1. LIWG workshop with CARE
International
Food Security and the Right to Adequate Food:
An Overview for Lao PDR
J.Armstrong
Food Security Analyst
EC-FAO Project
Linking Information and Decision-making to improve food security
http://www.foodsecuritylink.net/
1 June 2012

2. Defining Food Security
World Food Summit, 1996
Food security, at the
individual, household, national, regional and
global levels [is achieved] when all people, at all
times, have physical, economic [and social] access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet
their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.

3. Four Pillars of Food Security
Food Security
Availability
Utilization
Stability
Access

4. Key Data for Lao PDR
Poverty:
 HDI Index: 138 (of 187 states)
 Life Expectancy: 67.5 years
 Households below the poverty line (1.25 USD per day): 33 percent
 Gross Domestic Product per Capita: 2,048 USD
 Urban populations: 34 percent
Food Security:
 Total Rice production: +/- 3,070,000 metric tonnes (2011 total harvest)
 Malnutrition (Children under five years old): Stunting 37 percent.
 Vitamin A: 45 percent of children under five and 23 percent of women
(ages 12-49) suffer from Vitamin A deficiency.
 Iron Deficiency and Anemia: 41 percent of children under five and 63
percent of children under two are anemic.
Sources: MoH 2009, UNDP 2011

5. Key Determinants and Issues in Food
Security
Food Security  Ethnicity, Geography
(altitude), Infrastructure
Shifting patterns of rural development:
the emergence of industrial and commercial
rural enterprises
Availability
Utilization
(agriculture, hydropower, mining)
Stability
Access
 Livelihoods: Increasing importance for
waged labour.
 Seasonality: traditional lean seasons and
livelihood patterns
Exposure to disasters.
 Lack of social safety nets, credit
Environmental concerns:
access, NTFPs, fuelwood

6. Key Tensions in the Lao context
• the need for cash vs. the need for food
• Increased market access vs. reduced access to NTFPs
• Traditional modes of agriculture (subsistence) vs.
‘modern’ (export oriented cash crops)
• New opportunities: internal or external
migration, waged labour.
• What is are the internal/external forces in this context?
• But are these either/or questions?
• Is there a third potential way? i.e. sustainable
farming, with high adding value (processing of
produce, cooperatives,…)

7. Percentage Share of difference sources of household income

8. WHAT IS THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE
FOOD?
• The term "Right to Adequate Food" is derived
from the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
• Article 11: "The right to adequate food is
realized when every man, woman and
child, alone or in community with others, have
the physical and economic access at all times
to adequate food or means for its
procurement."

9. Human Dignity
Accountability
Availability
Empowerment
Access
Non-discrimination
The Right to
Utilization
Adequate Food
Participation
Acknowledgement of rights
Transparency Stability
Rule of Law
based
Needs
Food Security and the Right to Food
based
Rights

10. How does this differ from Food
Security?
• The individual will not
remain the beneficiary
of projects but will be
an empowered
partner, and will
participate in the
design, implementatio
n and evaluation of the
programme and claim
his or her rights.

11. How does this differ from Food
Security?
• A right to adequate
food approach
makes the
vulnerable groups
the center of
concern.

12. How does this differ from Food
Security?
• It calls for responsible
action from all
members of
society, including the
private sector, which
has so far been more
on the periphery of
social development
programmes.

13. So what does this mean in practice?
• For policy: concessions, contract farming, cash
crops, commercial agriculture.
• For vulnerable groups: women, disaster
affected populations, etc.
• For programming: the LANN approach? Legal
awareness and lifeskills development?
• Access to timely, accurate information as a
prerequsite.

14. Additional Resources
• http://www.srfood.org/
• http://www.foodsec.org/DL/elcpages/food-
security-
courses.asp?pgLanguage=en&leftItemSelecte
d=food-security-courses
• http://www.fao.org/righttofood/kc/dl_en.htm

15. thank you…