In Honduras, civil society meaningfully contributes to the new food and nutrition security policy

The updated Food and Nutrition Security Policy and Strategy of Honduras incorporated contributions agreed upon and presented by the Civil Society Organization (CSOs) partners of the Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP) Program Honduras.This is the result of the focused evidence-based advocacy and strengthening of CSOs capacities promoted by the V4CP Program. They will continue to collaborate in the development of prioritised Action Plans.

In Honduras, V4CP partners advocated for space to collaborate with the Honduran government toward the development of an inclusive national food and nutrition security (FNS) policy for the period 2018-2030.

The moment for this was right, since the State of Honduras decided to update the FNS Policy and Strategy (known as PyENSAN) in response to current FNS needs, given the expiration in 2015 of the previous FNS Policy of Honduras and its lack of regulation and implementation in compliance with the Millennium Development Goals. The process of updating the PYENSAN 2018-2030 was under the responsibility of the Technical Unit of Food and Nutritional Security (UTSAN) with technical support of the Food and Nutrition Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Through this lengthy process, the civil society organisations (CSOs) partners of V4CP played an important part in a transition: namely, that FNS policy development moved from being a government-owned process, to be a process of collaboration and involvement of CSOs. CSO’s advocacy efforts were supported by evidence generated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and SNV.

This transition is best demonstrated by two key elements. Firstly, that CSOs created space in the policy development process to include their contributions. These contributions were based on close engagement, consultations and evidence generation with grassroots actors.

Secondly, these contributions were not only presented by V4CP, but were subsequently taken on board in the update of the national FNS policy and strategy for 2018-2030, through important meetings with the Executive Director of UTSAN and his technical team.

These meetings were key for UTSAN and V4CP to work together in the drafting of the incorporations, to share information and identify spaces for collaboration and advocacy at the local and regional levels.

In a meeting in April this year with the CSO members of V4CP, the director of UTSAN stated that the V4CP Program contributed a lot to the process of updating the national FNS policy. He noted that the development of the tailored Action Plans for each of the 11 guidelines of the policy framework will further be a good opportunity to work together.

Read the blog in Spanish for further details.

Header photo credit: Ádám Marácz