Goal Oriented Food Security Programming (GOFSP)

The GOFSP is based on the well-known concept of logical framework originally developed in the 1 970s by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and adapted by GTZ under the acronym of ZOPP or GOPP in English. The choice of the GOPP method is dictated foremost by the urgent need to develop jointly a common vision and understanding of the interventions required at national and subregional levels for increased self-re-liance sn food security combined with sustainable growth and development. This, undoubtedly, will facilitate an effective cooperation amongst all par­

ties during the planning and implementation stages of the policies, measures and projects and thereby ensuring that implementation will be smoother and more productive.

The development of GOFSP, which is considered a logical framework for the planning and manage­

ment of the interventions, will require the active participation of FSA which could meet in small working groups or in plenary sessions, as appropri­

ate. The FSA, at the national level, will meet regularly or at least three times a year (beginning, mid and end of the year). It will present its results to the FSC which, in turn, will advise the govern­

ment with a filtered but limited set of Development Food Security Programme (DFSP).

Each working group will be led by a very experi­

enced moderator, in charge of a number of functions including the following (ZOPP, 1992);

• managing the overall planning process;

creating and maintaining a positive working atmosphere;

• assuring that all members of the planning team have an opportunity to participate actively;

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• introducing planning concepts;

• explaining and guiding the members of the planning team through the sequence of steps in­

volved in developing the optimal DFSP;

• stimulating the members of the planning team to explore ideas through the use of appropriate questions;

• visualizing the inputs generated at each step;

• assisting the members of the planning team in checking the logical relationship of ideas that de­

velop through the planning process, and

assuring proper documentation of planning outputs.

The visualization technique is used to facilitate the sharing of ideas to arrive at a common under­

standing of the ideas provided by each of the participants and a common ownership of the ideas retained by the group of planners. The card and chart techniques are used to support the visualiza­

tion technique. A chart board and paper are re­

quired along with pins to help fix and move cards that are of different colours and measuring approxi­

mately 3" x 8". Marking pens will be required to write on the cards.

A few simple rules have to be followed for the visualization technique to be effective. These in­

clude:

writing only one idea per card to allow the movement of cards and their groupings according to relationships per ideas;

writing in large block letters to ensure that everyone in the planning group is able to read the card;

• summarizing the idea in a brief statement to help understand its message;

• writing only three lines per card to facilitate its understanding by each participant, and

being consistent with the colour scheme to facilitate the visualization by all participants.

The use of cards allows the planners the flexibility to move ideas around as they are discussed into categories or positions on a chart. This flexibility enhances the planning group's ability to understand relationships between ideas, as all can see and not just imagine the relationships.

Once an agreement has been reached by the group about the positioning of the cards, they can be glued to a chart paper, a large piece of inexpen­

sive brown paper fastened to chart or pin board.

The charts then become a permanent r^ord of the

planning session output and can be documented by entering them into a computer.

GOFSP is made of ten (10) components properly linked to those of UAM and SIMSS. Also, the organs involved at every stage of SPMI are spelled out to avoid confusion and overlap of the responsi­

bility. For instance, the FSS will be responsible for the overall planning of GOFSP, the running of UAM and the maintenance of SIMSS. In GOFSP, compo­

nents 7 and 8 on project planning matrix and plan of operation, respectively, are done solely by FSS as projects studied under these items are related to the public sector. GOFSP will be conducted basi­

cally by the advisors (FSA) of FSC, who will present a filtered Hst of DFSP. The FSC will examine the recommended DFSP and will come up with 2 to 3 alternative DFSP properly documented for the con­

sideration of governments.

1. Common Vision on Food Security and Development Issues

This is a warm-up session and will involve all organs at the national level (FSC, FSA and FSS).

The concepts of SPMI will be introduced. Also, the different instruments including GOFSP, UAM and SIMSS and the steps to be used in developing the DFSP will be presented and discussed. The basic methods of ZOPP and the visualization technique will be exposed and the rules governing the sessions will be presented.

