A look into solutions
Two of the most powerful movements currently attempting to solve the problem of food insecurity are policies for land reform and for increased government spending on agriculture. There have been improvements in both of these areas. There is now a commission set up to deal with land disputes and distribution. The hope is that this will cut down on local government corruption of land and increase the stability of landowners and farmers in Kenya. Along with land reform, the government has promised to increase its spending from 3% of the budget to just over 5% of the budget for this coming year.
Beyond the government increasing land regulation and spending on farming, local farmers also need to step up the part they are playing. It is suggested that large initiatives take place to help farmers diversify from largely maize crop to other crops as well. Maize does not grow the best under dry conditions, which makes up a large majority of the Kenyan climate. Many agencies are trying to get farmers to diversify their crops to protect against the climate changes and to return to growing more of the traditional crops of Kenya, such as sorghum and millet.
The Special Program for Food Security has been a leader in trying to implement larger scale efforts for farmers to advocate for themselves to help end food insecurity. In the past, all sorts of organizations, aid, and government initiatives have had a minimal impact because of a lack of coordination of services and because of a lack of response to the true needs of the community. There is now an effort to encourage the farmers to make demands of the organizations trying to help and for the organizations to follow the farmers lead and meet those demands as much as possible. One of the current solutions for farmers is to organize farmers’ tours where farmers can tour other areas and farmers that have found solutions to the very problems the farmers are facing. This has proved to be a cheap and extremely effective way of sharing information and finding new and realistic solutions to farmers needs. The group is also not opposed to bringing in outside educators when needed, but have also seen the importance of sharing information amongst the groups of farmers that already exist. This provides the biggest impact to the whole group of farmers and allows them to connect.
Other solutions to the problem that are being looked at include biotechnology to increase the corn yields that have remained stagnate for the past 20 years. The Kenyan government is also changing the policy on trade regulations. For a period of time they got rid of tariffs on food items, and they continue to look at new ways to improve trade relations and regulations for food.
The Kenyan government is also trying a few pilot programs such as giving cash allowances to poor families to try and help meet their needs. This is a unique program and uses some of the strengths of the Kenyan economy such that these cash transfers will take place through mobile money transferred to slum dwelling families. Some group’s see this program very positively as it cuts down the chance for corruptions and puts money directly into the hands of the poor. They will use NGO and community based targeting to select the families in local communities.
These are just a few of the current local and national programs aimed at creating food security within Kenya. I like the majority of the interventions sited here. I see the program with the farmer’s advocating for themselves as very social work appropriate. I love that in my social work schooling there is a push to put the power back in the hands of the farmers. In this case, farmers are supposed to make their own demands in order for their farming to become successful. It is a very community based approach that first looks to the community for how things can be done before looking to outside sources. I think that this is an awesome community strengths approach. This uses what the community already knows and has in place and creates a very sustainable model. It is connecting the larger farming community so that they can continue to work together to solve their problems. This is also decreasing the reliance on outside organizations that may not always be able to work within the community.
The mobile money program is also a very cool step. It is once again utilizing the strengths of the country. Mobile money is a fast, easy and unique way to move money to people and it is highly utilized by those in the country. For the government to utilize this as a way to get money into peoples hands to pay for food is great. I see more unintended consequences with this program than with the others. This one, because it is targeting the urban poor, could cause a greater migration to the urban areas to try and get on this program.
Many of these programs are multifaceted and could be considered as solving for pattern. The Special Program for Food Security is targeting communities, education, farming techniques, arid land, and weather change. The government with their new commission is working to solve the issues around policy, land rights, tariffs, markets, and infrastructure. The mobile money program is working on putting money in to hands to decease the lack of purchasing power and getting rid of corruption of aid.
Here I have mentioned largely what the Kenyan government and people are doing to fix this problem. There are various agencies and NGO’s devoted to trying to solve this problem as well. I chose to focus more on the Kenyan people here because I believe that they have the most at stake in this issue and therefore what they are doing is extremely important. Many foreign NGO’s and governments use Kenya as a place to work or base out of because of its stability in the region. Kenyan’s in my experience have been very open and welcoming to outside people. I spent 2 months in Kenya and didn’t experience much conflict. Part of the reason that while in Kenya I didn’t experience or hear of much conflict is because in part they are used to a flux of people in and out of the country and I was working in an urban area. English speaking international workers have an advantage in Kenya as English is one of the official languages. This provides a greater ability for international workers to directly communicate with people and communities and meet the needs of people. While culturally international workers may have a harder time adapting to a new culture, they need to come with an open-mind; when Kenayan’s are approached by culturally sensitive people, they are generally very welcoming. Using general social work principles will help international workers partner with Kenyans in valuable and appropriate ways.
Information from:
http://uk.oneworld.net/guides/kenya/food_security?gclid=CMzR2tyPiKgCFcq8KgodUkD1rQ
http://conferences.ifpri.org/2020africaconference/program/day1summaries/kinyua.pdf
http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/Kenya/KenyaFoodSecurity09.pdf
http://www.globalsubsidies.org/en/subsidy-watch/analysis/kenya-launch-pilot-food-security-
program-using-cash-transfers
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