Rights-Based Food and Nutrition Security Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Food Security Programme Managers, Nutrition 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-034

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience in food security, nutrition, agriculture, social protection, humanitarian response or community development.

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

Food and nutrition programmes can meet short-term consumption targets while still excluding women, displaced people, persons with disabilities, minority groups or landless households from decisions, resources and remedies. A rights-based approach changes the question from whether assistance was delivered to whether people can claim adequate food, participate in decisions and hold duty-bearers accountable. This matters in humanitarian response, social protection, agricultural development, school feeding, climate adaptation and public health programming.

This course examines food and nutrition security through international human rights standards, national obligations and practical programme management methods. Participants analyse the four pillars of food security—availability, access, utilization and stability—alongside agency and sustainability. They learn to identify rights-holders and duty-bearers, conduct participation and exclusion analysis, apply non-discrimination principles, assess accountability systems and integrate rights indicators into programme design, monitoring and evaluation. The course also addresses land, water, natural resources, markets, social protection, emergency food assistance and nutrition-sensitive programming.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with cases drawn from drought response, urban food insecurity, maternal nutrition, smallholder agriculture and refugee settings. Participants work with programme documents, stakeholder maps, indicators and accountability scenarios, then adapt the methods to a live or planned work assignment. Each participant leaves with a rights-based food and nutrition security programme package: a context analysis, stakeholder accountability map, inclusion checklist, results framework and 90-day application plan.

The course is designed for professionals who design, fund, manage, monitor or evaluate food security and nutrition interventions, including government officers, humanitarian staff, development practitioners, civil society leaders and donor programme personnel.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply the human right to adequate food framework to programme decisions
  • Analyse food and nutrition insecurity using availability, access, utilization and stability
  • Identify rights-holders, duty-bearers and accountability gaps through stakeholder mapping
  • Conduct participation, gender and non-discrimination analysis for food security programmes
  • Design rights-based objectives, activities and results frameworks for nutrition interventions
  • Develop indicators using the OHCHR human rights indicator framework
  • Assess grievance, complaint and remedy mechanisms for affected populations
  • Produce a 90-day plan for applying rights-based food security methods

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Frame food insecurity as an entitlement, accountability and public policy issue
  • Make targeting decisions that identify exclusion and discrimination risks
  • Write programme objectives linked to rights-holders and duty-bearer obligations
  • Build credible participation and feedback arrangements with affected communities
  • Strengthen applications for food security, nutrition and humanitarian programme roles

For your organisation

  • Improve programme targeting for groups facing discrimination or structural exclusion
  • Produce proposals and reports aligned with human rights and donor accountability expectations
  • Reduce harm risks arising from inaccessible services, weak consultation or opaque eligibility rules
  • Strengthen community feedback, complaint handling and corrective action processes
  • Generate monitoring evidence on participation, equality, accountability and remedy

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain how human rights standards change food and nutrition security programme decisions.

  • Food security pillars: availability, access, utilization and stability defined
  • Agency and sustainability considered alongside the four food security pillars
  • Human right to adequate food under ICESCR Article 11
  • General Comment 12: availability, accessibility and adequacy requirements
  • Progressive realization, minimum core obligations and non-retrogression explained
  • Distinguishing needs-based assistance from rights-based programme responsibilities

Participants can apply HRBA principles when analysing and designing food and nutrition interventions.

  • PANTHER principles: participation, accountability, non-discrimination, transparency, human dignity
  • Rights-holders identify claims, priorities and barriers to adequate food
  • Duty-bearers assess authority, resources, incentives and institutional responsibilities
  • Equality analysis distinguishes formal equality from substantive equality outcomes
  • Participation standards address representation, informed consent and decision influence
  • Transparency requirements cover eligibility criteria, budgets, information and decisions

Participants can analyse food insecurity drivers and rights risks using structured assessment frameworks.

  • Seasonal calendars map hunger periods, labour demands and market access
  • Household Economy Analysis identifies income, expenditure and coping patterns
  • IPC Acute Food Insecurity phases interpreted for programme prioritization
  • Coping Strategies Index distinguishes stress, crisis and emergency responses
  • Problem trees connect immediate, underlying and structural nutrition causes
  • Conflict sensitivity identifies food access risks created by programme choices
  • Climate hazard analysis links shocks to food system vulnerabilities

Participants can design inclusive participation processes and identify discriminatory barriers to food access.

  • Intersectional analysis examines gender, age, disability, ethnicity and displacement
  • Washington Group Short Set supports disability-inclusive data collection
  • Barrier analysis identifies physical, economic, social and administrative exclusion
  • Separate consultation methods protect participation by marginalized population groups
  • Safe feedback channels account for literacy, language and protection risks
  • Targeting criteria tested for indirect discrimination and exclusion errors
  • Community committees assessed for representation, legitimacy and decision authority

Participants can assess how land, water and food system governance affect the right to food.

