MINUTES - FOOD SECURITY SECTOR MEETING
March 2016
YANGON
Monthly Food Security Sector (FSS) meeting was held on 18 March 2016 in UNICEF Office. The meeting was attended by 13 partners, including 4 UN Agencies, 8 INGOs and 1 Observer organization. Representatives from OCHA, WFP, Unicef, FAO, ICRC, World Vision, Danish Church Aid, Plan International, PATH, Trocaire, and UN REACH have attended the meeting.
The following Agenda was adopted for the meeting:
1. Round of Introduction and Welcome to new FSS Coordinator
2. UN Network for Nutrition and Food Security (REACH)
3. Update on Cash Working Group
4. Preparedness Plan of Monsoon 2016
5. AOB
a. Update on CFSAM Report
b. Food Security Sector Webpage
1. Round of Introduction and Joining of FSS Coordinator
Newly arrived dedicated Food Security Sector Coordinator has introduced and welcomed to the FSS meeting. The new coordinator highlights the importance of Sector Coordination and reiterate the commitment to provide any possible support and facilitation to the sector partners in their contribution towards emergency response and long term rehabilitation/development needs of Myanmar. He also emphasized to reach sector partners bilaterally to understand the nature of ongoing response, capacity within food security sectors and sought improvement in the working of food security sector in Myanmar.
FSS Coordinator shared his contact details and will seek bilateral meetings with sector partners in coming days and weeks.
2. United Nations Network For Nutrition and Food Security The United Nation Network for Nutrition and Food Security were requested to brief FSS partners on their ongoing advocacy efforts of mainstreaming nutrition in the government priorities and advocating the needs for scaling up multi-sectoral nutrition actions in Myanmar. The REACH framework (Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger and Under Nutrition) ) is a Multi Agency global initiative aiming to achieve sustainable acceleration of the rate of reduction of child under-nutrition. Awareness raising, policy inputs, human/institutional capacity building, enhanced accountability measures are the main outcomes of this programme. The forum is also advocating and encouraging new elected government to invest in nutrition keeping in view the peculiar situation of Myanmar in terms of under-nutrition. further to these efforts, partners at the field level (WFP, ACF and UNICEF) is also working on a nutrition strategic document for Rakhine, planned to be shared in consultative workshop at the field level shortly.
PATH is an international organization supporting the health and nutrition initiatives in Myanmar. The representative provided orientation on their rice fortification (Iron, Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B1, Vitamin A, Folic Acid and Vitamin B12) and vaccination pilot projects in Myanmar since 2012. The organization is currently working with 6 miller in the country to produce fortified rice on commercial scale. FSS partners were interested more on bringing this fortification process at the seed production levels for humanitarian programming.
This was clarified that the fortification process is done by hot extrusion process during milling, and convenient to add the required minerals as per population requirements. Production at seed level might require genetic modification or bio-fortification, but experts preferred this process for fortification of rice in Myanmar.
3. CWG update
WFP and OCHA Co-Chairs of CWG updated FSS meeting on their meeting, highlighting the main discussions ad agreement of CWG the same morning.
- Data collection on 4W matrix was finally agreed among the group, and 7-8 CTP partners are expected to report on a cash based interventions in Myanmar. The data would cover cash programmes in both emergency response and longer term development projects;
- CWG also shared Standing Operating Procedures (SOP’s) for the group highlighting preparedness measures, transfer modalities, transfer value for food and non-food items, targeting criteria, information management and capacity building needs of cash partners;
- The forum was also informed a DFID preparedness project on Cash Based Interventions with the support of UNHCR, OCHA, WFP and UNICEF. Myanmar has been selected as one of the focus countries for cash feasibility and scoping mission. A team of expert was planned to visit Myanmar during April/May, scheduled to follow round of consultations with main stakeholders and organizing training/workshops for concerned partners.
- The concerned UN Agencies are working on further propositions to effectively engage government counterparts, partners from CWG, FSS and other relevant sectors during workshop and training exercise of the CBT mission.
Action Point:
CWG will update FSS partners on the mission schedule and will encourage sector partners to participate in the deliberations of CBT mission during April/May.
4. Preparedness/Contingency Measures
Emergency Response and Preparedness Working Group (ERP-WG) in Myanmar sought the inputs of respective Sectors on their preparedness measures before the monsoon season. The exercise will built mostly on the planning scenarios of previous year for contingency planning (CP), and minimum preparedness actions (MPA) in the sectors. The request is also coupled with recording the capacity of sector partners for their presence and resource base available in case of emergency outbreak. Tracking resources and putting in place minimum preparedness measures would help humanitarian community to respond quickly and effectively in any un-expected situation in Monsoon. The forum was briefed on the templates used for these exercises and were requested to provide desired inputs for further compilation.
Action Point:
The email request will be circulated among sector partners for revisiting the contingency plan, set of MPA’s for FSS and recording their in-country capacity in terms of resources available.
5. AOB
Publication of Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) Report
Communication Officer for FAO Emergency Programs flagged the release of final report on Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) in the aftermath of Floods 2015. The mission was requested by Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock for a detailed impact and damage assessment in food security sectors, and identifying short to longer term rehabilitation needs of the affected agriculture based population.
Preliminary findings, joint press release and link to full report will be shared with FSS partners through email circulation.
Food Security Sector Webpage
The forum was informed on a dedicated country space for Food Security Sector in Myanmar. This would be an important depository of all related FSS documents, and partners were encouraged to use/channel any relevant information which might be important for the food security sectors in Myanmar. The page can be accessed on the following link;
http://fscluster.org/myanmar
Update on El-NINO Phenomenon and South East
Partners were requesting any update on the possible impact of El Nino phenomenon on Myanmar. It was informed by OCHA that there is task force established on prolonged drought situation in Myanmar, with no further updates with FSS. However, FSS will include an agenda item in upcoming meeting with a request to concerned stakeholder(s) to facilitate discussion. Possible scenarios on the situation in South East was also highlighted and noted for further follow ups.
Next FSS meeting
Next FSS meeting is tentatively scheduled on 19/20 April 2016.
Annexure: Participant List
S.No. / Name / Organization / Email / Contact Number1 / Kyaw Win Aung / LWF / / 09 5129527
2 / Fabia Cassan / Solidarites / / 09 425007166
3 / Esther Lopez / ICRC / / 09 256148495
4 / Marie Shanahan / UNICEF / / 09 263831937
5 / Eyram Dzitrie / OCHA / / 09 263467750
6 / Saw Fulton / World Vision / / 09 31336119
7 / Nang Sam Hon / DanChurch Aid / / 09 73228476
8 / Blaire Davis / Plan INT / / 09 252458541
9 / Phyo Win Htun / PATH / / 01 2304781
10 / Renata Sivacolundhu / FAO / / 09 793120232
11 / Yin Min Lat / FAO / / 09 420189631
12 / Hunter Michelsen / Trocaire / / 09 960887327
13 / Norwin Schafferer / OCHA / / 09 425327444
14 / Masae Shimomura / WFP / / 09 450061243
15 / Janine Roelofsen / WFP / / 09 450059033
16 / Myint Lwin / WFP / / 09 440410688
17 / Khalid Khan / Food Security Sector / / 09 453491124
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