Making progress towards food security: evidence from an intervention in three rural districts of Rwanda

Type Journal Article - Public Health Nutrition
Title Making progress towards food security: evidence from an intervention in three rural districts of Rwanda
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 1-9
URL http://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4825097
Abstract
Objective: Determining interventions to address food insecurity and poverty, as
well as setting targets to be achieved in a specific time period have been a
persistent challenge for development practitioners and decision makers. The
present study aimed to assess the changes in food access and consumption at the
household level after one-year implementation of an integrated food security
intervention in three rural districts of Rwanda.
Design: A before-and-after intervention study comparing Household Food
Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) scores and household Food Consumption Scores
(FCS) at baseline and after one year of programme implementation.
Setting: Three rural districts of Rwanda (Kayonza, Kirehe and Burera) where the
Partners In Health Food Security and Livelihoods Program (FSLP) has been
implemented since July 2013.
Subjects: All 600 households enrolled in the FSLP were included in the study.
Results: There were significant improvements (P<0·001) in HFIAS and FCS. The
median decrease in HFIAS was 8 units (interquartile range (IQR) -13·0, -3·0) and
the median increase for FCS was 4·5 units (IQR -6·0, 18·0). Severe food insecurity
decreased from 78 % to 49 %, while acceptable food consumption improved from
48 % to 64 %. The change in HFIAS was significantly higher (P=0·019) for the
poorest households.
Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that an integrated programme, implemented
in a setting of extreme poverty, was associated with considerable improvements
towards household food security. Other government and non-government
organizations’ projects should consider a similar holistic approach when designing
structural interventions to address food insecurity and extreme poverty.

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