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Victoria Berg
World Food Programme
Nairobi, Kenya

Another hearty “Jambo!” from the WFP Regional Bureau in Kenya! I am still greatly enjoying my time at the Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM) unit. To recap, the VAM unit provides technical support to country offices through assessments and food security monitoring.  This generates information and a factual basis for program design using more traditional assessment methods, and advanced and emerging technologies to provide a clear picture and timely data of the situation on the ground. The VAM unit has a subset called mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM), which is the subject of my blog today.

mVAM is used to “collect food security data from places that are too remote or dangerous for face-to-face assessments, or when high-frequency data is needed to monitor an evolving situation” (WFP, 2017). mVAM uses mobile technology like SMS, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) (live calls made by an operator) to track the food security of vulnerable populations in real-time (WFP, 2017).

Globally, the VAM unit has completed 555 in-depth assessments since 2001. 59 countries have Food Security Monitoring Systems in place, and over 20,000 remote mVAM surveys are carried out every month (WFP, 2017). That is A LOT of data. I have been sitting at a desk at the regional bureau reading incredibly comprehensive and valuable technical reports from the VAM team that help inform program and policy in the region.

In addition to sharing data and assessment results with the wider food security community, the mVAM team now wants to use new tools and technologies to make this data available and easily accessible to beneficiaries and the communities where WFP works. Food security data should not be a one-way street but should be made available in a timely matter to the people it directly impacts.

The WFP’s two-way communications systems can be used for WFP to contact communities and vice versa. They tailor communication channels such as a hotline, IVR,  a chatbot, Facebook’s Free Basics platform, or a combination of, to provide information on food prices, WFP programs, dates of food distribution, and more.

With funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), VAM is expanding its two-way communication systems to 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A support mission was recently undertaken to scope out their feasibility in Kenya, where refugees already have access to the WFP hotline.

In my personal opinion, mVAM’s two-way communications systems are a valuable tool that will only become more important in the future. As climate change and variability intensifies droughts and floods, the timely data and information can provide the early warnings necessary for preventative action.

Most importantly, programs can be strengthened to better benefit the people they serve. If refugees are able to access real-time data about market prices and the quality of goods, for example, they could make more informed decisions about where to buy and what to purchase. It therefore has the potential to enhance refugees’ access to food.

Please note that I am not a WFP employee and that my views in no way reflect those of the WFP or the UN.

Victoria Berg
World Food Programme
Nairobi, Kenya

Hujambo from the United Nations Compound in Nairobi.  I am about halfway through my 11 weeks here at the World Food Programme’s Vulnerability and Mapping (VAM) Unit at the Regional Bureau for East Africa. It is a busy time at the WFP here, as the region is dealing with two countries where the populations are at risk of famine.

In Somalia, approximately 3 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance, and an additional 3.5 million people are food insecure (WFP, 2017).  Furthermore, UNICEF estimates that “the projected number of children who are, or will be, acutely malnourished has increased by 50% since the beginning of the year to 1.4 million, including over 275,000 who have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2017”  (UNICEF, 2017).

In South Sudan, the famine situation has decreased but the food situation is still dire, as 6 million people face food insecurity (WFP, 2017). David Beasley, WFP’s new executive director, stated, “It’s a disgrace upon the people of the Earth, and it’s heartbreaking. It’s just not right in the 21st century to be facing all this brokenness, with all the technology and wealth that’s available in the world today” (Devex, 2017).

Beasley visited the WFP here in Nairobi on my first week. He has been very vocal in calling for more humanitarian aid to fight the Four Famines.  During his address to staff, he commented on the need for building peace in regions in order for aid efforts to succeed.  He praised the WFP staff for their innovative approaches to some of the world’s greatest challenges.

So how does the VAM unit help tackle the overwhelming challenge of increasing food security and resilience in East Africa? It provides technical support to country offices through assessments and food security monitoring.  This generates information and factual basis for program design using more traditional assessment methods and advanced and emerging technologies to provide a clear picture and timely data of the situation on the ground.

Examples of VAM data sources include the following:

• Surveys and census data
• mVAM, which uses “mobile technology to track food security trends in real-time, providing high-frequency data that supports humanitarian decision-making” (VAM, 2017)
• GIS
• Climate data
• Market Data
• Partners in government departments/ministries, climate institutions, mapping agencies, agricultural and livestock sector institutions, humanitarian and development institutions

  

The VAM unit and WFP also work with partners to create reports on food security trends.  For example, the Integrated Phase Classifications are compiled by Action Against Hunger, CARE, CLISS, FAO, FEWS NET, FSC, IGAD, European Commission, OXFAM, Save the Children, SICA, UNICEF, & WFP.

In my personal opinion, famine and food insecurity bring about a host of human rights issues.  There are the obvious—not having enough food to sustain one’s family—but there are also the not-so-obvious, that are intricately linked such as those stemming from displacement and the loss of potential.  For example, if a person has been displaced due to drought or conflict and is now in a refugee camp, how does he or she vote?  Or if a person experiences stunted development as a child and now has a loss of cognitive ability and cannot get a job, what are his or her rights? *

VAMs work on food security through highly technical reports and substantive analysis helps reduce the migration and untimely death while contributing information that helps strengthen the nutrition status of communities and to families livelihoods if acted upon.

