By 2025, 20 countries have climate smart agriculture programmes

Sustainable livelihoods for nutrition

By 2025, Concern will help 5 million extremely poor people across 20 countries to achieve sustainable livelihoods and improved food and nutrition security.

Concern will support the development of nutrition-focused and equitable food systems, working on food value chains from input supply and the production of diverse foods and food products to facilitating access to and consumption by those living in extreme poverty.

To achieve this, Concern will:

1.Support farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture, increasing extremely poor farmers’ and pastoralists’ resilience to climate change and improving food and nutrition security. Participatory farmer-led approaches are used to prioritise contextualised and indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices. Home gardens, coupled with the rearing of small livestock and poultry, will be used as a key tool to strengthen the capacity of poor families to produce and consume more diverse and nutritious foods year-round. Access to inputs will be through a market-based approach, and high-quality technical training will be provided to support improved outcomes.

2. Support market system development and income generation alongside sustainable and equitable nutrition-sensitive value chains and, through these, strengthen food systems for all, thus supporting the most vulnerable people to meet their health and nutrition needs. Through the diversification of livelihoods and linking them to savings and loan schemes, households will become more resilient to hazards, contributing to improved food and nutrition security throughout the year.

3. Work with households living in extreme poverty to increase their consumption of more nutritious and diverse foods by strengthening the capacity of agricultural extension agents, lead farmers, social workers and participants in community groups such as Farmer Field Schools, savings and loan groups and mother support groups.