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The Fetša Tlala Initiative is one of the development projects which were designed to contribute towards the achievement of the South African National Development Plan, 2030. The objective of the research was to analyse the effectiveness of the Fetša Tlala Initiative on the food and nutrition security of women smallholder farmers residing in Semaneng village, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The reason for focusing on women smallholder farmers was that whilst there has been research undertaken on the effectiveness of the Fetša Tlala Initiative, there has not been a study that focuses exclusively on women’s perspectives about the Initiative. The study, thus, sought to break exploratory ground about the effectiveness of the Fetša Tlala Initiative from the viewpoint of women smallholder farmers. The study, thus, adopted a qualitative research design in the form of an exploratory case study. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide from 16 participants who were purposefully selected. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and then reflected upon using an inductive thematic analysis. Results of the research indicated that the food security initiative had mixed results. On the positive side, and consistent with one objective of the broader Fetša Tlala Initiative, agricultural inputs increased amongst the women smallholder farmers, which assisted them to boost their yields and improve household food security. The Initiative also empowered the women smallholder farmers by strengthening their collective resilience in the face of adversities they encountered during the project. Notwithstanding these successes, the research findings also indicate that the effectiveness of the Initiative was reduced because of the inconsistent institutional support provided by the appointed Fetša Tlala Initiative project managers. The inconsistent institutional support represented a top-down planning and management strategy premised upon a centralised decision-making model. As a consequence of this style of planning and management, the beneficiaries could only respond by building localised resilience to the challenges. Such agency from the beneficiaries suggests that future Fetša Tlala projects might benefit from a decentralised decision-making planning and management strategy, that is inclusive of the project beneficiaries from the outset. The paper recommends continuation of the Fetša Tlala Initiative with emphasis on transforming the institutional support so that future beneficiaries are included in decision making processes from the inception phases through to completion of projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the novel Coronavirus in late 2019 led to disruptions in the food, economic and health systems. There are projections that the pandemic will worsen hunger and malnutrition in families with young children and women of reproductive age in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Therefore, this study investigated household food security status, dietary patterns and nutritional status of children in a Nigerian community during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total sample of 200 mother-child pairs was selected from a Nigerian community using a multistage sampling technique. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire, which had four sections, was used for data collection. A food security survey questionnaire was used to assess household food security, and a food frequency questionnaire was used to capture child food patterns. Dietary diversity was assessed using 24-hour dietary recall, and nutritional status was measured using anthropometric parameters. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Almost half (48.5%) of the mothers were aged between 24 and 35 years, with a mean age of 31.63 +6.3 years. The majority of the children (69%) were between 24 and 60 months-old, with a mean age of 29.80 +15.48 months. Most participants (73.7%) were food insecure. Cereals, roots and tubers (79.5%), and sugar and junk (61.4 %) were the most frequently consumed food groups by children, while dairy products (15.8 %), vegetables (18.1%), and fruits (19.3 %) were the least frequently consumed. The majority had a low dietary diversity score (61.4%), and the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight was 41.3%, 27.2% and 3.3%, respectively. There was a statistically significant (p=0.013) relationship between maternal age and child dietary diversity. This study reveals that most households with mothers and children 6-59 months-old were food insecure. More than half of the children had low dietary diversity, and the consequences of poor diet quality are becoming evident as wasting and stunting are high. Therefore, an urgent public health intervention is needed to improve food security in vulnerable households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food shortages and malnutrition widely persist and continue to be rural peculiarities across the sub-region. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a peri-urban community of Dzodze in the Volta region to ascertain the level of food security as well as the nutritional status of the inhabitants using a random sampling technique. This community-based comparative cross-sectional study conducted from May to July 2018 adopted a multistage random sampling and selected 105 households. Sociodemographic data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Chi-square, Cramer’s-V, and Pearson’s correlations models were used to assess the association of socio-demographic, anthropometric and food frequency data while the Logit model, FSI, HCR were used to measure food security. Over half of the sample (59.6%) were in the normal range of BMI which implied good nutritional status. Remarkably, a majority of those in this normal BMI range 81 (77%) were female. Women aged 41years and above constituted a large portion of study participants (54.3%) of which many 43 (41%) were married. Just 4.8% of this group said they were both separated and cohabited with their partners non-customarily. Data on the frequency of food intake by the community revealed that, a majority of 63.4% of the respondents ate three times a day. Most of the people (77.2%, 68.7%, and 86.9%) ate breakfast, lunch, and supper, respectively, daily over a week. The fallouts from the work showed majority (71.5%) of the respondents were food secure and the remaining (about 28.5%) were food insecure. Factors such as age, gender, educational level, household size, and age were found to be significant predictors that influenced food security of the peri-urban community according to the logit model used. The smallholder households according to the computed food security index of 1.13 and normal range of BMI were identified to be indices of food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good nutrition is very essential for proper growth and development of school going children. Malnutrition among school-going children affects their physical and cognitive development leading to low-class attendance hence poor school performance. Despite the economic growth observed in developing countries in recent years, undernutrition is still predominant. This study aims to determine the household food and nutrition security among households with school going children 6-14 years in Turkana County. A cross-sectional study design was adopted where 386 children were sampled for study. Turkana West Sub- County was purposively selected and the wards, locations sub-locations and villages were randomly selected. Systematic random sampling was used to sample households with school going children 6-14 years. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted on parents/guardians. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) Version 25. Data was analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics at 95% confidence interval. About 60% (n=228) of the households were headed by males with 62.2% aged between 20-30years. The large proportion of the respondents (58.8%) had attained primary education level only. Charcoal and firewood selling (25.6%) was the main occupation of the household heads, 13.2 % provided agricultural labor and only 2.1% had a formal employment. The rest did not have any source of income. The average dietary diversity score of the individuals was 5 to7 food groups while the highest dietary diversity score was 8-10 food groups. The school going children (6-14 years) had a medium dietary score with 45.9% while 22.3% had a low dietary diversity score. The study indicated that there was a significant relationship between dietary diversity and the nutrition security of the school going children 6-14 years. Findings of this study are useful in informing the County government of Turkana in the planning and implementation of relevant food and nutrition security programs in the Turkana West community. The study recommends adequate nutrition support to be incorporated in the school feeding program in the locality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]