El Salvador: Protecting children: towards a coordinated food security and nutritional programme for El Salvador

A sharp decline in remittances, augmented by rising food and fuel prices, spiked poverty and malnutrition levels in El Salvador during the last decade. In 2008, extreme poverty rose by 6.5%, and 87% of poor households reduced food consumption levels, threatening El Salvador’s important gains toward fulfilling the MDGs in areas like hunger and poverty reduction (MDG 1) and improved infant mortality rates.

This Joint Programme's aim was to build consensus and strengthen the government's capacity to set forth integrated approaches to alleviate child hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity. It targeted institutions at the national level as well as in three poverty-stricken Northeastern municipalities.

The initiative advanced the integration of Monitoring & Evaluation information systems and promoted multi-stakeholder consensus in the design and implementation of child nutrition and food security plans. It focused particularly on increasing the participation of women and indigenous populations.

Some achievements included:

• Strengthening the legal framework through support to the review of the Nutritional Sovereignty and Food Security Bill. Support for the National Council for Nutrition and Food Security.
• Strengthening Intersectoral Municipal Committees to manage the food security strategies of local development plans; increasing the availability and variety of food and income sources for 462 families; and working with health and education centers in three municipalities to address economic and environmental determinants of child malnutrition and to promote the empowerment of women, and the participation of men, families and communities.

Click for more detailed results from the Joint Programmes in El Salvador (in Spanish).