National Food Security Strategy Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Ministry of Agriculture officials, National planning officers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FS-038

Before you join: Participants should have working experience in public policy, agriculture, nutrition, social protection, humanitarian response, trade, planning or related development programmes.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

National food security strategies must reconcile competing policy goals: affordable diets, viable farm businesses, stable markets, nutrition outcomes, fiscal limits, climate shocks and trade disruption. Governments also need clear arrangements for emergency response without allowing short-term crisis measures to displace long-term food-system reform. Poorly defined objectives, fragmented data and weak coordination can produce costly programmes that neither reduce vulnerability nor improve national self-reliance.

This course equips participants to design, review and implement a national food security strategy grounded in evidence and public policy choices. Participants assess food availability, access, utilisation and stability; identify vulnerable populations and supply-chain risks; select policy instruments; set strategic objectives; and translate priorities into costed implementation arrangements. The course addresses domestic production, trade, public food reserves, social protection, nutrition, climate adaptation, early warning and crisis preparedness.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with government, humanitarian and market cases. Participants work with food security indicators, policy scenarios, stakeholder maps, risk registers and results frameworks. They test choices such as import dependence versus reserve policy, universal subsidies versus targeted transfers, and emergency food assistance versus market support. Each participant leaves with a structured national food security strategy outline, including diagnostic findings, priority interventions, governance arrangements, financing assumptions and monitoring indicators.

The course is suited to officials and technical specialists responsible for agriculture, planning, finance, trade, social protection, nutrition, disaster management and development programmes. It also serves managers supporting national strategy processes through donor-funded technical assistance, humanitarian coordination or food-system investment.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess national food security conditions using the four dimensions and disaggregated indicators
  • Construct a food-system diagnostic covering production, markets, diets, vulnerability and shocks
  • Apply Food Insecurity Experience Scale and IPC evidence appropriately within national analysis
  • Prioritise policy options using problem trees, stakeholder analysis and fiscal feasibility criteria
  • Design coordinated measures for domestic supply, trade, reserves, social protection and nutrition
  • Develop shock-responsive preparedness arrangements using scenario planning and contingency triggers
  • Build a results framework with indicators, baselines, targets, reporting responsibilities and reviews
  • Produce a costed national food security strategy outline with an implementation roadmap

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Prepare credible food security strategy inputs for ministerial and interagency review
  • Interpret food security evidence without confusing chronic vulnerability and acute crisis
  • Defend policy choices using explicit trade-offs, fiscal assumptions and risk evidence
  • Coordinate productively with agriculture, trade, nutrition, social protection and emergency counterparts
  • Build a reusable strategy-development toolkit for national or subnational assignments

For your organisation

  • Clearer prioritisation between production support, imports, reserves and household assistance
  • Stronger coordination across ministries managing food availability, affordability and nutrition
  • Earlier identification of supply, price and climate risks threatening vulnerable households
  • More defensible budget submissions linked to stated food security outcomes
  • Better prepared contingency arrangements for drought, conflict, price spikes and supply disruption

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a strategy mandate, scope, principles and decision structure.

  • National food security mandates, legal duties and political decision rights
  • FAO four dimensions: availability, access, utilisation and stability
  • Distinguishing food security, nutrition security, food sovereignty and self-sufficiency
  • Strategy scope defined through population groups, geography and time horizons
  • Problem trees separating immediate causes from structural food-system constraints
  • Stakeholder mapping using influence-interest matrices and institutional mandate reviews

Participants can assemble and interpret an evidence base for strategic prioritisation.

  • Food balance sheets interpreted alongside domestic production and import dependency
  • Household consumption surveys reveal expenditure shares, diet quality and coping
  • Food Insecurity Experience Scale measurement, interpretation and disaggregation principles
  • IPC classifications distinguish acute food insecurity severity and affected populations
  • Subnational vulnerability profiles combining poverty, nutrition, market and hazard data
  • Data quality checks for coverage, timeliness, comparability and political bias
  • Evidence gaps converted into targeted research and monitoring requirements

Participants can identify systemic food security risks and prepare policy responses.

  • Food-system mapping traces inputs, production, storage, processing, trade and consumption
  • Risk registers capture likelihood, impact, velocity, ownership and mitigations
  • Climate hazard analysis links drought, floods and heat to food outcomes
  • Import concentration assessed through supplier exposure, shipping routes and currency risk
  • Conflict scenarios examine displacement, access constraints and market fragmentation
  • Price transmission analysis connects global commodity movements to retail staples
  • Contingency triggers specify actions, authority, financing and communications thresholds

Participants can select domestic supply policies matched to diagnosed constraints.

  • Agricultural policy objectives distinguish staple supply, incomes, diets and exports
  • Value-chain bottleneck analysis identifies constraints from farm inputs to consumers
  • Input subsidy design compares targeting, additionality, fiscal cost and market distortion
  • Extension services target adoption barriers using segmentation and advisory models
  • Post-harvest loss assessment prioritises storage, transport, processing and standards investments
  • Public investment appraisal compares irrigation, roads, research and market infrastructure
  • Smallholder inclusion measures address land, finance, insurance and buyer access

Participants can appraise market, trade and reserve policies under normal and crisis conditions.

  • Market structure analysis identifies concentration, competition barriers and trader incentives
  • Tariff and quota choices assessed against prices, revenues and supply security
  • Export restrictions evaluated for domestic relief, producer incentives and regional effects
  • Strategic grain reserve objectives distinguish emergency stocks, price stabilisation and rotation
  • Reserve operating rules define procurement, release triggers, storage losses and governance
  • Public procurement safeguards address tendering, quality control, audit and conflict risks
  • Regional trade agreements considered within national food security policy choices

Participants can design food access measures that protect diets and target vulnerability.

