Save the Children US is part of the International Save the Children Alliance that works in over 100 countries worldwide. The goal of its Food Security Program is to reduce the number of children who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. It has 13 long-term programs in: Sub-Saharan Africa — Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda; Latin America and the Caribbean — Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua; and Asia — Bangladesh, Indonesia and Tajikistan. Generally, these are five-year programs that address the health and nutrition of children and their families, including improving household access to a wider range and greater quantities of nutritious foods, by intensifying and diversifying the management of food production systems.

Behavior-focused programming is at the centre of the Save the Children’s strategy to reduce the number of children suffering from hunger and malnutrition. It tries to understand why some families in the developing world survive the hunger season without malnutrition or illness, and how they are able to produce more than their neighbours who have similar socio-economic environments. These families work the same size plots as their neighbours, cultivate the same marginal lands and endure the same rainfall, yet they are better able to withstand moderate shocks and stress in their farming systems. Social scientists call them “positive deviants,” and Save the Children develops behavior-change messages that help these farm families adapt new crops and crop varieties to diversify their farming systems and reduce their risks and vulnerability to food insecurity.

In the initial phase of its program activities, Save the Children’s agricultural team characterizes the farming systems in the communities where we work. This includes conducting an inventory of the local biodiversity that households depend upon for their food production systems: local crops commonly grown, agro-ecological and socio-economic characteristics of different varieties of each crop; species of fruit trees and vegetable crops grown; and types of root and tuber crops common in their farming systems. Knowledge of these characteristics provides the means to restore food production systems affected by disasters and to identify new crop varieties that may be more productive, less susceptible to disease and pests, and/or drought resistant.

The Save the Children’s approach to reducing risks of and vulnerabilities to food insecurity is to promote the diversification of household food production systems, which includes promoting new food crop mixes of cereal and grain legumes, root and tubers, home garden systems with a wide range of nutritious vegetable species, and planting multi-purpose fruit and firewood tree species. In promoting diversification, we focus on market opportunities for the family to generate household income and meet the nutritional needs of their children. Programmes promote new varieties that have better nutritional potential, such as bio-fortified bean varieties that are higher in iron and zinc, sweet potatoes rich in vitamin A, and varieties of maize with a higher quality of protein than traditional varieties.

Major efforts are made to promote more food production in and around the homestead. Biodiversity in species and varieties is among the most striking features of home gardens. Scientists are realizing that a vegetable-rich diet can bolster the immune system and help minimize the symptoms of HIV/AIDS. Vegetables are not a magic bullet and cannot cure people who are dying, but they can help those infected enjoy longer, more productive lives.

In most of the countries where Save the Children has food security programs, households have both food and animal production systems. We promote integration of animal resources with food-crop production system to intensify the management of these resources. Production of more food in and around the homestead is increased by sweeping the refuse of organic matter into trench pits and planting home gardens, penning animals to collect manure to make compost for these gardens, and making maximum use of water that comes into the homestead. Intensive management of these home gardens can provide a year-round source of nutritious food for the children and their families, but this requires a significant behavior change in the management of their farming systems.

In all aspects of our agricultural programming, the conservation of plant genetic resources and the sustainable management of local biodiversity are core standards towards reducing food insecurity. Biodiversity in the community is the foundation of their well-being, and Save the Children through its programs makes every effort to ensure that children and their families have sustainable access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives.

This article originally appeared in the UN Chronicle Online Edition. Used with permission.