There is no mass protesting, no petitions being signed, no courts; instead, talented individuals have dedicated their lives to making sure people can access food in order to live a healthy and fulfilling life.

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*Please note that these are my personal opinions and that I am not a UN employee.  These views in no way represent those of the WFP.

Victoria Berg
World Food Programme, East and Central Africa Regional Bureau
Nairobi, Kenya

This summer I have been working with the Vulnerability and Assessment Mapping (VAM) Unit at the World Food Programme (WFP) to edit and publish the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Change and Food Security Atlas. The document is rather large—over 300 pages on A3-sized paper—so I have been working with the VAM team to draft a technical summary of the document in addition to style edits.

The atlas is the first of its kind in the region.  It was created to improve on the Intergovernmental Authority and Development’s (IGAD) Regional Hazard Maps and Atlas by including how the region’s hazard trends—floods, droughts, disease, conflict—link to vulnerability and its impact on livelihood, crop production, and other socioeconomic activities in the region.

The new atlas will be published by the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, the WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern and Central  Africa, and other partners.  It is published through the Climate Adaptation, Management and Innovation Initiative (C-ADAPT) project and funded by the Swedish Government’s fast-track climate finance.

The atlas will be useful for both technical program-planning and for policy making, as it maps past climate trends, identifies geographic patterns of vulnerability, and aligns with trends in food security, all of which can create a strategic tool to shape adaption planning, program design, and policy making in the Horn of Africa (IGAD, 2017).

As I have stated in prior blog posts, the Greater Horn of Africa is one of the region’s most vulnerable when it comes to climate-related risks.  Climate risk, in addition to protracted political conflict and violence, is a major driver of food insecurity in the region. The communities in the region that are most vulnerable to these impacts are the poorer ones (IGAD 2017). The climate atlas states that resilience-building and poverty-reduction programs are needed to address the climate change impacts and achieve food security and nutrition goals for the region (IGAD 2017).

I am in the process of writing my master’s thesis, entitled, “Food Security and Human Rights in The Face of Climate Change: The Possibility of ‘Progressive Realization’ in East Africa with Support of Developed Nations.”  My thesis will explore food security as a human rights issue and extrapolate how the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) can best be fulfilled in East Africa.

The ICESCR mandates that nation-states have the obligation to make forward progress to the best of their ability, using available resources in the realization of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights “recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures” (1966). I believe that food security and the progressive realization of ESC rights cannot be addressed without planning for climate change and variability.*

The Greater Horn of Africa Climate Change and Food Security Atlas is not only a valuable tool for programmatic planners and policy makers; it is also a great tool for me, personally, in my thesis research, as it provides timely and substantive in-depth analysis of the region’s climate changes, the risks, and the impact on food security trends.

*Please note that these are my personal opinions and I am not a UN employee. These views in no way represent those of the WFP.

Victoria B. Berg
World Food Programme, East Africa Regional Bureau
Nairobi, Kenya

Hello All,

My name is Victoria Berg and I am a second-year masters student in the Gallatin School concentrating in “Climate Change and Human Rights.” I have some experience in human rights outside of this fellowship and university, as I sit on the Steering Committee for UNICEF’s Next Generation at UNICEF USA.  This position has made me an advocate for the rights of children worldwide.  I would like to expand on these skills and experiences in order to advocate for the right to food security for all people.

I was also an intern at the Inter-Agency Standing Committee at the Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs at the United Nations this past semester.  This position gave me valuable insight into how policy is created and implemented and how it shifts with feedback from programs in the field.

I look forward to increasing my ability to enact change this summer, when I will complete my fellowship at the World Food Programme (WFP), the food aid arm of the United Nations. Since its inception in 1961, the WFP has been working towards its vision of a world in which “every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life.”

I will be in Nairobi, Kenya, at the WFP’s Regional Bureau for East and Central Africa.  My position is in the Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping unit, which provides “actionable food security information by combining traditional assessment methods with advanced and emerging technologies, to identify food insecure populations and to establish the underlying causes of food insecurity.”

Through my time at the WFP, I wish to acquire knowledge of how to create a call for reparations for climate change, using food security as a human rights issue. I feel as though this is a very timely project, as the “Four Famines” is currently causing death, suffering, displacement, and sorrow in Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia.  The UN has declared it the “largest humanitarian crisis since 1945” and estimates that 20 million people are at risk of starvation.

Climate change is a much discussed topic, but I personally feel as though it is often an after-thought.  People and agencies tend to address a situation and then state that climate change is making said situation or problem worse without addressing climate change as the issue.

For me, what it ultimately comes down to is the international community’s accountability to the affected people.  What are the steps that we take to ensure that those who are affected by climate change and famine get the help that they need in order to live their lives with dignity? This will be the main theoretical question that I attempt to answer this summer and throughout my career.