Technical assistance: “Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience in the 'Dry Corridor” (EUROSAN).

Description of the project and Services provided:

The general objective intends to improve food and nutrition security for 15,000 rural families through (I) the development of sustainable agricultural systems to increase food production; (II) support for education and nutrition; and (III) strengthening national and local institutions in the regions with the highest poverty rates, which is in keeping with the priorities of the Government of Honduras.

Specifically this project seeks the creation of 10 resilient associations with resilient food security in the Honduran Dry Corridor, through the implementation of the principles of the SAN at the local level, strengthening the capabilities of local authorities, such as the associations and the local government that sets them up, promoting a process which fully involves the final beneficiaries, with the construction of sustainable and resilient systems of production. The TA will support, both effectively and efficiently, the EUROSAN coordinating unit and all institutions involved in the programme execution, through monitoring, supervision, consulting, and the facilitation of coordination processes. Its aim is to achieve EUROSAN execution under the Technical and Administrative Provisions (DTAs) and approved Estimates-Programme, respecting the deadlines established in the Financing Agreement. It will also support the field activities and technical-managerial growth of both the UTSAN headquarters and the local actors (institutions and organized communities).

The results of the project are:

• Increased rural food security support the adoption of sustainable agroforestry systems on the hillsides, which can produce enough basic grains to feed a family of 6 in an area of land (0.7 ha). Once sustainability is achieved, the families can seek to diversify and sell produce.
• Improved nutritional status through the support to the nutrition and the objective of contributing to the aim of the Dry Corridor Alliance to reduce the rate of chronic malnutrition in the intervention area, actions as the establishment of Nutrition and Health extension systems are  included, as well as the institutionalisations of this systems by local governments.
• Strengthening human and institutional capabilities, the sustainability of the initiated processes in results 1 and 2 are only guaranteed by its institutionalization.
• Support for the creation of national policies for food and nutrition security.

The services provided are:

• Consulting GdH, particularly UTSAN, regarding the updating, implementation and monitoring of the SAN public policy and other sectoral instruments.
• Development of mechanisms, instruments and competencies of the public institutions so as to strengthen, harmonize and align the SAN institutional framework, at the level of the political, strategic and operational actors.
• Creating the basic conditions for implementing ENSAN locally, boosting information-dissemination-training for the role of public institutions and of the civil society.
• Increased capacity of the INSAN monitoring operation.
• Activation of a tracking-monitoring system for the establishment of “indicator matrices” as a barometer to measure the ENSAN implementation process.