The next Meeting of global Food Security Cluster Partners will be held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in Rome, Italy from Wednesday to Thursday, 13-14 May 2015.

The purpose of the meeting is to review the progress made by the gFSC in the implementation of its Strategic Plan during the first half of 2015 and to identify / reaffirm priority areas for the rest of 2015-16, as well as to discuss and make decisions on strategically relevant food security topics and gFSC issues.

Participation in the global Food Security Cluster Meeting will be extended to two participants per organization.

Tuesday 12 November will be dedicated for the face-to-face meetings of the gFSC Programme Quality and Urban Working Groups, which will also take place at FAO premises. Participation in the Working Group meetings will be restricted to the Working Group members. If you are interested in joining the Working Groups, please do not hesitate the contact the gFSC to receive an invitation.

Reports from past meetings can be found at FSC website.

For more information about the meeting, please contact the gFSC Support Team.

The gFSC has introduced a global dashboard to provide a quick update on the country-level Food Security Clusters around the world. It is planned that the dashboard will be updated four times per year and it can be downloaded at the FSC website.

The gFSC Working Group on Food Security and Livelihoods in Urban Settings has initiated a project called “Adapting to an Urban World” to develop food security vulnerability urban assessment tools by field testing them in six different urban food security contexts, including areas affected by conflict, natural hazards, migration, rising food prices and poverty.

The project aims to strengthen the food security analysis in support of humanitarian responses to food security crises in urban settings by developing guidance which will assist with:

1. Identifying  levels of vulnerability to food insecurity in urban areas;
2. Assessing different types of urban food insecurity and vulnerability;
3. Organising appropriate responses to urban food insecurity; and
4. Establishing an effective collaborative mechanism for responses to food insecurity in urban crises.

"Adapting to an Urban World" is a great example of cooperation between gFSC partners. It is co-managed by gFSC and WFP Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit (VAM). A Steering Committee has been established to advise and monitor the planning and implementation of the project and members include UNHCR, Oxfam, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision International, IFRC, World Animal Protection and ALNAP.

Find out more at FSC website.

• Tropical Cyclone Pam made landfall on Friday 13 March near the islands of Vanuatu with sustained wind speeds of 270 km/h. Initial estimates of humanitarian impact suggest large devastation. Several other island nations, including Kiribati, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, and Fiji have also been affected.
• In Vanuatu, the damage is clearly widespread across all sectors with sever effects on agriculture and food security.
• The Vanuatu Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC), led the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development with support from FAO and GIZ SPC and an active membership of several NGOs, helps to ensure coherent, coordinated and integrated humanitarian responses driven by the food security needs of affected populations, assessed in consultation with them.
• An estimated 166,000 people affected across all six provinces will require immediate food, agriculture and livelihood assistance to provide the means to produce and buy the food they need to survive. Up to 96 percent of crops were destroyed.
• The FSAC is prioritizing as “high” activities that are both life-saving and time-sensitive, specifically with regards to the immediate provision of food relief to save lives and maintain health, as well as the provision of agricultural inputs and land preparation, which are time sensitive for subsistence food supplies and livelihoods in coming months.
• WFP, FAO, SPC-GIZ and other agencies have teams on the ground in Vanuatu providing technical assistance to government, operations support including logistics and emergency telecommunications, and are mobilizing emergency food, seeds and farming assistance operations in response to humanitarian needs.
• FSAC partners are responding to the Government’s request for emergency food assistance and will support their plans to reach 162,650 people with food rations.
• Latest updates and FSC contact details can be found at FSC website.
• The Vanuatu Flash Appeal for March-June 2015  is appealing for US$8.2 million to provide emergency lifesaving food security assistance needed for an estimated 166,000 people affected in six provinces.

(Photo credit: WFP/Victoria Cavanagh)

• The agricultural campaign is starting to distribute agricultural inputs (seeds and tools) for 86 400 households for which FAO has secured funding. FAO is appealing for an additional US$6.2 million to support additional 63 600 households for the upcoming main planting season, starting in April. Distributions will be carried out by cluster partner NGOs.
• To complement agricultural input distributions, WFP is planning to distribute food rations with cluster partner NGOs to protect the seeds for planting in priority areas (to. avoid that the households eat the seeds rather than plant them).
• In collaboration with other clusters, the FSC is currently working on a national strategy to support the return of IDPs and refugees in rural areas, as well as on a plan of action to support the return and resettlement of displaced in Bangui sites.
• The cluster has reactivated the Technical Group on Livestock and Transhumance, under FAO’s leadership, and benefitting from the Government’s participation. The purpose of this group is to strengthen the technical and operational capacities of actors in pastoral development in CAR, and to analyze the needs in the short and medium term to develop the response.
• The cluster with FAO, ACF and the Government is putting in place a new mechanism for food security surveillance and early warning. This mechanism will allow to collect data on prices, households and rainfall, in order to improve the humanitarian response through information and simple, regular and quality analysis.

