Monitoring the Implementation of the Right to Food

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Monitoring the Implementation of the Right to
Food

• The FAO Voluntary Guidelines on
• the Right to Food
• A project of the IPRFD
• Bård Anders Andreassen
• Presentation at Expert Meeting
• on Human Rights Indicators, Turku 10-13 March
  2005

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1. FAO Voluntary Guidelines

• Voluntary Guidelines Progressive Relization of
  the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of
  National Food Security, by the FAO Council in
  November 2004
• 19 Guidelines Guidelines 17 is on Monitoring,
  Indicators and Benchmarks
• Main objective
• ..the Voluntary Guidelines are a human
  rights-based practical tool addressed to all
  States .States are encouraged to apply these
  Voluntary Guidelines in
• developing their strategies, policies, programs
  and activities and should do so without
  discrimination of any kind..

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• Main intent
• to provide practical guidance to States in
  their implementation of the progressive
  realization of the right to adequate food in the
  context of national food security, in order to
  achieve the Plan of Action of the World Food
  Summit

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2. What do the guidelines say about Indicators?
Guideline 17

• States may wish to
• establish mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the
  implementation of these Guidelines .. by
  building on existing information systems and
  addressing information gaps
• consider conducting right to food impact
  assessments in order to identify the impact of
  domestic policies, programs and projects.
• develop a set of process, impact and outcome
  indicators, relying on indicators already in use

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• to establish appropriate benchmarks to be
  achieved in the short, medium and long term,
  which relate directly to meeting poverty and
  hunger reduction targets as a minimum, as well as
  other national and international goals
• States should
• in particular, monitor the food security
  situation of vulnerable groups, especially women,
  children and the elderly
• ensure a participatory approach to
  information managementanalysis, interpretation
  and dissemination

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Monitoring the Right to Adequate Food in practice
- the FAO-IPRFD Project

• Basic questions that the Project needs to tackle
• - how to monitor, how to ensure that the
  monitoring process
• itself is rights-based?
• - what to monitor, from a rights perspective
  building on existing in-country information
  systems and networks?
• Related issue
• What are the needs for capacity strengthening
  in
• monitoring for whom and by whom?

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4A On Monitoring Process/functions of indicators

• Information data gathering (indicators in
  use)
• Information processing, organization and
  processing of information (indicators in
  classification of info.)
• Information analysis and interpretation
  (indicators in analysis)
• Dissemination to stakeholders (indicators in
  communication)

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4B Which indicators what do we look for?

• Importance of Conceptual Framework
• Substantive dimensions of the right to adequate
  food (indicators on resources and distribution of
  resources)
• Food Adequacy
• Dietary Adequacy/Nutrition
• Food Safety and Consumer Protection
• Cultural Acceptability
• Food Availability
• Food Accessibility

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• Legal Dimensions of the Right to Adequate Food
• Indicators telling us something about state
  compliance (standard approach focus on
  obligations)
• Respect Legal (structural) indicators
• Protect Input (substantive) indicators
  (resources)
• Process indicators
• Output (substantive and legal) indicators
  (level of achievement, distribution)

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• Fulfill (facilitate, provide) Input
  (substantive) indicators (resources)
• Process indicators
• Output (substantive and legal)
  indicators (level of achievement,
  distribution)
• Intermediate outcome assessment
• Final outcome assessment

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4C Types of Indicators Illustrations

• Inputs
• Allocation and availability of human, financial
  and other resources
• Conditions under which resources are being made
  available to implementing institutions
• Processes
• Procedures and operational mechanisms that are
  being applied in right to food policies,
  including resource management procedures,
  institutional linkages, stake-holders
  participation in decision-making, mechanisms for
  accountability. Policy and regulatory
  environments
• Outputs
• immediate results of right to food actions and
  activities, e.g. higher skill levels, greater
  awareness of CESCR

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• Intermediate outcome Changes in income levels
  better social and governance conditions better
  access to higher quality public services higher
  educational attainment improved health and
  nutritional status and other outcome that
  directly affect the well being of the poor
• Final outcome (impact) Improvements in peoples
  well-being fewer right to adequate food
  violations improved capability of people to make
  rights-based claims

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5 On the procedure of the FAO-IPRF Project

• Case studies in Uganda and Brazil
• Ownership
• Process Participation by local community
• Local partners
• Uganda with governmental institutions and civic
  society
• Brazil civil society