CSOs Assess Food Security Efforts in Crises

CSM Questionnaire on FFA Monitoring Survey Open

This year the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is undergoing a monitoring process on the use and application of the Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (FFA). The FFA represents the first global consensus on how to support the progressive realization of the human right to adequate food while resolving protracted crises. The Framework seeks to improve the food security and nutrition of populations affected by, or at risk of protracted crises. It addresses common manifestations of crises and seeks to build resilience, adapt to specific challenges and contribute to resolving the underlying causes of protracted crises. The FFA recognizes the need for more-coordinated efforts that end food insecurity and malnutrition in protracted crises. Notably, it calls for all actors to achieve coherence among short-term humanitarian assistance, longer-term sustainable-development approaches, applying constant human rights obligations, with their preventive and remedial effects.

In parallel to the CFS monitoring process, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) for relations with the CFS is conducting an independent assessment of the FFA’s implementation so far. To gather inputs from civil society actors, CSM has developed a simple questionnaire to collect experiences at applying the FFA principles in food and agriculture during protracted crises. Responses from the questionnaire will inform a forthcoming CSM report to be presented in a plenary discussion during the Global Thematic Event (GTE) at the next CFS session (CFS47), likely to be held in the first quarter of 2021 (postponed from the originally scheduled dates in mid-October 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis). The GTE will enable a multi-actor dialogue based on the experiences and good practices documented by CFS participants and outcomes from national, regional and international monitoring processes.

The questionnaire can be accessed in English, Arabic, French and Spanish via the following links:

English

العربية

Français

Español

The purpose of the questionnaire is to enable civil society to determine the impact and effectiveness of policies and responses on food security and nutrition during protracted crises. Additionally, the questionnaire seeks to gauge the extent to which the FFA principles are being applied and how we, as civil society, can encourage the FFA’s implementation through dissemination, use and learning.

For more information, or assistance in completing this questionnaire, please contact Heather Elaydi at helaydi@hlrn.org and Ayushi Kalyan at kalyan@fian.org.

See also the original call for inputs on CSM website.

Photo: Migrant laborers and families protest against the government for the lack of food during a government-imposed lockdown in Amritsar, India, 22 April 2020. Source: Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images.