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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North
and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo
The provinces of North and
South Kivu, in the far east of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
are deeply marked by two decades
of conf lict. Instability and population
displacement have resulted in the
destruction of the agricultural base,
causing food insecurity and severe
malnutrition.
Key recommendations
n Integrate agriculture into the
National Nutrition Programme
and merge existing food-security
and nutrition clusters
n Give priority to infrastructure
development for increasing local
agricultural production and trade
n Target nutrition education
programmes on meeting nutritional
needs of women and children to
reduce discrimination within
households
n Systematically integrate gender
into policy frameworks and involve
women’s organisations in agriculture
and nutrition interventions
Agriculture and nutrition series
2
CTA Technical Brief
JUNE 2017
In a nutshell
n More than 6 million people (8%
of the population) in the DRC
experience acute food insecurity
and approximately 70% live below
the poverty line
n The population has been growing
in North and South Kivu since 2010,
and so too has the rate of food
insecurity: 10–15 % of rural
households are now food insecure
n More than 4 million children under
ve years of age in the DRC (>60%)
suffer from acute malnutrition
n In South Kivu, 43% of children suffer
from chronic malnutrition, compared
with 53.6% of children in North Kivu
n Coordination of local and
internationally supported nutrition
interventions by a government
agency, PRONANUT, has led to
a reduction in acute malnutrition
n Agricultural systems and markets
in eastern DRC are still seriously
disrupted. The agri-food industry
is underdeveloped and increasing
reliance on imported foods is
changing traditional eating habits.
Malnutrition among children under five
years of age and among women, especially
pregnant women, are major problems faced
by these two provinces. More than 10% of
children born in both provinces weigh less
than 2.5 kg, contributing to high rates of
infant mortality.
Many projects have been implemented to
mitigate the malnutrition problem, with the
government’s limited reach extended by
partner organisations large and small. These
projects have chiefly focused on establishing
new nutritional centres or supporting existing
ones. However, much remains to be done,
and the failure of agriculture is at the root
of the problem.
With security and policy challenges on the
one hand and environmental, agronomic and
economic challenges on the other, achieving
sustainable food security in both provinces
will not be easy.
Agriculture
North and South Kivu remain very difficult
places to be a farmer. Inadequate, dilapidated
transport infrastructure makes movement of
people and goods difficult. Various taxes and
police and military checks along the road
connecting production areas and markets
are additional barriers to free movement of
goods. The persistence of armed conf lict
adds to the challenge.
Soils have been depleted of nutrients and
eroded through long use with few inputs.
Large areas where industrial-scale
agricultural estates control the best
remaining land are exceptions.
“ Poor infrastructure makes
movement of people and
goods difficult”
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series
“ Armed conflict adds to the
food and nutrition security
challenge”
In many cases, these have long been
abandoned, but the land remains
unavailable to local farmers, exacerbating
the scarcity of productive land. With
subsistence farming now dominating
the region, the main crops are bananas,
beans, cassava, groundnuts, maize,
potatoes, rice, sorghum and sweet
potatoes. Pests and diseases have
driven down yields. Banana bacterial
wilt, banana brown streak and cassava
mosaic virus are particularly damaging.
In South Kivu’s Ruzizi Plain, mosaic
disease is forcing some farmers to abandon
the cultivation of cassava, despite it being
central to their food security because it
can grow on the exhausted soils and be
stored in the ground as a safeguard
against food shortages.
With young men engaging in mining and
trade and young people seeking opportunities
in the cities, the agricultural workforce is
increasingly composed of women and older
men. Yet women have little access to land,
which is usually allocated to men in the
family, and have even more difficulties
than men in accessing the most basic
inputs and finance.
The fisheries potential of the region’s
lakes, rivers and ponds is enormous and
largely unexploited. It is estimated that the
current annual catch on the Congolese side
of Lake Tanganyika, at 22,000 t, represents
less than 5% of the production potential.
Most fishing on Lake Tanganyika, Lake
Kivu and elsewhere is artisanal, and catches
are sold locally. Development of the sector
will require f isherfolk to have access to more
modern technology and to f ish sustainably.
Food
Both North and South Kivu have seen
improvements in food security as their
situations stabilise. Yet in a 2015 assessment,
over 800,000 people in North Kivu (13%
of the population) and 500,000 in South
Kivu (10%) were found to be food insecure.
Part of the problem is population growth:
the number of people in North Kivu grew
by more than 15% between 2010 and 2015,
with no matching increase in food
production.
The food-security situation has improved
more in South Kivu than in North Kivu,
but is more volatile: South Kivu imports
over 50% of its food, at fluctuating prices,
from neighbouring Rwanda. Despite this
improvement, residents of South Kivu have
the lowest daily caloric intake in the country
(1,561 kcal per person per day), the bulk of
which comes from cassava.
Nutrition
Malnutrition among children under five
years old and among women, especially
pregnant women, is a consequence of the
food insecurity.
