Peace Corps Food Security Toolkit

January 2009

Dear Country Directors, The Peace Corps Food Security Task Force developed this electronic toolkit to help your post effectively address the issue of food security. We realize there are a variety of resources and each individual post may be at a different stage of addressing the issue. With this in mind, we organized information into six categories to help you identify how your post may address food security and supply resources to address the issue in the future. These documents will help empower Volunteers and their partners to continue to take action and effectively respond to this crisis. Please note that the Peace Corps has gathered and organized many more materials from posts and other agencies that can be found on the Guru Food Security Landing Page. Where to start: Identify how your post has addressed the food security issue by answering the questions below and consider the accompanying suggestions to share this toolkit with your team: 1. What is food security?: Hold a meeting with your staff to review the concept of food security and how it affects your country and the Volunteers and how your post currently carries out activities related to the issue. See resource documents in Section 1 below. You may want to share A Silent Tsunami video on Peace Corps response to the food security crisis. 2. Is food security an issue at my post and to what level?: Talk with staff, Volunteers, and partner agencies about which areas of intervention in food security tie strategically to your existing projects or initiatives. Share with your Volunteer background information on food security and 11 Easy Actions for Volunteers and Communities through newsletters, post websites, and ISTs. See Section 2 below. 3. What additional training sources are available to help my post address food security?: Discuss how to integrate food security activities into your PST and ISTs using the array of session plans, tip sheets, and manuals found in Section 3 below. 4. How can my post partner with other organizations and what are other organizations doing in the field?: Look at partner agencies resources to build ideas for food security activities and Peace Corps partnership practices. Also look at examples of other posts activities and partnerships. See Section 4 below. 5. Am I providing the support necessary to the Volunteers? What can we do to provide additional support?: Review with your team issues that affect Volunteer health and safety by reviewing the tip sheet found in Section 5 below. 6. Am I sharing with the field effective ways to address food security?: Post your tools and dialogue on the Guru Food Security Landing Page. Use Guru as a source of information to see what other Posts are doing in the field. We look forward to hearing how your action plan continues to make a difference in the field of food security. Please e-mail us with any questions or suggestions!

Understanding Your Food Security Progress:

Peace Corps Food Security Toolkit

January 2009

Section 1: What is Food Security? Understand Food Security and Continue to Educate Yourself on the Issue: With the flood of information you receive, it is hard to organize all the information! Ensure you and your Volunteers understand food security with the following resources. I. Peace Corps Food Security Summit Video A Silent Tsunami : At the 2008 Food Security Summit, Headquarters presented A Silent Tsunami. This video is a wonderful resource
to provide an introduction to the severity and need to address food security. (Please find video on right hand side of food security page click small box to enlarge.)

II. Brief Background Information on Food Security a. Peace Corps Fact Sheet on Food Security: Understanding the Peace Corps mission on
food security and how Peace Corps, as a whole, is responding to food security.

b. A Primer on Food Security: A great resource to understand the basics of food

security: definition, determination, time dimension, and misconceptions about food security.

c. Food Crisis: Regional Information IDA, World Bank: A useful website for a brief
understanding of how food security affects each region Africa, East Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

d. Halving Hunger: It Can be Done U.N. Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger: A useful document to understand the global food security crisis and how
volunteer activities coincide with the U.N. Millennium Project Task Force on Hungers recommendations and intervention strategies to halve the amount of people suffering from hunger by 2015.

III. Session Plan: Strategies for Food Security Introducing Food Security to Volunteers:
A session plan useful for staff to introduce the topic of food security, the global food security crisis, and beginning steps to address the issue. Can be adapted to country specific information and examples.

Section 2: Is Food Security an Issue at My Post and to What Level? Find Out What Posts Can Do: If you are at the beginning stages or are well into the process, find out basic ways to effectively address food security. I. Share 11 Easy Actions for Volunteers and Communities to Address Food Security II. How are Other Peace Corps Posts Addressing Food Security? Review the Countryby-Country Chart: Review particular ways that other Peace Corps posts are addressing food
security.

Section 3: What Additional Training Sources are Available to Help My Post Address Food Security? Find Training Sessions and Tip Sheets on Food Security: Whether you already have the sources or are looking to build your file, these eight categories contain tip sheets, modules, and manuals of training sessions and how-tos that your fellow posts and partner agencies find useful for addressing food security. Click on each topic and find additional resources to address food security. I. Training Tools on Food Security Note that each training tool under the following eight categories is identified by type
name of document abbreviated country of origin Peace Corps (PC) or other organization and whether or not it is best in class (BIC).

a. Food Security Basics b. Food Production and Post Harvest c. Seeding and Gardening

Peace Corps Food Security Toolkit

January 2009

d. e. f. g. h.

Marketing and Agribusiness Nutrition and Health Household Financial Management Community Assessment and Outreach Alternative Income Generation

Section 4: How Can My Post Partner with Other Organizations and What are Other Organizations Doing in the Field? Learn about Information Resources from Partner Agencies: Other organizations also are addressing food security, and, together, we can make a greater impact. Below you will find materials from partner agencies as well as financial resources. We will be working with posts to add more NGOs to the list of resources in the coming months. I. Peace Corps Partners: How Partner Organizations Address the Food Security Crisis:
Headquarters held the 2008 Food Security Summit in October 2008. From the Summit, we gathered information about food security projects of attending organizations. This is a great resource to learn about what is going on in the field concerning food security and spur ideas to partner with these or other organizations.

II. Examples of how to obtain seeds from partner organizations: ECHO and Seed Programs, Inc. are two organizations that support Peace Corps programs. III. Samples of MOUs and Sources of Possible Funding: FAO; WFP; sample PAPA with USAID/Mali Section 5: Am I Providing the Support Necessary to the Volunteers? What Can We Do to Provide Additional Support? Plan for Volunteer Support: Helping address food security can be a meaningful, concrete activity for Volunteers. Ensure that Volunteers receive the necessary support to both cope with food insecurity and understand how food security activities can help make their work more meaningful. I. Checklist for Support Supporting Your Volunteers; Volunteers Self Checklist of Well-being; and Attending to Oneself: Three great documents to use as a guide and / or
teaching tool to ensure the well-being of your Volunteers.

II. How to Integrate into Existing Projects: Read three, unique examples of how Volunteers have integrated food security into their daily activities. Also, you can read several Agriculture PSR Stories that promote food security activities in each of the regions. Section 6: Am I Sharing with the Field Effective Ways to Address Food Security? Using Guru as a Support Source: Guru is a great way to stay connected with what other posts and partner organizations are doing in the field to address food security. You can find training material in the form of manuals, modules, and tip sheets as well as articles and documents about what others are doing in the field. I. Post your tools and dialogue on Guru Food Security Landing Page and search the Guru files.