World Food Programme
VAM
VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS & MAPPING
SAF - GUIDELINE
VAM STANDARD ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK ROLE AND OBJECTIVES OF VAM ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT WFP FOOD-ORIENTED INTERVENTIONS
June 2002
T A B LE
OF
CONTENTS
1. WHAT IS VAM? 2. VAM CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 3. UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF FOOD AID 4. SAF COMPONENTS
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
A. WHAT IS VAM? The Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) is a WFP information tool that supports the design and management of WFP relief and development food-oriented activities. VAM expertise in the analysis of food security and vulnerability conditions supports food aid decision-making in WFP Regional and Country Offices, as well as at WFP Headquarters in Rome. The VAM Focus In both the relief and development contexts, the primary functions of VAM are: ! Geographic targeting: assessing the degree of food (in)security of specified
geographic areas, in a way that WFP can determine where to prioritise further assessment and response ! Problem assessment: understanding the probable causes of food insecurity and
vulnerability exist at any given time in a particular geographic region or population group. ! Beneficiary assessment: determining the characteristics of food insecure and
vulnerable populations, and whether food assistance can improve their conditions. ! The role of food aid: identifying whether the use of food aid has a comparative
advantage in addressing the basic causes of food insecurity and vulnerability in a targeted population ! Advocacy for the hungry poor: assisting the hungry poor by accurately representing
their conditions to others who may be able to provide assistance.
VAM analysis is also oriented to meeting other critical information needs, particularly related to the WFP Commitments to Women. VAM tools are gender-oriented to include a gender perspective focusing on those important differences which make women in nearly every country where WFP operates vulnerable because unable to develop sustainable coping mechanisms, and to highlight investment opportunities to address those issues directly. VAM uses a variety of information sources and analytical methods to accomplish these objectives—from the use of satellite images of agro-climatic conditions and secondary data on education, health, and nutritional status, to the monitoring of changes in market prices and household coping behavior, to simple face-to-face discussions with members (men, women and children) of food insecure and vulnerable communities. The mapping of this information provides both an analytical function and an important social and geographic perspective that makes VAM analysis more readily accessible to key decision-makers. VAM information products include analytical reports, maps, and databases. VAM efforts are based on a Standard Analytical Framework (SAF) that incorporates best practices in secondary data analysis, participatory assessments, the use of geographic information systems, and other analytical tools. The SAF explicitly links VAM outputs to specific information needs in both the WFP emergency and development programme cycles. While designed specifically to support key WFP programming decisions, VAM information products also support the complementary needs of the broader international community-including national and local governments, U.N. agencies, NGOs, and other organizations--to 1
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
address more rigorously the problems of food insecurity and vulnerability in developing countries. VAM works in collaboration with a variety of international partners to ensure its efforts continue to meet standards of quality.
B.VAM CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK VAM analysis is based on a particular understanding of food security and vulnerability. The VAM Conceptual Framework informs not only the selection of indicators for analysis and use in geographic targeting, but also the design of field assessment instruments and the organization of standardized reporting formats. This framework can be expressed as follows: Food Security
According to the 1996 World Food Summit: Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
The food security status of any household or individual is typically determined by the interaction of a broad range of agro-environmental, socioeconomic, and biological factors. Like the concepts of health or social welfare, there is no single, direct measure of food security. However, the complexity of the food security problem can be simplified by focusing on three distinct, but interrelated dimensions of the concept:: aggregate food availability, household food access, and individual food utilization. Achieving food security requires addressing all three of these separate dimensions, ensuring that: ! the aggregate availability of physical supplies of food from domestic production,
commercial imports, food aid, and national stocks is sufficient; ! household livelihoods provide adequate access for all members of the household to
those food supplies through home production, through market purchases, or through transfers from other sources; and ! the utilization of those food supplies is appropriate to meet the specific dietary and
health needs of all individuals within the household.
Vulnerability Vulnerability is another important food security-related concept. It can be defined as: The probability of an acute decline in food access, or consumption, often in reference to some critical value that defines minimum levels of human well being.