Focus will be on discussing the elements of the broadened concept of food security, the difference between food security and food self-sufficiency, the relations between food security and nutrition, the notions of vulnerable or food-insecure groups and increased self-reliance in food security at house­

hold, national and subregional levels and the poten­

tial role of both private and public sectors in orienting development goals towards sustainable growth and increased self-reliance in food security and in implementing the DFSP. Food and nutrition concerns should be included in rural development and transformation projects. Applied nutrition ac­

tivities within the Ministry of Agriculture should be strengthened, especially for those rural families who are nutritionally at risk and monitoring the impact on the nutritional status of beneficiaries. Because of our advocacy of self-reliance, special emphasis should be given to the promotion of local foods, avoiding the displacement of traditional diets based on the existing ecosystem by imported foods. In fact, if that was to happen, the food base at the household level in the rural area would be narrowed.

2. Food Security Problems Identification

At this level, the FSA identifies and defines the problems relating to food insecurity. The members of the team are asked by the moderator to write the following information on cards bearing in mind that the analysis is at the household level:

• who is food insecure?

• where is he located?

what is the nature of the food insecurity in terms of access (physical and economic) and what is the degree of the food insecurity (chronic, sea­

sonal or transitory)? and

• what is the depth of the food insecurity and the nutritional status of the household?

Each question will be treated separately and in the order of presentation. Participants will be asked to write their propositions according to the rules defined above and the specialist in visualization will post them on the pin board. Only the retained ideas will remain on the board. In case of disagreement on an idea, the following sign (!) will be placed on the relevant card. Also, if the team needs more information in order to make decisions, the question mark sign (?) will be used.

The answers to these questions will help to characterize the households in terms of their food insecurity status and help formulate for each food vulnerable or insecure group the food security or core problem that it faces. For example, in the Central African subregion, the core problem of the urban insufficient income was formulated as the urban insufficient income has difficult economic access to the food needed in a chronic manner. In the West African subregion, the problem of the scale fishermen was formulated as the small-scale fishermen have difficult physical access to the food they need in a seasonal manner.

The result of this step will be used to update the population component of UAM. This will ensure that the group identified by FSA are properly re­

flected in the strata used in the model.

3. Food Security Problem Analysis

The problems can be seen as both causes and effects depending on their relationships to other problems. In this step, the FSA will arrange the problems in cause-effect relationships and formed into a logical hierarchy in the form of a problem tree.

The substantial and direct cause for the core prob­

lem are placed at the same level with each other under the core problem. The substantial and direct effects for the core problem are placed at the same level with each other above the core problem.

The causes and effects are further developed along the same principle so that multi-level causal links and branches are created. The problem analy­

sis is concluded when the FSA agrees that adequate information has been generated and discussed to create a substantial cause-effect network.

In the base structure of UAM, the problem of food security has been comprehensively defined and the periodic food security problem analysis or review will help to reflect the reality of the period.

4. Food Security Objective Analysis

The problem statements are converted into ob­

jectives and an analysis of the means-relationship is conducted by the FSA. Problems, which have been worded as negative conditions, are rephrased into objectives, which are positive statements of a de­

sired future condition to be achieved. The cause-effect relationships will become a means to an end.

The food security objectives, which will be intro­

duced in the basic structure of UAM as restraints, can be revised easily after the completion of this step. This will help to reflect the FSA perception of the food security objectives for the period under consideration.

5. Discussion of Selected Alternative DFSP The objectives are basically considered through UAM as restraints to be satisfied in an optimal condition. Each optimal solution set is considered as an optimal Development and Food Security Pro­

gramme (DFSP) and a number of alternative runs of UAM will be made by the FSS for group discussions.

Using the filtering techniques, the FSA will retain a few DFSP presented in the Alternative Analysis Matrix to be recommended to FSC which, in turn, will come up with a short list for recommendation to decision makers.

The recommended DFSP by the FSC for the consideration of governments will be broken down into regulatory and policy actions and investment project ideas for possible implementation by the private and public sectors. Once the government has selected the DFSP, the related projects falling under the responsibility of the public sector, which can be of national or subregional dimension, will be studied by the FSS according to a modified format of the Project Planning Matrix (PPM) of ZOPP.

6. Participation Analysis in the Implementation of the DFSP

The focus here is on analyzing those groups, institutions, organizations or agencies which will be directly involved in implementing the DFSP. The FSC should reach an agreement that each con­

cerned group may have a strong influence (positive or negative) on the implementation of the DFSP and a Participation Analysis Matrix (PAM) is then com­

pleted accordingly.

