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Democratic Republic of the Congo Finding out about what people eat and if they can afford it > Related article: Innovative Tools for Assessing Household Food Security and Dietary Diversity

Strengthening Food Security Early Warning Systems

Until recently, there were no food security related baselines and functioning information systems in the DRC. In order to help bridge this gap, FAO’s Emergency Coordination Unit has been supporting a project aimed at creating a food security early warning system based on sentinel sites.

The EC-FAO Programme has been :

- providing methodological support in designing the EWS system;
- providing resources to extend the coverage of the system to all territories of the DRC; and
- strengthening government capacity at provincial and central levels.

The food security EWS is currently operational and analyses are expected to be available on a regular basis starting from July 2008.

Innovative Nutrition Tools for Rapid Assessments

In March 2008, FAO nutritionists provided technical assistance aimed at strengthening the Early Warning Systems by integrating key dimensions of food security.

The Household Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) were included in the system. These tools aim at monitoring dietary diversity and food access at the household level. They are useful for quickly assessing deteriorating food situations.

> More about the nutrition tools

Launching the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)

The IPC is a tool for classifying the severity of food insecurity through a transparent and rigorous process of consensus building among all key food security stakeholders.

In the DRC, the following institutions have collaborated in launching the IPC initiative:
- FAO;
- National Service for Agricultural Statistics; and
- the Provincial Inspectorates for Agriculture.

Partners include UN Agencies such as UNICEF and WFP, international NGOs such as Oxfam GB and Action contre la Faim, and national NGOs.

IPC working groups have been formed at national and provincial levels. These working groups are expected to produce an IPC map of the DRC by July 2008. The IPC maps will be used by decision makers to better target and allocate food security investments.

> IPC website

Research on Food Security in Protracted Crisis

Protracted Crisis situations – such as that in the DRC – suffer from a lack of information and frameworks for better understanding longer term causes and guiding appropriate response. The EC-FAO Programme has therefore funded in-depth research on how longer term programming might be incorporated into the short term responses that are the norm in crisis situations.

The following case studies on the DRC have been prepared:

	Food security responses to the protracted crisis context of the Democratic Republic of the Congo This overview paper explores selected policy and programming initiatives for achieving longer term food security in the DRC.
	Conflict and Food Security in Beni-Lubero This case study examines household coping strategies in the region of Beni-Lubero, and the extent to which food security interventions have facilitated or blocked the process of developing resilience.
	Households' land use strategies in a protracted crisis context: land tenure, conflict and food security in eastern DRC This case study provides a systematic description of the links between local mechanisms of land distribution and use and conflict in the three territories of DRC where local patterns of land use and land access contributed to tension and dispute.

The DRC case studies, plus a series of lessons learned and recommendations on what might concretely be done in similar situations, will be included in a book called “Beyond Relief: Food Security in Protracted Crises” to be published by FAO and Practical Action Publishing in 2008.

Statistics in Applied Climatology (SIAC) Training Course

Four participants from the DRC participated in the Statistics in Applied Climatology (SIAC) training course. This three month course, run online by the University of Reading, gives people working with climatic data the skills they need to use historical datasets effectively.

As weather is a crucial factor behind variability in food production, the training ensured that technical staff will be able to produce relevant, tailored outputs that will be integrated in other initiatives such as the IPC and Sentinel post EWS. The resulting analysis will help end-users to make better decisions regarding food security, agricultural planning and disaster management.