Food Security & Poverty Alleviation

Focus

The world should come together to support activities promoting alleviation of poverty and hunger through developing sustainable small scale farming & (agri)businesses, small farmer groups with good governance, as well as micro financial initiatives and thereby creates the foundation for economic growth.

Motivation

Hunger and poverty are closely linked. Worldwide more than 900 million people are chronically undernourished. Due to hunger, individuals, families and communities never achieve their full potential. Alleviation of hunger is therefore one of the most important steps in development. Around three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas and most of them depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is well acknowledged that growth in agriculture is on average at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth outside agriculture. Supporting projects and initiatives which develop sustainable smallholder agriculture in rural areas is therefore prioritised. Currently the Rockwool Foundation prioritises to support projects in Africa.

Food Security & Poverty Alleviation Background

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all human beings have the right to food. Still - one third of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished!

Poverty and hunger are closely linked and form a vicious circle. In many ways hunger can be considered the severest form for poverty. People are willing to sacrifice many needs such as clothes, shelter, health care, and education before they surrender to hunger. Hunger dulls intellects and thwarts productivity, keeping entire societies from realizing their potential. Hungry people cannot live healthy active lives, they are not employable, they cannot care for themselves or their families and their children are likely never to learn how to read and write! Therefore food security is a prerequisite for development. It is the most important step.
The reasons for poverty and hunger are numerous and often wary from area to area, from village to village and from family to family. The root causes include biophysical and socioeconomic constraints. More than three quarters of the poor and hungry in Sub-Saharan Africa reside in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their living. In general agricultural production is lowest and poverty rates highest where the soils are poor and the rainfall is low and erratic. Population pressure is increasingly forcing people to settle in rural areas and marginal lands and these areas are largely ignored and low prioritized by African governments.

Agriculture shapes the backbone of most of the economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries and therefore poverty can only be alleviated through a stimulation of agriculture and agribusiness. This in turn will fuel the entire economy of the country. It is well acknowledged that growth in agriculture is on average at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth outside agriculture. Hence, if income from agriculture in a poor country increase by for example 100  shilling – this will result in an increased income in the society by typically 200-250 shilling - simply because the farmer will invest in commodities such as tools produced by the local blacksmith, a new roof for his house or clothes for his children. The entire economy is boosted and jobs are created.

Social Entrepreneurship

The overall vision and the guiding principles for the Food Security and Poverty Alleviation programs funded by the Rockwool Foundation are spotting and developing Social Entrepreneurs who can run projects that will combat poverty in developing countries. The Foundation defines Social Entrepreneurs as professional or voluntary leaders with high ethical standards and extraordinary abilities to overcome obstacles. They are people who have proven records of achieving social improvements in society. In addition projects should i) promote the principle of help to self-help, ii) ensure adequate monitoring and evaluation and iii) avoid negative impact on local economy. These elements are described below.

Help to self-help:
The Rockwool Foundation is interested in funding projects that can have a lasting and sustainable effect - also after the support from the Foundation has ended. We believe that lasting and sustainable changes only comes if the participants are actively involved in every aspect of the development processes and take full charge of their own future.  Active participation will avoid “projectisation” and donor dependence. Projects should offer proven skills and practices within relevant aspects of poverty reduction and food security through community mobilization, sensitization and capacity building to utilize available resources and opportunities for livelihoods improvements leading to self support and self reliance. The approach is to convey the household’s ability to arrive at well-informed judgments on how best to manage the resources at their disposal. Projects targeted small scale farmers are prioritized and may include various elements of improved small holder farming and (agri)business as well as income generating- and microfinance activities.
The Rockwool Foundation acknowledges that civil society organizations have an important role to play in terms of securing participation and involvement in the development process. Such organizations can be important vehicles for the promotion of the general interests of the poor and the promotion of democratization, good governance, and respect for human rights of both women and men. The use of community based organisations and groups in general can be powerful instruments in helping households to recognize their capacity to improve their livelihoods and reduce vulnerability. Positive group dynamics can create resilience and can help vulnerable households to overcome obstacles. Organizing the target group into self help groups is therefore considered a good entry point for projects funded by the Rockwool Foundation.

Adequate monitoring and follow up:
Much of the development assistance to Africa over the last decades has unfortunately not produced the intended results. Especially large agricultural programmes implemented by African governments using top down approaches have too often failed.  The Rockwool Foundation recognizes that agricultural development in Africa is difficult, and which in addition to skilful planning and implementation requires close monitoring and follow up to ensure that planned activities are implemented, results are produced and intended goals are reached.  Projects funded by the Rockwool Foundation commonly include elements of innovation and testing of new approaches and methods. Through the projects we wish to develop and document best practices and in turn facilitate the spread and up scaling of interventions to a wider range of target groups as well as implementers. Monitoring should therefore also include documentation of lessons learned for use in fine tuning of best practices.

Avoiding negative impact on local economy:
The Rockwool Foundation will support projects that create the foundation for broad-based economic growth. Foreign aid can harm recipient nations and communities by promoting corruption and through distortion of the local economy. For example, distribution of second hand clothing from the western world may prevent locals from buying clothing from local tailors and thereby put these tailors out of business. The local economy is harmed because it is impossible for local producers to compete with donated products. Distribution of free handouts can also promote donor dependency and prevent the beneficiaries from taking charge of their own development. Free handouts should therefore be minimized. Projects should as far as possible promote and rely on voluntarism in the targeted communities to increase project ownership and participation and to avoid negative effects on the local labour markets.