A study in Kadutu/Bukavu in South Kivu
found that only 39.4% of pregnant women
ate twice daily. Only 24% had knowledge
about the food categories they needed during
pregnancy. And an adequate household
food supply does not automatically translate
into adequate nutrition for women. In many
families, cultural norms and traditions
mean that women and girls eat only the
food remaining after the men have eaten.
Many women in both North and South
Kivu also lack control over income-
generating activities, such as agriculture,
and income use, such as food purchasing.
Early marriages and low education of
women further disempower their decision-
making on food and nutrition.
In a 2005 survey, 11.7% of children born
in South Kivu and 10.7% in North Kivu
weighed less than 2.5 kg. This is a factor in
the very high infant mortality rates in the
provinces: a 2009 study in South Kivu found
that 40% of children died of undernutrition
before their second birthday. Levels of
stunting in the province are also high,
and increase rapidly with age. They stand
at 15% for children under six months of
age, rising to 28% at 9–11 months and
54% at 36–47 months.
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series
The policy and institutional
framework
The Ministry of Public Health has lead
responsibility for the management of food
and nutrition security. All of its activities
are organised by zone, each of which has a
population of about 50,000–100,000 people
in rural areas and 100,000–250,000 people
in urban areas. Each zone has a health-
centre network and a single general referral
hospital. In 2002, the Ministry launched a
National Nutrition Programme (PRONANUT),
which has overseen a national reduction in
global acute malnutrition from 16% in 2001
to 11% in 2010. However, the transition to a
centralised programme has only been partial:
state capacity to carry out national
coordination is limited, and the activities of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
other nutritional actors have rapidly become
decentralised again.
Before and since the launch of PRONANUT,
government and non-government actors have
implemented many projects to mitigate the
malnutrition problem, with a consistent focus
on establishing nutrition centres or
supporting existing ones. Most of these
projects have focused on improving the
nutrition of children and pregnant and
lactating women.
In the past, these nutrition services were
largely delivered by NGOs working in
parallel to the off icial structure. However,
NGOs of all sizes, research institutions and
religious communities are now supporting
PRONANUT. In particular, UNICEF and
other international organisations provide
inputs to its Community-based Management
of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme.
They also provide much of the general
financial, technical and logistical support to
P RON A N U T.
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series
Two key organisational ‘clusters’ operate in
the food-security and nutrition area in both
North and South Kivu. The Food Security
Cluster is led by FAO, while the Nutrition
Cluster is led by UNICEF. PRONANUT
represents the state in both clusters.
The Food Security Cluster has a strategy
focused on urgent and persistent food-
security needs, as well as on structural
aspects including those related to sudden
crises. It aims for sustainable adaptation
strategies, diversif ication of livelihoods and
improving knowledge management and best
practices to strengthen the food-security
resilience of the population. Meanwhile, in
relative isolation from this, the Nutrition
Custer works on the challenging task of
harmonising nutritional intervention criteria
and disseminating standards. One successful
mechanism in this harmonisation has been
Rapid Response to Population Movements
(RRMP), a link for the exchange of
information about existing needs.
At the local level, many women’s
organisations are involved in agriculture,
food-security and nutrition actions. However,
key roles in these organisations are often held
by men because of the shortage of highly
educated women to take on leadership
positions. Women’s organisations also have
poor access to financial resources to support
food and nutrition security activities, and
there is no specif ic governmental programme
to promote gender equality in this area.
There is thus a need to promote and build the
capacity of women in food and nutrition
sectors, and to direct more of the resources
for these activities to women’s organisations.
Strengthening the
agriculture–nutrition
nexus
Only a robust agricultural recovery
will rectify the dire nutritional situation in
North and South Kivu. As PRONANUT’s
supporters continue to work on strengthening
the programme, they should seek to ensure
integration of the agricultural side of the
nexus into the nutrition programme
inter ventions.
The opportunities for intervention include:
n Merging the Nutrition and Food Security
Clusters into one multisectoral platform,
an effort that is already under way.
n Strengthening agricultural recovery
programmes and improving agricultural
livelihoods to address both food
availability and access. Embryonic local
food industries need enabling trade
policies; adequate road and lake-based
transport networks; and access to
financing, storage and processing
facilities. Efforts should be made to
organise value chains and innovation
clusters to improve the production,
processing, marketing and distribution of
banana, beans, cassava, fish, maize,
potato, rice, sorghum and sweet potato.
“ Soils have been depleted of
nutrients and eroded through
long use with few inputs”
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series
Levels of a National
Nutrition Programme
Launched in 2002, the National
Nutrition Programme (PRONANUT) is
decentralised and supported by a large
network of national and international
NGOs, research institutions and
religious communities. In a country
where the reach and capacity of
hospitals is severely limited, the
programme operates at three levels:
Hospitals and reference health centres
manage severe acute malnutrition with
medical complications and/or loss of
appetite, as well as in infants under six
months. These include nutritional and
outpatient therapeutic units (UNTA).
Health centres begin with passive
screening, triage and referral of
cases. These include two types of
supplementary nutrition units (UNSs):
for the management of cases of
moderate acute malnutrition, as
well as monitoring of discharged
patients from UNTAs; and for cases
of severe acute malnutrition without
complications and with an appetite.
