1.
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Improving Nutrition through Informal
Social Protection Systems:
Experiences from USAID’s Resilience in
the Sahel (RISE) Initiative
Shannon Rogers
FFP Regional Director for West
Africa
USAID

2.
• Increases the resilience of vulnerable populations in agro-pastoral and
marginal agricultural zones of Burkina Faso and Niger
• Works with populations living at the intersection of chronic poverty and
exposure to recurrent shocks and stresses
• Represents the totality of USAID’s development and humanitarian
assets in the zone of intervention, including:
– FFP development programs
– Multi-sector resilience activity
– Value-chain activity
– Nutrition-related SBCC
– Loan guarantee to commercial banks
– FP services & information
– Ongoing learning platform
– Humanitarian assistance12/20/2016 FOOTER GOES HERE 2
RISE Overview

3.
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• Increases resilience through:
– Increased & sustainable
economic well-being
– Strengthened Institutions
&
Governance
– Improved Health &
Nutrition
• Some results to date:
– 2.5M have benefited
directly
– 204,500 children under
five
reached by nutrition
programs
RISE Informal Social
Protection
Mechanisms

4.
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• Building livestock
assets
• Informal saving groups
• Access to micro-credit
• In-kind household food
distribution (PM2A)
• Food/cash for assets
RISE Informal Social
Protection
Mechanisms

5.
Increases
Absorptive
Capacities:
• Asset
ownership
• Cash savings
• Food stores
• Insurance
• Bonding social
capital
Increases
Transformational
Capacities:
• Access to
markets
• Access to
services
• Access to
infrastructure
• Access to
communal
natural
resources
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How Informal Social Protection Builds
Resilience…
Increases
Adaptive
Capacities:
• Livelihood
diversification
• Access to
finance
• Human capital
investments
• Exposure to
information
• Bridging/linking
social capital

6.
• Addresses immediate and underlying causes of
under-nutrition
• Reduces the negative coping strategies (e.g.,
reduction in the number of meals) in the face of a
shock
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…and resilience then improves nutrition!

7.
• Ensure informal mechanisms target the most
vulnerable (e.g., children under two)
• Need purposeful link between nutrition behavior
change and livelihood activities (e.g., ensure children
benefit nutritionally from livestock assets)
• Seasonality plays an important role in social
protection systems
• Social protection systems must be linked to early
warning and early action to anticipate and adapt to
shocks
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Lessons Learned and the Way Forward

8.
PHOTOCREDIT:SaraPassman,USAID/Senegal
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Thank you!
FOOTER GOES HERE