GEORGIA - "Almost 70% of households throughout Georgia consider themselves food insecure"!

Household food security is a critical issue in Georgia and the trend since 1996 has been a decline in the amount of humanitarian food aid. Coupled with this decline in food aid, an increase in unemployment, crippled economy and droughts, household food security relies increasingly upon household food production. Furthermore, more families are having to sell their assets, often their only coping mechanism, to buy food.

Food security is a vital and universal aspect of a household’s well being and generally addresses food availability, physical and economic access to food, and the way food is used. In Georgia, market prices for staple foods are in line with or above world market prices, while wages (e.g. $24 a month for a teacher) are at the level of the world's poorest developing countries.

According to the national household vulnerability survey conducted in 1996, slightly more than one-half (53.2%) of households nationwide reported using land to produce food, increasing to 58.7% in 2002. Even though almost 60% of all households in Georgia have access to land, only 30% believe themselves to be food secure. Based on the food security vulnerability scale, urban areas are more food insecure than rural households, the most insecure being Samtskhe-Javakheti, Svaneti, Tbilisi and Rustavi.

Drawing upon the experience gained in 2000, in response to a drought in eastern Georgia, World Vision plans to work with the UN World Food Program in a new three-year protracted relief and recovery program within these regions in the coming months.

A Food-for-Work program will be carried out in the most vulnerable communities within five targeted regions. Community Initiative Groups will be formed to identify the community's priority infrastructure projects and teams will be mobilised to carry out the rehabiliation of bridges, schools & health centres. Families will be paid a food ration for their contribution to the projects.

Food-for-work removes the burden on families to sell assets to buy food and helps to establish a more secure home environment. A community approach will also help communities to address food security issues, instigate plans to combat further food insecurity and provide a greater sense of ownership over the development process.

World Vision will also target subsistence farmers in Samtskhe-Javakheti who are increasingly vulnerable due to 2-3 successive years of poor weather and low harvests. Through rural lending to buy greenhouses & stables, new seeds, fertilizer and equipment, World Vision hopes to increase agricultural production and encourage farmers to diversify their produce to access different markets. In this way, rural lending will help to transform agricultural based economies, increase food security and improve the livlihoods of whole communities.