The potential implementers would be appropri­

ately and timely informed by the FSS through the SIMSS of the areas where they are expected to contribute. Of course the private sector will be informed on the policy measures and incentives accompanying each project that is of possible inter­

est to it.

A special reference is made to the role of national and subregional financial institutions for the funding of DFSP. To ensure increased self-reliance in

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opment and in food security, Africa should become a magnet of investments for Africans. In particular, Africans should be induced to bring their deposits from abroad into restructured African development and commercial banks.

As no country can develop without a proper mechanism for financing and lending and as there is nothing wrong with credit as long as it is used for productive investments, loans should become easier to obtain to enable borrowers to take timely advan­

tage of opportunities in investments or consump­

tion. Governments should help develop the enabling environment to favour consumer lending through increased access to credit (minimize cost of lending and diversification of lending mecha­

nisms), increased mobility of capital and protection for bankers from bad loans. These will help to create favourable business climates and en­

trepreneurial societies.

For instance, the confidence developed around the savings-loans mechanisms (tontine, pari), which are contributing to the growth of the informal sector can be exploited. Indeed, advantage can be taken of these mechanisms to make them a viable source of investment for investors and to constitute viable credit unions beyond national boundaries.

7. Project Planning Matrix for each Project of the Public Sector

For each project of the public sector retained in the DFSP, a PPM will be developed by the FSS. The PPM is a sinr\ple four-square matrix. The first col­

umn contains the objectives and activities arranged in a logical hierarchy. The first level of this hierarchy corresponds to the first row of the PPM and contains the overall goal of the project. The second, third and fourth rows contain the purpose of the project, the results or outputs and the project activities, respectively.

The logic of the arrangement is found by reading the hierarchy from bottom up. If the activities are carried out, then the results will be achieved, and if the results are achieved, then the purpose of the project will be achieved and if the purpose of the project is successfully achieved, then the project contributes to the achievement of the overall goal.

The project purpose should indicate the intended effects on the target groups as to how the project will affect the intended beneficiaries. An activity is an action or set of actions which are to be carried out and are written in infinitive verb form.

Column2 contains the Objectively Verifiable Indi­

cators (OV1) which describe how to measure the objectives achieved. Column 3 contains the Means of Verification (MOV) which identifies the evidence to be used to verify the level of achievement and where it can be found. Column 4 contains impor­

tant assumptions which are factors outside the control of the users, but which are important to the successful achievement of project objectives.

The OVI define or describe how to determine when an objective (overall goal, project purpose, output/results or activity) has been achieved or how to measure progress. Hence, the distinction be­

tween completion and progress indicators. The OVI are characterized by time (completion date), loca­

tion or place, quality (how well something is done) and quantity (how many).

The MOV are sources of information or data which provide evidence that objectives and related OVI have been achieved. They are allocated num­

bers that correspond with their respective indica­

tors.

The assumption related to each objective is tested by using a simple chart. For each assump­

tion, the question: "Is it important?" and "What is the probability or chance that it will occur?" are asked to find its place in the chart. It may be excluded from the PPM, included or identified as a killer assumption.

For the project activities, it is essential to identify any assumption that constitutes preconditions for the start of the implementation. Preconditions, essential prerequisites for the next level are marked for emphasis with an asterisk (*). Killer assump­

tions signal that the planned objectives are not feasible in part or as a whole. They will force the objectives to be changed or modified or the project to be abandoned if they cannot be eliminated.

Once each of the elements of the PPM has been studied, the entire matrix is reviewed to determine if the results/outputs can be achieved and if the purpose of the project will be accomplished. The responsibilities of each partner involved in the im­

plementation of the major activities will be spelled out in the Project Coordination (PC) chart.

8. Project Plan of Operations for each Project of the Public Sector

The Project Plan of Operations (PPO) is prepared by the FSS. It details all activities and specifies the inputs required to carry them out. A time frame is developed, personnel and material/equipment needs are determined and costs are calculated.

9. Achievement Analysis Matrix of the DFSP The FSC analyses the project achievements and reviews accomplishments of the DFSP.

10. Planning for the Next Period: The Concept of Rolling Planning

After assessing the performance of the selected DFSP, the process of planning will restart for the following period with new goals and targets exam­

ined by the FSC. The subsequent sessions will be much more easier, as all organs will become familiar

with the approach and techniques. The length of the session can possibly be shortened.