According to Robert Chambers, vulnerability represents “defenselessness, insecurity and exposure to risks, shocks and stress ... and difficulty in coping with them.� By this definition, vulnerability is a result not only of exposure to hazards—such as drought, conflict, extreme
2
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
price fluctuations, and others—but also of underlying socioeconomic processes which serve to reduce the capacity of populations to cope with those hazards. As indicated in Diagram 1, the vulnerability status of any household or individual may change over time according to a complex combination of factors. Over time, individuals may cross various thresholds of human well being. Through its emphasis on the implications for basic levels of human well-being, this definition of vulnerability also highlights the important interaction between levels of household food access and the health status of individuals. This interaction ultimately influences the extent of under-nutrition within vulnerable populations and can determine levels of starvation-related mortality. This understanding of vulnerability can be summarized as follows: Vulnerability = Exposure to Risk and Ability to Cope In this framework, exposure to risk is determined by the frequency and the severity of natural and man-made hazards, as well as the socioeconomic and geographic scope of those hazards. The determinants of coping capacity include household levels of natural, physical/economic, and human assets, levels of household production, levels of income and consumption, and, importantly, the ability of households to diversify their sources of income and consumption to effectively mitigate the effects of the risks that they face at any given moment (Diagram 2).
3
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
Vulnerability and Food Security Framework
Coping Capacity
Key Outcomes
FOOD SECURITY STATUS/VULNERABILITY
Level/Variability FOOD AVAILABILITY
Changes in RESOURCE Management Strategies - Natural - Physical - Human
Changes in PRODUCTION Strategies - Farm - Nonfarm
Physical Asset Endowment
Hazards
Level/Variability FOOD ACCESS
Physical/ Environmental Hazards
Changes in INCOME and PRICE Levels: - Farm - Nonfarm
Level/Variability FOOD UTILIZATION
Changes in CONSUMPTION Levels - Food - Nonfood
Infrastructure/Social Asset Endowment
Market and Entitlement Hazards
Changes in NUTRITION Outcomes - Child - Adult
Human Asset Endowment
Nutrition and Health Hazards
From WFP (2000), derived fromWebb , et al (1993)
Often, coping behavior involves activities such as the sale of land or other productive assets, the cutting of trees for sale as firewood or, in an extreme example, the sale of girls into prostitution. These practices undermine, not only the long-term productive potential of vulnerable households, but may also undermine important social institutions and relationships. The extent of reliance on these more destructive practices is a further indicator of levels of vulnerability during a crisis. While an understanding of how households cope is an important aspect of vulnerability analysis, an understanding of how well households cope, or the resilience of household livelihoods, is more important. How well the local economy can absorb the additional labor or products, such as livestock or firewood, that come on the market as the result of coping behavior during a disaster, and the stability of wages and prices for those products, is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability. Food security analysis is primarily a static view of food access and household constraints to food access, from either a short-term or long-term perspective. In contrast, because it includes the element of risk that households face in their day-to-day decision-making and their capacity to respond effectively over time, vulnerability analysis views food access from a more dynamic, forward-looking perspective. In the end, there is a significant overlap between those households that are currently food insecure and those that are at risk to the type of severe fluctuations in food access that threaten fundamental levels of human well-being. While, in concept, all households may be considered vulnerable, from an operational perspective the primary emphasis of vulnerability analysis should always be on those households that are nearly, or already food insecure.
4
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
Who Are the Food Insecure and Vulnerable? Typically, under general conditions of resource poverty, low productivity, poor food access, and poor utilization, the special developmental and dietary needs of young children (especially those under 5 years of age) and pregnant and lactating women place these groups among the most food insecure and vulnerable in developing countries. The landless, female-headed households, the elderly, the sick and disabled, and other disadvantaged groups with low levels of physical asset holdings, limited household labor, and insufficient means of support from family members and the community are also typically included as being among the most food insecure and vulnerable as well. Other households are vulnerable because they live in areas that are particularly susceptible to natural or man-made disasters. Households under the extreme threat of conflict, drought, and other risks, particularly those households lacking an adequate asset base and diversified income sources to cope with those risks, are also considered among the most food insecure and vulnerable groups.
C. UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF FOOD AID Central to the WFP Enabling Development policy is an understanding of the “special role” of food aid in bringing poor people to development opportunities. Under this policy, food aid is viewed as a particularly useful “pre-investment” to development activities in specific sectors, a resource that is most useful to: ! Enable young children and expectant and nursing mothers to meet their special nutritional and
nutrition-related health needs; ! Enable poor households to invest in human capital, particularly that of women and girls, through
education and training; ! Make it possible for poor families to gain and preserve assets; ! Mitigate the effects of natural disasters in areas vulnerable to recurring crises of this kind; and ! Enable households that depend on degraded natural resources for their food security to make a
shift to more sustainable livelihoods.
