ACF International Network
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Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
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Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
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Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
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Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
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Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
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We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
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Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
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Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
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Research: Cash-Based Interventions in Food Security

The distribution of food is today the most widespread response to food emergencies. In certain contexts, however, the opportunity to directly inject cash may be taken, even in crisis or security-endangered situations. Action against Hunger, always striving to upgrade the quality of its operations, has become involved in projects for the purpose of scientifically studying the effect of cash-based interventions in the general framework of its fight against malnutrition.

Between June and October 2004, Action against Hunger developed cash-based interventions in the Wajid district in southern Somalia. The injection of $138,891 dollars into 4,029 households, reaching around 25,000 beneficiaries, was closely followed up by the food security teams via the analysis of regularly collected data. The results of this study have shown that cash-based interventions can be effective in emergency contexts by raising purchasing power, economic independence, and extending a population’s income source.

It is essential to capitalize on our experiences and adapt them to other contexts. A report has therefore been drawn up defining theoretical and practical settings for cash-based interventions with a view to producing a self-training module for Action against Hunger field teams. This report has been revised and validated by scientific experts and humanitarian professionals (GTZ, Save the Children-UK, Oxfam, and the British Red Cross). A training workshop was held in June of 2007 that brought together national and international food security experts from within Action Against Hunger’s International Network. Action against Hunger is now a strong supporter of the fact that cash-based interventions can be an effective response to food crises, even in situations where security is seriously threatened.

Mattinen, H., Ogden, K., “Cash-based interventions: lessons from southern Somalia,” Disasters, 2006, 30 (3): 297-315.

Other Research Achievements in the Area of Food Security

  • Action Against Hunger organized a practical workshop on “Income Generation Activities” in Bamako, Mali, in November 2006 with 22 country representatives from Action against Hunger International Network.
  • Our agency’s disaster surveillance capabilities often rely on Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies that enhance our analysis of factors like available pasture, agricultural production, population movements, market prices of staple foods, and water sources. GIS integrates these complex data layers into illustrative maps so we can monitor emergency hot spots, build buffer stocks of potential supplies, and put staff on the ground—often before a crisis hits.
  • ACF installed Sphinx® software’s monitoring tools in 2006 to facilitate the development of questionnaires for the assessment and analysis of humanitarian conditions.