e.g. a do-no-harm measure.
Types of activities impmented
The sector spans a wide number of activities ranging from food-for-work and distribution of basic seeds and tools to support to Farmer Field Schools, reestablishment of agricultural extension services, and infrastructure for processing and preservation of agricultural produce.
While many of the agricultural activities may seem best suited to rural and non-camp contexts most can be adapted to peri-urban/ urban and camp-based situations focusing on e.g. “backyard”-farming, which can be important for food security and nutrition at household level.