In addition, through its Special Commitments to Women, WFP views food aid as an important means to ensure women’s access to social and economic resources, and insists on their full participation in local power structures and decision-making in the development process. However, even where constraints exist in these key areas of interest to WFP in its use of food aid resources, it is the sine qua non of food aid that it be used only in the context where populations face inadequate consumption and hunger. At the same time, not all instances of hunger are necessarily best addressed through the use of food aid. Understanding the “special role” of food aid also entails identifying where is food aid most likely to be a cost-effective resource in addressing the causes of food insecurity and vulnerability. The transfer of food aid in-kind often has special advantages over the provision of other forms of emergency and non-emergency assistance:
5
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline ! By limiting the substitution of aid toward non-food expenditures, the provision of food directly as
an in-kind transfer may often result in higher levels of individual food consumption than comparably-valued cash transfers. ! Food supplies are often more likely to come under the control of women in recipient households,
with a resulting greater tendency to be more equitably distributed to the most vulnerable family members. ! As opposed to cash wage employment in public works, which is often viewed more favorably by
men and can limit women’s participation, the use of food as an in-kind wage payment may improve the likelihood that women participate in public works activities, again, with important implications for the control and intra-household distribution of food aid supplies. ! Where markets are ineffective in moving food supplies to meet existing levels of demand at a
reasonable price, thereby limiting the effectiveness of market-based interventions, there is a strong argument for assistance in the form of food aid in-kind. ! Where food prices are rising rapidly, the injection of food supplies into local markets can provide
an important source of market stability, thereby insulating the purchasing power of affected populations from further market shocks. ! In circumstances where the health consequences of a particularly serious or protracted
emergency require exceptional nutritional supplementation, food aid in-kind is also an essential element of an emergency response.
In the end, food aid can be viewed as having benefits as a consumption good with nutritional benefit to individuals and as an economic good with value that can supplement overall household incomes. As a “pre-investment” to development, those benefits provide important incentives that can often overcome barriers to participation in the development process and barriers to access for important services in both the productive and social sectors. A central role of VAM analysis is to confirm the presence of hunger and food insecurity, to identify where conditions are such that food aid is clearly the best resource to use in addressing the difficulties faced by vulnerable populations, and to identify programmatic opportunities for interventions in sectors related to health, education, asset-creation, disaster mitigation and natural resource management. The final question in any VAM analysis is ultimately, “How can food aid make a difference?” This information is critical to informed decision-making by WFP management for the effective use of scarce food aid resources in both emergency and development activities.
6
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
D. SAF COMPONENTS
VAM Objectives VAM has outlined a Standard Analytical Framework (SAF) which represents a structured, stepby-step analytical process tailored explicitly to meet critical information needs in the WFP emergency and development programme cycles. Each analytical product is based on a specific conceptual framework for understanding food insecurity and vulnerability and a specific understanding of the appropriate role of food aid to address their causes. The SAF includes a set of analytical tools and information products intended to: ! Inform the WFP Programme design process ! Support Programme implementation in both development and emergency contexts ! Monitor progress toward objectives throughout the implementation period.
Again, each of these tools is also intended to help WFP meet its Special Commitments to Women through a gender-sensitive vulnerability analysis. That analysis is intended not only to identify the particular problems women face in developing countries, but also to identify the opportunities for the use of food aid to address those problems. More importantly, VAM analytical tools are designed to ensure that WFP identifies opportunities to exploit the particular role of women within the household that often makes the placement of food aid resources in their control a highly cost-effective form of intervention. For the different stages of WFP Programme cycle, the SAF defines a core set of analytic activities that include: 1. Situation Analysis intended to provide information for geographic, sectoral and socioeconomic group targeting necessary for the preparation of a Country Strategy Outline; 2. Community Food Security Profiling that provides a more refined understanding of the livelihoods of priority communities, households, and individuals for WFP Country Programme design; 3. Periodic Vulnerability Monitoring for tracking progress toward Country Programme objectives and to signal the need for more intensive emergency needs assessments when and where conditions warrant.
VAM views information and analytical needs for both development and emergency programming as highly complementary. As a matter of fact, the SAF Comprehensive Vulnerability Analysis (CVA) is intended to provide an essential empirical base for WFP Emergency Programmes design such as Contingency Planning and Disaster Mitigation. Similarly, the SAF Emergency Vulnerability Analysis (E-VAM) includes analytic activities such as Emergency Vulnerability Assessments and Emergency Vulnerability Monitoring providing information in support of PRRO and EMOP preparation, as well as of other aspects of emergency programme design and management.
