Project description

Title: Food Security and Nutrition Policy Support Project
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Cambodia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Planning
Overall term: October 2002 to December 2005

Context

Cambodia is still suffering the consequences of years of war and internal conflict. On top of this, the nutritional situation of the poor is unstable because of periodic flooding and droughts. Even though the average rice production of the last few years was sufficient to meet the national demand, the nutritional position is is generally insecure and leads to various forms of malnutrition. Poverty and underdevelopment are reasons for and results of widespread nutritional deficiencies. Small children in particular show signs of deficiencies. In 1997 around 44% of children under the age of five were diagnosed as being stunted. Over two-thirds of small children and women were suffering from anaemia.
Plans to improve the situation have until now hardly been implemented because of  the institutional weakness of governmental structures, lack of coordination of the actors and limited funds.

Objective

Governmental structures and development cooperation organizations should be enabled to better coordinate the production of foodstuffs and to improve the availability of food to the population.

Approach

The project advises the partners professionallly, methodically and in the field of communication.
Through this the Ministry of Planning is supported to embody the cross-sectional  theme food security within the framework of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy. The coordination and monitoring of these measures should be improved. In addition, the project cooperates with the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) , specialized Ministries (Health, Agriculture, Rural Development, Women's Affairs) and International Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) active in the area of food security. On a regional level, NGO's and local self-help groups are assisted by means of subsidies in the implementation, documentation and the dissemination of pilot measures in the area of food security. Training courses strengthen the specialized capacities of the partners. Additionally, coordination at a national level, as well as in two provinces is supported in order to target synergies and through this to ensure a more efficient use of the limited funds. National information systems and data banks raise transperancy. Direct effects of the project to date can be felt, above all, through the promotion of new rice cultivation methods and the development of strategies for the sustainable provision of  micronutrients (iodine, iron). The project is based on the experiences of an already completed six-year food security project in Kampot and therefore focuses on the provinces Kampong-Tom and Kampot.

Address

Food Security and Nutrition Policy Support Project (FSNPSP)
P.O.Box 164
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Further information

• Homepage of the project partner
  www.foodsecurity.gov.kh