evaluations should be conducted in as many countries
as possible. Gender integration indicators must be
included in each results framework. Monitoring and
evaluation drives program priorities; when gender
indicators are not required, they are often not taken
seriously and measured.
• Assign a gender advisor for food security and agriculture to each Feed the Future country. The expertise of
USAID’s Bureau of Food Security (BFS) gender advisors should be used to improve and expand commitments to take active steps toward gender integration.
Each gender advisor should have time budgeted to help
missions strengthen their capacity to promote gender
integration. Feed the Future will be less effective in
improving food security—for both men and women—if
countries with poor gender integration strategies do not
receive guidance on strengthening them.
• Create a forum where country missions can share best
practices and discuss progress and challenges. A glance
through the various Country Investment Plans and
Multi-Year Strategies reveals great variation in how gender integration plans are carried out. While each country context is unique, some lessons on how to meaningfully integrate gender into program plans and activities
are usefully shared with everyone.
Credit for the formation of these suggestions goes to Ritu Sharma,
president, Women Thrive Worldwide.18
Responses to food price spikes should include expanding
nutritional and safety net programs in the countries where
food prices are rising fastest, developing better information
on food stocks, and taking steps to prevent food-surplus
countries from restricting food exports. Also needed are
more investments in agriculture and assistance in adapting
to climate change.
In July 2011, the United Nations declared that conditions
in six areas of Somalia met the definition of famine.19 Among
the people worst-affected were small farmers and agro-pastoralists who had no reserve supplies of cereals and could not
afford to purchase these staple foods. Across Somalia, in just
one year, the prices of the two major food crops produced
domestically—red sorghum and white maize—increased by
between 30 and 240 percent, and 50 and 154 percent, respectively.20 Prices of imported food commodities, such as rice,
sugar, wheat flour, and vegetable oil, are also higher than a
year ago. Today, Somalia has one of the highest malnutrition
rates in the world, and the famine has caused the deaths of
tens of thousands of young children.
Figure 6: Changes in Food Prices in Somalia—
June 2010 - June 2011
240%
170%
180%
Social Safety Nets and Chronic Food Insecurity
At a time of intense debate over budgets, it is helpful to
remember that not only do investments in food security
save lives, improve livelihoods, and promote stability—they
also save money in the long run. Providing emergency relief during famines costs an estimated seven times as much
as preventing famines. The donor community and national
governments are making smart investments by continuing to
support programs that give small farmers access to the inputs
needed to become self-sufficient