7
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
Core VAM-SAF Activities The following analytical activities will be undertaken on a periodic basis, according to Country Programme needs, and in anticipation of revisions to the WFP Country Strategy. They are intended to provide a preliminary problem assessment, identify target populations and regions, and help to define the role of food aid in the development context. Observed changes in food insecurity and vulnerability conditions from these periodic analytical efforts will complement WFP evaluation activities and help define possible exit strategies. While designed to provide an information base in support of all subsequent VAM analysis, specific steps in the SAF analytical process have implications for specific VAM inputs into the design of WFP development and emergency operations. Overview of SAF Process WFP Programme Cycle activities Country Strategy Outline (CSO)
Country Programme (CP) Activity Design Contingency Planning Disaster Mitigation CP monitoring/ EMOP
EMOP
PRRO
WFP information needs Geographic, sectoral and socioeconomic group targeting
Type of food security analysis required Baseline
VAM SAF analysis process
VAM SAF assessments
Comprehensive Vulnerability Analysis (CVA)
Beneficiary targeting, characterization of household vulnerability dynamics and definition of the role of food aid Identification of risks and potential impacts, and opportunities to mitigate disasters
Identification of emerging trends and eventual threats to food security and vulnerability Current food security status: who, where, when, why, how much food?
Estimation of impact and detection of change in on-going emergency FS conditions
Monitoring
Emergency Analysis
VAM SAF outputs
• Situation Analysis (SA) • Secondary Data Analysis (SDA) • Country Office and partner consultations
• •
Input to CSO Vulnerability Issues Paper
• Community Food Security Profiling (CFSP) • Country Office and partner consultations
• •
Input to CP Community and Household Food Security profiles
Input to Contingency Planning
•
Re-analysis of SA, SDA, CFSP information
•
Input to WFP Contingency Planning
Input to Disaster Mitigation planning
•
Re-analysis of SA, SDA, CFSP information
•
Input Disaster planning
VAM Vulnerability Monitoring
•
Monitoring
•
Food security and vulnerability updates
VAM Early Warning
•
Early warning assessment
•
Early warning information
Emergency Vulnerability Assessment
•
Emergency SDA and Emergency CFSP
•
Input to EMOP document Emergency Vulnerability Assessment
Emergency Vulnerability Monitoring
•
Emergency SDA and Emergency CFSP
• Input to PRRO document • Emergency Food Security and Vulnerability Update
8
•
to WFP Mitigation
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
1. Comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) Country Strategy Outline preparation: 1.1 Situation Analysis. The objective of the Situation Analysis is to provide an overview of the context of food security and vulnerability in a country. It should identify the main food security causes, the population groups most affected and suggest the possible sectors of intervention to address these problems. The Situation Analysis consists of: Literature Review. A review of relevant literature on agriculture, poverty, nutrition, marketing, and other food security and vulnerability-related issues is the critical starting point for any vulnerability analysis. The literature review is intended to analyse the political context, the interests and the activities of key institutional players in food security and vulnerability in the country as well as to provide a preliminary understanding of the causes of food insecurity and an initial definition of vulnerable socio-economic population groups. It should provide the basis for selecting and interpreting available secondary data in the appropriate analytic context. Secondary Data Analysis. The analysis of secondary indicators will provide a narrative understanding of the underlying causes and spatial patterns of food insecurity and vulnerability. Rather than an index or a model that synthesizes diverse indicators into a single complex measure, the secondary data analysis will look at indicators separately as a means of enhancing the understanding of various aspects of food insecurity and vulnerability. In addition to the use of secondary indicators to understand the causes of food insecurity and vulnerability, secondary data on food security and vulnerability outcomes will be used to identify geographic priorities for WFP-assisted interventions on the basis of where vulnerable populations are most likely to be concentrated. This phase of the Comprehensive Vulnerability Analysis will be synthesized in the following VAM outputs: Vulnerability Issues Paper. The Vulnerability Issues Paper represents the current understanding of food insecurity and vulnerability at national and sub-national levels, based on the review of the existing literature on food security and vulnerability in the country and a thorough analysis of relevant secondary data. It also contains conclusions regarding geographic targeting priorities and the appropriate role of food aid in terms of critical sectors of intervention. The Vulnerability Issues Paper provides the factual basis for the VAM input into the CSO design process. CSO Brainstorming Workshop. This is a one-day discussion among Country Office staff of the major findings of the baseline vulnerability analysis contained in the VIP. The focus of the workshop is primarily on the implications of the baseline analysis for future WFP programming. This internal workshop is meant to begin the brainstorming process for the future WFP Country Strategy Outline. Country Programme Design: 1.2. Community Food Security Profiling (CFSP). The CFSP is intended as a detailed field assessment to identify and describe the population's livelihoods and coping strategies in WFP target areas. The CFSP is meant to analyse causes and levels of vulnerability, gender issues, intra-household resources allocation concerns and issues related to the role of food aid—
