Improving household food security in Mwanganya area through community involvement in Karonga District, Malawi

The initiative began in 2011 with the establishment of a multi-sectoral team of government extension workers, volunteers, and community-based organization (CBO) executive committee members. The team was trained in quality improvement approaches and national orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) standards. Initial assessments conducted in 2011 using the Child Status Index (CSI) tool revealed that most vulnerable children in the area had poor scores on the food security and nutrition domain. The quality improvement team, with support from Lusubilo CBO, analyzed the results and disseminated them to the community. The team brainstormed possible solutions to resolve the identified problems using the OVC standards as a guide. The underlying causes of food insecurity in Mwanganya area were identified as harvesting only once a year, storage challenges, limited access to agriculture inputs, and barter exchanges of maize with plastic products. The quality improvement team conducted community meetings to share recommended actions in the OVC standards to improve food security at the household level. As a result, community members mobilized themselves to establish grain banks to improve food availability during the hunger months. A total of 85 vulnerable households are currently participating in the grain banks. The Lusubilo CBO also supported the groups to build brick-made grain silos to protect the maize from adverse weather conditions. The quality improvement team also identified and linked 98 vulnerable households to local leaders to get them listed as beneficiaries of the government's Fertiliser Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP) for the next growing season. Additionally, the team conducted discussions with vulnerable guardians on the need to diversify their diets and harvest more than once during the year, making use of the available wetlands in the area. The number of households that had identified and started growing garden vegetables increased from 12 to 34 households from February to September 2013. Guardians also started growing irrigated maize to complement the food security at the household level and generate some household income through sales of the additional green crops. The initiative demonstrates the importance of community involvement and multi-sectoral team work in addressing real community challenges. The use of evidence to understand community problems and develop sustainable solutions has been key to resolving some of the problems in the community. Committed communities can brainstorm causes of challenges and develop and implement sustainable solutions themselves. The grain bank initiative has improved food availability during the hunger months, and the use of brick-made grain silos has protected the maize from adverse weather conditions. The linking of vulnerable households to the FISP has improved their crop productivity, and the promotion of diversified diets and multiple harvests has improved food security at the household level. The initiative has also generated some household income through the sales of additional green crops. The increase in the number of households growing garden vegetables and irrigated maize demonstrates the effectiveness of the initiative in improving food security and promoting sustainable livelihoods.