The community component promotes
ownership and active participation of
the community in prevention and care
of malnutrition.
n Raising awareness of the importance of
improving nutrition and dietary diversity,
as well as the needs of women and
children, with the aim of reducing
discriminatory traditional practices and
achieving adequate distribution of food
within households. Technical and
financial actors should support value-
chain activities performed by women,
working with the many existing
processing and marketing groups
in which women participate.
n Systematically integrating gender
into policy frameworks through gender-
specific needs assessments, gender audits,
gender-sensitive data collection systems
and budget allocations. This should
start with women’s active participation
in policy, including agriculture and
nutrition policies.
“ South Kivu depends on neighbouring
Rwanda for over 50% of its food”
Nutrition in the DRC
Human development
n The DRC ranked 186th among
187 countries in the 2012 Human
Development Index ranking; in
2014, it rose to 176th
Malnutrition
n The DRC is one of 10 countries in
which more than 60% of children
under ve suf fer from acute
malnutrition
n More than 4 million children under
ve experience acute malnutrition
each year, and over half of this
group face a high risk of death if
nothing is done
n In the 2007 Demographic and
Health Survey, 19% of women aged
15–49 were malnourished; this had
declined to 14% by 2013
n A higher percentage of women were
malnourished in rural areas (21%)
than in urban centres (16%)
Food insecurity
n Currently more than 6.4 million
people are experiencing acute
food insecurity – almost 10%
of the rural population
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series
Figure 1. Proportion of households with poor or limited food consumption in
territories of North Kivu.
Figure 2. Prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) and severe acute
malnutrition (SAM) in territories of South Kivu.
Source: Ministère de la Santé Publique, Programme National de Nutrition, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Source: Ministère de la Santé Publique, Programme National de Nutrition, Democratic Republic of the Congo
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16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Percentage of householdsPrevalence (%)
Territory
Territory
ShabundaKaleheFiziMwengaWalunguUviraKabareIdjwi
GAM SAM
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Goma Beni Lubero Nyiragono Masisi Rutshuru Walikale
About the series
CTA Technical Briefs document experience and learning in topical issues of interest
to the ACP agricultural development community. They are intended as a practical
guide for people involved in an issue professionally or for people with a strong
interest in the topic.
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
P.O. Box 380 – 6700 AJ Wageningen – The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 317 467 100 | E-mail: cta@cta.int | www.cta.int
The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reect the views of CTA.
This document has been produced with the nancial assistance of the European Union.
The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of CTA and can under no
circumstances be regarded as reecting the position of the European Union.
Authors: Gustave Nachigera Mushagalusa, Katcho Karume,
Stany Vwima and Judith Francis
Photo credits
Cover: © Ollivier Girard/CIFOR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Page 2: © Neil Palmer/CIAT (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Page 4: © Neil Palmer/CIAT (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Page 5: © Ollivier Girard/CIFOR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Page 6: © Neil Palmer/CIAT (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Further reading
FAO. 2016. Democratic Republic of the Congo [online]. Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations. Available at: http://www.fao.org/countryproles/
index/en/?iso3=COD (Accessed 24 November 2016).
Food Security Portal. 2016. Democratic Republic of the Congo [online]. Available at:
http://www.foodsecurityportal.org/dr-congo (Accessed 24 November 2016).
FSC. 2016. Democratic Republic of the Congo [online]. Food Security Cluster. Available at:
http://fscluster.org/democratic-republic-congo (Accessed 24 November 2016).
Murphy, E., Glaeser, L., Maalouf-Manasseh, Z., Collison, D.K. and Sethuraman, K. 2015.
USAID Ofce of Food for Peace: Food Security Desk Review for Katanga, North Kivu,
and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. United States Agency for International
Development, Washington, DC. FHI 360/FANTA. Available at: http://bit.ly/2gq6uWR
(Accessed 24 November 2016).
Mushagalusa Nachigera, G., Karume, K., Ndusha, B., Basengere, A., Bayisha, A., Bisuri
Byachentwali, A., Chimanuka, B. and Banswe, G. 2016. Building the Evidence Base on the
Agriculture-Nutrition Nexus: Democratic Republic of the Congo. CTA Working Paper 16/15.
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
SUN. 2016. Democratic Republic of Congo [online]. Scaling Up Nutrition. Available at:
http://scalingupnutrition.org/sun-countries/democratic-republic-of-congo/ (Accessed 24
November 2016).
USAID. 2016. Democratic Republic of the Congo – Agriculture and Food Security [online].
United States Agency for International Development. Available at: https://www.usaid.gov/
democratic-republic-congo/agriculture-and-food-security (Accessed 24 November 2016).
WFP. 2016. Democratic Republic of the Congo [online]. World Food Programme. Available
at: http://www.wfp.org/countries/congo-democratic-republic (Accessed 24 November 2016).
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The agriculture–nutrition nexus in North and South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Agriculture and nutrition series