Republic of the Marshall Islands Food Security Policy.

The Vision of the present Policy is that all Marshallese people, at all times, will have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. On the other hand, the Government acknowledges the integral role that nutrition plays an important part in ensuring a healthy population and productive work force. Subject to availability of requisite resources, the Government will ensure that every Marshallese has both an adequate supply of safe and affordable healthy food, and an uninterrupted supply of clean and safe water in adequate quantities, at all times.
This Policy is framed in the context of: i) Basic human rights, child rights and women’s rights, including the universal ‘Right to Food’. ii) Respecting and including the voices of the vulnerable (including women, youth and those with disabilities). iii) Adopting a multi-stakeholder and multi-sector approach to tackling food security. iv) Strengthening food security information in order to better target vulnerable groups. v) Respecting cultural and traditional values; vi) Respecting and promoting biodiversity and environmental sustainability. vii) The implementation of strategic actions under this policy will be guided by these principles.
The Goal is to ensure access to nutritious, quality, safe and affordable food for all Marshallese people at all times. Five Strategic Actions are suggested. The First Strategic Action is as follows: 1. Stimulating sustainable local food production and preparation and better linking producers to consumers. Twelve Strategies are outlined for this Action: Strategy 1) Support local food crop production through extending knowledge and skills in better husbandry practices and farming systems. 2) Increase the focus of government extension support provided for growing traditional staple crops. 3) Conserve traditional crop biodiversity, and cautiously introduce new crop varieties which can extend the tolerance range of crop growing conditions (e.g. to drought and salinity) and where possible extend fruiting seasons. 4) Develop and sustainably manage coastal/inshore fisheries and aquaculture to support food security and livelihoods. Strategy 5) Adopt a supply chain approach to facilitate and support the establishment of viable production and marketing chains from input supplies, through farm (and fisheries) production to end markets. 6) Give high priority to development of robust domestic food supply chains. 7) Improve market structures for transport and sale of fish, and fresh produce, and promote the introduction of market centers. 8) Strengthen organizations of rural women producers/market vendors to be fully empowered in the context of institutions such as the marketplace. 9) Ensure that all intervention programs are gender focused and gender responsive. Although extension services will be directed to all producers special attention will be given to women in recognition of their critical role in family household management and nutrition. 10) Promote and facilitate the formation and strengthening of producer organizations (farmers and fishers). 11) Introduce local purchasing policies regulating use of local food produce in all government catering purchases. 12) Enhance capacities to use natural resources in a sustainable manner to support sustainable growth in the agriculture and fisheries sectors because rural development is essential to achieving food security. Smallholder agriculture can improve livelihoods, but only if it is productive, profitable, sustainable, resilient and well linked to markets.
The Second Strategic Action deals with Strengthening access to nutritious food for vulnerable households and individuals. Six Strategies are listed: 1) Seek technical support to map all communities and households that are particularly vulnerable to lack of food and water security and good nutrition and ensure that appropriate interventions are targeted to reach these groups; 2) Seek technical assistance to institutionalize early warning sentinel monitoring systems to identify those vulnerable to food insecurity and nutritional deterioration, particularly in relation to food price crisis and natural disasters; 3) In line with National Health Policy, promote exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months and continued breastfeeding together with appropriate introduction of nutrient-rich foods until 2 years of age and beyond.4) In line with National Health Policy, undertake micronutrient supplementation of pregnant women and children, where necessary.5) Ensure that the public, especially the marginalized and vulnerable are actively involved in decisions that affect food security; 6): In line with Public Law1991-125 (with 2008 revision) maintain and enhance school feeding programs.
Strategic Action 3 deals with Educating the public about food security and nutrition and encouraging home gardening. The Strategies are: 1) Promotion of breast milk for infant food security and community based awareness and interventions will be accelerated. 2) Investigate possible market/price and regulatory measures (e.g. preferential tariffs, ‘sin food’-tax, content regulations, fortification etc.) which promote healthy food choices. 3) Consideration will particularly be given to increasing taxes on alcohol, “junk food” and soft drinks known to be high in sugars, saturated and trans-fats, and/or high salt content.
Strategic Action 4 focuses on Facilitating efficient national food distribution channels. The Strategies are as follows: 1) Explore ways to reduce the costs for transportation, processing and storage of food, giving priority to renewable energy sources where possible (wind, biofuel and solar); 2) Increase access to (renewable) energy to rural and remote communities to assist in food preparation, storage and preservation; 3) Explore the feasibility of targeted ‘smart’ freight subsidies for local producers/traders in fresh produce.
Strategic Action 5 concentrates on Building safety, quality and resilience into food supply and production systems. The Strategies are: 1): Define an appropriate Food Safety and SPS architecture which clarifies roles and responsibilities; 2) Review legal and regulatory framework for food. Legislation should be harmonized and strengthened to influence a clear policy framework and determine the principal enforcement agency. 3) Strengthen the capacity to monitor the Food Act (provide appropriate trained human resources and equipment to monitor implementation of regulations). 4) Recognize the importance of food safety and support the private sector to obtain international standards such as HACCP and comply with good hygienic practices (GHP) and good agricultural practices (GAP). 5) In line with the National Water and Sanitation Policy, enable all citizens to access clean and adequate water supplies. 6) Support community based integrated management of coastal and inshore marine resources, both empowering and assisting communities to develop and enforce appropriate conservation measures. 7): Ensure a well-functioning biosecurity service to ensure adequate protection of plant and animal health status from introduced exotic pests and diseases. 8) Orient policy focus from “crisis management or response” to “risk reduction and resilience-building”. 9): In line with Climate Change Policy, undertake enhanced planning and interventions to address climate vulnerabilities in food security and nutrition. 10) Promote climate ‘smart’ farming systems and evaluate new crop cultivars to identify those which are more tolerant of drought and saline soil and water. The last two Chapters lay down provisions relating to Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation.