PROVIDING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO WORLD HUNGER
Recognized as a world leader in the fight against hunger, the ACF international network has pursued its vision of world without hunger for nearly three decades, combating hunger in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity.
Our network of 6,000 field staff – seasoned professionals and technical experts in the fields of water and sanitation, food security, public health and nutrition – work to restore dignity, self sufficiency, and independence to some 5 million vulnerable populations around the world each year.
ACF’s work is carried out through five complementary activities:
• Nutrition. Treatment of severely malnourished children through therapeutic feeding programmes and also operating supplementary feeding centres, distributing nutritionally balanced food supplies to treat acute malnutrition before it becomes life threatening and ensuring that food reaches the most vulnerable families.
• Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH). ACF WASH programme provides communities with access to safe drinking water of sufficient quality and quantity to prevent diseases and decrease mortality. This is achieved through construction of emergency water tanks, drilling boreholes, rehabilitation of water distribution networks sanitation and hygiene promotion.
• Food security and livelihoods (FSL). ACF food security and livelihoods programme seeks to improve household resilience to food insecurity and livelihoods of vulnerable households through provision of agro-inputs, IGA kits, recapitalization through cash transfers, technology transfer and skills development.
• Health. Recognizing the symbiotic relationship between malnutrition and sickness, ACF also fights the diseases that accompany poor nutrition. Through our efforts to fight acute moderate and severe malnutrition, we not only strive to save children from starvation, we seek to restore their health
• Advocacy. Populations face routine violations of fundamental human needs—access to food, drinking water, land and livelihoods—we have advocacy strategies in place to alert, inform, and influence decision-makers and political actors. These advocacy strategies allow our agency to address the underlying causes of hunger while delivering direct assistance to those in need.
Food Security and Livelihoods Programme in Uganda in 2009
Lira
With funding provided by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kampala, ACF will be implementing a livelihoods recovery programme (LEARN) through direct transfer of cash to 1,500 vulnerable returnee households in Otuke County of Lira District. In addition to the direct cash transfer, the programme will place strong emphasis on providing technical and managerial skills needed to improve or expand on agricultural production and to start-up or expand small businesses.
Kaabong and Moroto
Two integrated community based programs in Karamoja funded by French Embassy and ECHO, will geographically target participants based on admissions data from existing nutrition centers and information from the previous WASH activities. The FSL activities will consist of vegetable gardening and improved agricultural practices, provision of seeds, tools and vegetable garden starter kits, promotion of efficient energy use technologies and practices, improvement of food utilization and technical training.
In addition to these activities ACF will start with monitoring indicators for an Early Warning Surveillance System in all target areas in coordination with partners in other districts and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
