IFAD’s experience shows that its rural poverty alleviation projects achieve their greatest impact on HFS and nutrition when they are supported by (i) complementary health, water supply and sanitation activities, (ii) appropriate sectoral and macro policies and (iii) long-term investments in basic, adaptive and participatory research. As a specialized agricultural and rural investment agency, and in order to maximize its assistance in HFS, IFAD considers it critical to seek the synergy of a closer and longer-term relationship with its partners in the UN system, bilateral donors, national governments in developing countries, civil-society institutions and national and international research organizations. In collaboration with its partners in development, particularly among the JCGP agencies, IFAD intends to improve its HFS and nutrition focus in the future through:

• A strong participatory analysis and gender perspective in project development, implementation and evaluation: HFS strategies and primary causes for food insecurity and poor nutrition, as experienced by the target population, deserve much more attention. Communities and individuals need to elaborate their own priorities and particular needs for public support. As women are critical in ensuring HFS and nutrition in their roles as food producers, processors, traders and income earners, any HFS (and nutrition) analysis has to start with a gender perspective. The manner in which women can participate in and are affected by technological change and commercialization in agriculture and rural economies is of particular importance for improved HFS (and nutrition).

• The promotion of investments to low-potential (or marginal) areas and to the rural poor, primarily serving those population groups that are commonly the most vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition. This may mean the promotion of a broad range of activities – including safety nets and investments in agriculture, income diversification, social services and human capital – in recognition of the low agricultural potential and high risk of many of the agro-ecological zones in which IFAD’s target population lives and the limited access to agricultural income opportunities for prime beneficiaries. Agricultural research has to be better targeted to marginal areas and to the poor.

• An enabling policy, sectoral and institutional environment for HFS and nutrition programmes. Alleviating food insecurity and malnutrition achieves its greatest impact when supported by appropriate food security and nutrition policies and programmes at sectoral and macro levels, and targeted investments towards food-security and nutrition-relevant research. The Fund is determined to develop longer-term collaboration with other UN agencies and International Financial Institutions to help shape HFS and nutrition-relevant programmes and promote IFAD’s objectives, together with national and local governments and civil-society organizations.

• A more effective operationalization of HFS and nutrition objectives in projects and programmes by developing user-friendly tools and practical guidelines for identifying food insecurity problems, prioritizing appropriate interventions, monitoring impact and facilitating improved beneficiary participation. The achievement of improved HFS and nutrition through the most relevant set of activities will require, above all, investment in the analytical and planning capacity of programme and project designers and policy-makers in developing countries.

• Intensified coordination of policies and action with other donors. Addressing HFS and nutritional concerns cannot be a single-agency activity. IFAD’s major comparative advantage in the development process is to work at the micro and meso level on agricultural development and rural income-generation. The Fund will therefore make increasing use of complementarities with other international agencies, particularly those agencies working in the areas of health, sanitation, nutrition education and safety nets, and seek to establish strategic linkages in a more systematic manner and at much earlier stages of policy articulation and project design.

Coordination and collaboration among international and bilateral agencies on HFS, health and nutrition issues should be envisaged as a long-term task, based on the expansion of existing activities at three different levels: (i) the project/programme design and implementation level; (ii) the country policy/strategy planning level; and (iii) the international inter-agency policy level.

At the project and programme design and implementation level, IFAD will improve and expand its cooperation with international and bilateral agencies through complementary activities in parallel or co-financed programmes and projects. The Fund will increasingly complement its own agricultural and rural income-generation focus with components that specifically address health, sanitation or child-care issues – implemented, for instance, by UNICEF or UNFPA – or seek assistance in planning, awareness-raising or monitoring and evaluation of HFS and nutrition-relevant aspects. Cooperation with WFP will be particularly helpful where transient or chronic household food insecurity may require safety nets through labour-intensive public works or food-based emergency relief operations. Cooperation with UNDP would lead to heightened national capacity-building through co-financing of technical assistance and training components. Project-based collaboration should increasingly be extended to a programmatic level by developing replicable collaborative strategies and modules that could be implemented in different countries or regions.

Not only UN agencies but also bilateral agencies should seek to establish more formal mechanisms for synchronizing and complementing activities. They should also give more emphasis than in the past to collaboration at the country policy and strategy level, particularly through (i) the formulation of better-coordinated policies, programmes and strategies in the areas of HFS, health, and nutrition; (ii) a clearer distribution of responsibilities among the various actors; (iii) the promotion of HFS and nutritional well-being as a central strategic development goal; and (iv) long-term investments in HFS and nutritional analysis and planning capacity. Food security and nutrition strategies and programmes must be increasingly developed in close consultation and dialogue with the various private and public actors, ranging from the food-insecure households themselves to communities, civil-society organizations, local and national governments, international finance institutions and bilateral donors.

In short, a stronger focus on HFS and nutrition as an important outcome of investment projects should ultimately lead to a new generation of projects that would address the central conditions for bringing about improved HFS and nutritional well-being in a holistic and integrated way, based on: (i) a more gender-sensitive participatory analysis and evaluation of project interventions from an HFS and nutrition perspective and more targeted interventions to women; (ii) the integration of health and sanitation activities and analyses through inter-agency collaboration; and (iii) a supportive, enabling legal, socio-economic, institutional and policy environment.