  • Affordability analysis compares food prices, incomes, expenditure shares and diet costs
  • Targeting methods combine poverty, vulnerability, categorical and geographic criteria
  • Cash, vouchers and food transfers compared through market functionality assessments
  • Shock-responsive social protection links early warning triggers to scalable assistance
  • Nutrition-sensitive agriculture connects production choices with dietary diversity outcomes
  • School feeding design addresses procurement, menus, targeting and local supply
  • Subsidy reform assesses distributional incidence, fiscal exposure and political feasibility

Participants can integrate climate, conflict and emergency considerations into strategic measures.

  • Climate adaptation pathways prioritise water management, seeds, diversification and advisories
  • Anticipatory action protocols connect forecast thresholds to pre-agreed assistance
  • Conflict-sensitive analysis identifies resource tensions, exclusion risks and market control
  • Humanitarian-development-peace coordination clarifies roles during protracted food crises
  • Seasonal calendars align preparedness measures with planting, harvest and lean periods
  • Livelihood protection measures prevent distress sales, debt accumulation and asset depletion
  • Do-no-harm screening tests distributional impacts of food security interventions

Participants can establish practical governance and financing arrangements for strategy delivery.

  • Interministerial governance maps mandates, decisions, escalation routes and accountability
  • Political economy analysis identifies winners, losers, incentives and reform blockers
  • Stakeholder engagement plans sequence consultations, evidence sharing and feedback mechanisms
  • Costing methods estimate recurrent expenditure, capital costs and implementation capacity
  • Fiscal space assessment tests affordability under baseline and shock scenarios
  • Donor alignment structures connect external assistance to nationally defined priorities
  • Anti-corruption controls address beneficiary lists, procurement, stocks and subsidy payments

Participants can create a monitoring system linking strategy performance to decision-making.

  • Theory of change links interventions, assumptions, outputs, outcomes and impacts
  • Results frameworks define indicators, baselines, targets, sources and reporting frequency
  • Early warning systems combine rainfall, production, prices, nutrition and market signals
  • Indicator dashboards distinguish leading indicators from outcome and impact measures
  • Sentinel market monitoring tracks availability, retail prices and trader behaviour
  • Evaluation questions test relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and equity
  • Review cycles connect evidence findings to budget revisions and policy decisions

Participants can structure a practical strategy document and implementation roadmap.

  • Strategic objectives written with measurable results, timeframes and accountable institutions
  • Intervention portfolios prioritised using impact, feasibility, cost and urgency criteria
  • Implementation roadmaps sequence policy actions, investments, reforms and enabling measures
  • Responsibility matrices assign lead agencies, contributors, approvals and delivery deadlines
  • Scenario testing checks strategy performance under drought, price spikes and conflict
  • Communication plans prepare concise messages for cabinet, parliament and communities
  • Personal application plans identify immediate strategy tasks, partners and evidence needs

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. National food security strategy diagnostic template
  2. Food-system risk register and contingency trigger matrix
  3. Policy option appraisal scorecard
  4. Strategic food reserve operating rules checklist
  5. Food security results framework template
  6. Costed implementation roadmap model

Who should attend

  • Ministry of Agriculture officials — responsible for production, market and food-system policy
  • National planning officers — coordinating cross-ministerial strategies and public investment priorities
  • Social protection managers — linking household assistance to food access and shock response
  • Trade and finance officials — balancing import policy, reserve costs and consumer affordability
  • Disaster management specialists — preparing food-security contingency arrangements after shocks
  • Donor and NGO programme managers — aligning technical assistance with national policy processes

Skills and tools covered

Food security diagnosticsPolicy option appraisalFood-system risk analysisStrategic programme designCrisis preparedness planningResults framework design

Tools and standards

FAO Four Dimensions of Food Security, Food Insecurity Experience Scale, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish concepts, frameworks and policy choices, followed by facilitated case analysis drawn from national food-system settings. Small-group work examines household data, market signals, policy proposals and shock scenarios. Participants compare intervention packages, build risk registers, test coordination arrangements and draft strategy components. A simulated interministerial review tests how evidence, fiscal constraints and political priorities affect decisions. Individual application planning connects course methods to a current national, regional or programme assignment.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience in public policy, agriculture, nutrition, social protection, humanitarian response, trade, planning or related development programmes. They should be comfortable reading policy documents, discussing basic quantitative indicators and contributing to multi-stakeholder planning. Familiarity with national agricultural statistics, household survey data or emergency assessments is useful but not essential. The course does not require advanced economics, econometric modelling, GIS skills, prior strategy-writing experience or specialist knowledge of a particular country. Participants may bring current national plans or data summaries if organisational policy permits.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need professional familiarity with a relevant policy, development, humanitarian or food-system function. Advanced economics, statistics and prior national strategy-writing experience are not required.

Bring a current policy challenge, strategy draft, food security assessment or programme concept if available and permitted for use. A laptop is useful for working with templates, though it is not mandatory.

The course is designed for public officials, development partners and programme managers contributing to national or subnational food security policy. It is particularly relevant where multiple ministries share responsibility for food supply, prices, nutrition and crisis response.

Agriculture policy courses often focus on farm production and rural development, while humanitarian courses focus on emergency assessment and assistance. This course connects those areas with trade, reserves, social protection, governance, financing and national strategy design.

Participants can use the diagnostic template, risk register, policy scorecard and results framework in current planning or review processes. The final application plan identifies immediate actions, evidence gaps and coordination priorities for their own assignment.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days move from diagnosis and risk analysis through policy design, governance, monitoring and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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