9
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
information that forms the factual basis for the activities design, monitoring and evaluation. Field data collection efforts (using a combination of sample survey and PRA techniques) are employed to gather information at community- and household-level that is normally not available through existing secondary sources. Community Food Security Profiling activities include: Geographic Stratification. Within WFP target areas, secondary data on environmental conditions, natural and man-made hazards, social characteristics, access to infrastructure and services, economic organization and health conditions, among others, will be used to stratify geographically the programme area. This stratification will serve as the basic sample frame for subsequent primary data collection activities in the CFSP and, potentially, in Emergency Vulnerability Assessments. Community and Beneficiary Characterization. This activity is intended to describe the livelihoods of the communities within the WFP target areas, the characteristics of households that are chronically food insecure, vulnerable to food insecurity or food secure. These characteristics will be used for targeting community-based food-oriented activities as well as to develop beneficiary selection criteria. This phase of the Comprehensive Vulnerability Analysis will be synthesized in two VAM outputs: Community and Household Profiles in Vulnerable Areas report will synthesize the information derived from the analytical activities described above. This report will constitute the primary basis for VAM input into the Country Programme Document. CP Brainstorming Workshop. This is a one-day discussion among Country Office staff of the major findings and implications of the vulnerability analysis contained in the Community and Household Profiles. The focus of the workshop is primarily on the implications of the baseline analysis for future WFP programming. This internal workshop is meant to begin the brainstorming process for the future WFP Country Programme. Contingency Planning and Disaster Mitigation: CPLAN and DISMIT Input Documents. Development of scenarios for contingency planning and disaster mitigation efforts is based on a detailed re-analysis of baseline secondary data and vulnerable group profile information. This analysis is intended to highlight regions and population groups at risk to specific hazards, indigenous coping/recovery capacities, and available institutional and logistics resources, as a basis for prioritizing investments for improved emergency prevention, mitigation, and response capabilities. 2. Periodic Monitoring Periodic Monitoring represents an effort to track general food security and vulnerability status of key target groups through the compilation of early warning system information, key informant interviews, analysis of secondary data sources, and direct field assessments of VAM staff, where necessary. Vulnerability Monitoring efforts will be undertaken on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis, according to local conditions and decision-making requirements. This on-going activity is intended to capture changes in food insecurity and vulnerability conditions from the baseline analysis. It provides the basis for decisions
10
VAM
VAM Standard Analytical Framework - guideline
regarding the need for formal emergency needs assessment missions and to keep WFP informed regarding changes in external factors or in local context that may influence the performance of long-term development activities. Food Security and Vulnerability Updates are the main outputs of Vulnerability Monitoring activities. 3. Emergency Vulnerability Analysis EMOPs and PRROs: Under the E-VAM component, VAM will develop activities intended to capture changes in food insecurity and vulnerability conditions from the baseline analysis. These activities are primarily for the support of emergency planning, needs assessment, and targeting, as well as monitoring the transition towards recovery. They also provide important context for understanding external factors that may influence the performance of long-term development activities. Emergency Vulnerability Assessment represents a field assessment (using a combination of sample survey and participatory assessment methods) intended to obtain essential information on the severity of crisis conditions at the household-level, the socio-economic characteristics of the most severely affected population groups, the number and absolute food needs of affected populations, and an outline of key issues of specific concern for emergency programme design efforts. Emergency Vulnerability Assessments are to be undertaken when a more in-depth investment (3 to 5 weeks) in building a broader context of vulnerability to assess the emergency condition is judged useful and possible for more appropriate response from WFP and partners. Emergency Vulnerability Monitoring. This type of assessment, not systematically undertaken at-present, is intended to support the management of an emergency operation providing WFP decision-makers information related to the impact of WFP emergency food aid resources on affected populations. It combines information on food aid deliveries with changes in marketlevel conditions, household coping behavior, as well as changes in individual nutritional status conditions that may signal the need for increasing or decreasing assistance levels and meet the changing needs of affected populations at every stage of the emergency. In addition, this monitoring tool will enable WFP to identify the point at which the behavior of affected populations indicates a shift from “coping” to “recovery” to better-design transitional strategies from Emergency operation to protracted Relief and Recovery operations. These efforts will be summarized into the following outputs: EMOP Input Document Emergency Food Security and Vulnerability updates PRRO Input Document
11