• The FSC is working on defining needs and sector priorities for the Humanitarian Response Strategy which will be released in mid May. A draft Humanitarian Needs Overview has been produced by the FSC and its partners.
• Recently implemented through its Information Management Tool, the FSC analysed the response of the food security sector in January. Food assistance, which included Family Food Rations, Immediate Response Rations, general food distribution vouchers, agricultural inputs and cash for work, reached 88 per cent of planned beneficiaries or 1.6 million out of 1.99 million people.
• Food supply remains a priority need in several Governorates, including Anbar, Ninewa, Salah al-Din, Diyala, Baghdad, Babylon, Missan, Muthanna and Thi-Qar, which collectively host an estimated IDP population of over 400,000 families.
• Since 1 February 2015, WFP and its partners have assisted approximately 1,239,000 people with Family Food Parcels throughout the country.
• FSC partners require US$48.7 million until June to reach 2.3 million people across Iraq through food and agricultural assistance.
• WFP remote monitoring mVAM (mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping) has revealed that the conflict has severely disrupted supply lines to Anbar, Salah Al-Din and Kirkuk governorates, pushing up the price of a basic food basket and causing fresh food shortages. In these governorates, reduced Public Distribution System (PDS) distributions are keeping wheat flour prices high.
• In conflict-affected areas, casual labour opportunities are limited and wage rates remain low. This is undermining people’s ability to purchase food and other basic goods.
• The prospects for the 2015 winter crop are uncertain in conflict-affected parts of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Diyala governorates.

• During February, the cluster reached around 966,592 people with food overall in South Sudan, including 484,223 people in hard-to-reach areas and 482,369 people in conflict areas. Overall achievement in comparison with the implementation plan was around 70 percent.
• Rapid response operations: Food distributions were completed in Jazera and Matiang, Unity State. Cluster partners’ teams were on the ground in Kuach, Unity, conducting registrations and distributions. Air drops continued in Dablual, Ganyel, and Nyal, Unity.
• Improving the cold chain: A cold chain technician was deployed to Warrap State to install as well as conduct maintenance on cold chain facilities for animal vaccines.
•  Animal health: A training for community based animal health workes began in Nimule, Eastern Equatoria State. The training focuses on disease identification and prevention activities.
• The Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System round was ongoing. Partners were training field monitors on monitoring and evaluation to further strengthen accountability to affected people.

• Mercy Corps has been nominated by partners to be co-lead in the Whole of Syria coordination structure.

• In February 2015, clusters, at the request of the HC, undertook a “light” revision of the Strategic Response Plan (SRP) to focus more on “lifesavings” activities. The SRP was then renamed as Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and was launched on 24th  February 2015 at the presence of the Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Zubko.
• In the HRP cluster partners are aiming at assisting up to 500,000 people. The total funding requirements amounts to US$65 million.
• Cluster partners adjusted the composition of the food basket to meet the nutritional requirements for warmer months. In parallel, the cluster partners also fine-tuned targeting criteria as well as relooked at the value of the voucher transfer.
• A new reporting  format has been developed by the cluster and has been shared with the partners to collect monthly distribution figures.  Fourteen cluster partners have been trained on the web based FSC IM reporting tool.
• Based on the information provided so far by the partners, two maps (at national and oblast level) have been produced showing current food security cluster partners' presence on the ground.
• A summary table of conducted and planned assessments has been presented to the partners. Planned assessment are pending funding availability. Partners conducted assessment are also available in the assessment registry section at the Ukraine FSC website.
• Since its activation the Food Security Cluster have been meeting weekly  in Kiev and with ad hoc meeting being held  in the east of Ukraine (Severodonetsk).

• IFPRI’s 2014–2015 Global Food Policy Report calls on global institutions, the private sector, and citizens of middle income countries to reshape these countries’ food systems to focus on nutrition and health, close the gender gap in agriculture, and improve rural infrastructure—particularly sanitation—in order to ensure food security for all. By addressing hunger and malnutrition within their own borders, these countries can not only significantly improve global food and nutrition security but also serve as models for low income countries.
• Exploring Coordination in Humanitarian Clusters by ALNAP summarises the main points from a recent study. Clusters are voluntary coordination bodies bringing together agencies in a humanitarian response. Each cluster concentrates on a technical sector such as nutrition or protection. Although they follow the same broad terms of reference, they differ markedly in the activities they conduct and the degree of coordination they attempt.
• The UN Women Training Centre and ITC-ILO have announced a new training course for UN System Gender Focal Points (GFPs), which will take place in English. It will examine gender mainstreaming tools (such as gender markers and the UN System Wide Approach on Gender Equality) and its concrete application and build a community of practice within the UN to foster discussion and sharing of good practices. More information can be found here.
• A new Gender and Development Network paper “Untangling gender mainstreaming: a Theory of Change based on experience and reflection’’ explores the concept and practicalities of gender mainstreaming. It draws on learning from staff with responsibility for gender mainstreaming in nine UK based international Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) and their Southern based partner organisations; wider discussions with GADN members and women’s rights activists; as well as the personal experiences and reflections of the authors.
• "Impact of the Syria Crisis Report 2014," produced by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR), examines the socio-economic impact of the crisis and assesses the changing social and economic dynamics in Syria and the associated devastating results on the lives of Syrians.
• Crop Prospects and Food Situation is published by the Trade and Markets Division of FAO under the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS). It is published four times a year and focuses on developments affecting the food situation of developing countries and the Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) in particular. The report provides a review of the food situation by geographic region, a section dedicated to the LIFDCs and a list of countries requiring external assistance for food. It also includes a global cereal supply and demand overview to complement the biannual analysis in the Food Outlook publication.

• Food Security Cluster Coordinator, Amman, Jordan. Deadline: 31 March 2015

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