  • Food systems mapping traces production, processing, distribution and consumption relationships
  • VGGT principles guide responsible governance of land tenure rights
  • Smallholder access to land, water, seeds and extension services assessed
  • Women's tenure rights examined through statutory, customary and household arrangements
  • CFS-RAI principles assess agricultural investment impacts on rights
  • Market access analysis examines prices, infrastructure, information and buyer power
  • Natural resource disputes mapped using stakeholder interests and tenure claims

Participants can integrate nutrition rights, care practices and service access into programme design.

  • UNICEF conceptual framework links food, care, health and nutrition outcomes
  • Maternal and child nutrition analysed through rights-holder entitlements
  • IYCF counselling access assessed for equity, quality and informed choice
  • Nutrition-sensitive agriculture connects production choices with dietary diversity
  • Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women interpreted within programme monitoring
  • School feeding designs assessed for dignity, inclusion and local procurement
  • Protection risks considered in supplementary feeding and nutrition service delivery

Participants can build a rights-based food and nutrition security programme logic and implementation plan.

  • Theory of change links claims, duty-bearer actions and food outcomes
  • Problem statements specify rights violations, affected groups and causal mechanisms
  • Results frameworks separate outputs, outcomes, impact and accountability commitments
  • SMART objectives include equity targets and disaggregated population groups
  • Activity design combines service delivery, capacity development and policy action
  • Risk registers capture political, protection, market and exclusion risks
  • Budget lines identify participation, accessibility, feedback and monitoring costs

Participants can establish accountable feedback, complaint and remedy arrangements for programme participants.

  • Accountability chain maps obligations from frontline providers to institutions
  • Community feedback mechanisms define channels, confidentiality and response timelines
  • Complaint handling procedures classify safeguarding, fraud, exclusion and service complaints
  • Referral pathways connect unresolved cases to competent authorities and services
  • Closing the feedback loop communicates decisions, remedies and programme changes
  • Social accountability tools include community scorecards and public hearings
  • Data protection measures govern consent, access, retention and incident reporting

Participants can develop disaggregated indicators that measure food security outcomes and rights commitments.

  • OHCHR indicator framework distinguishes structural, process and outcome indicators
  • Indicator disaggregation covers sex, age, disability, location and displacement
  • Food Consumption Score interpreted with context-specific thresholds and limitations
  • Household Dietary Diversity Score tracks access to varied food groups
  • Participation indicators measure influence, representation and informed decision-making
  • Accountability indicators track complaints, response times, remedies and satisfaction
  • Evaluation questions test equity, unintended effects and duty-bearer performance

Participants can apply rights-based methods to emergency response decisions and workplace priorities.

  • Humanitarian Principles applied to food assistance targeting and distribution decisions
  • Sphere Handbook commitments guide dignified food security and nutrition assistance
  • Cash and voucher assistance assessed for choice, markets and protection
  • Anticipatory action plans identify triggers, early actions and accountable communication
  • Policy advocacy messages connect evidence, obligations and feasible institutional reforms
  • Stakeholder engagement plans sequence allies, decision-makers, opponents and affected groups
  • Ninety-day application plans assign actions, owners, milestones and evidence

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

What you take back to work

  1. Rights-based food security context analysis template
  2. Rights-holder and duty-bearer accountability map
  3. Participation and non-discrimination assessment checklist
  4. Rights-based food and nutrition results framework
  5. Human rights indicator matrix
  6. 90-day workplace application plan

Who should attend

  • Food Security Programme Managers — need accountable designs and defensible targeting decisions
  • Nutrition Officers — need rights-based approaches to maternal, infant and household nutrition
  • Humanitarian Coordinators — need to protect participation and access during emergency response
  • Government Food Security Officers — need to translate legal obligations into public programmes
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists — need indicators for inclusion, participation and accountability
  • Donor and Grant Managers — need to assess rights commitments in partner proposals

Skills and tools covered

Rights-based programmingFood security analysisAccountability mappingInclusion analysisHuman rights indicatorsCommunity feedback systems

Tools and standards

PANTHER principles, IPC Acute Food Insecurity Classification, OHCHR human rights indicator framework, Sphere Handbook

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish standards and methods, followed by structured case work from humanitarian and development settings. Small groups analyse food security scenarios, map duty-bearers, test targeting criteria and develop indicators. Simulations examine consultation, complaints and accountability decisions under operational constraints. Facilitated peer review helps participants compare approaches from government, civil society, donor and implementing-agency perspectives. Application planning converts course outputs into actions for participants' own programmes.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience in food security, nutrition, agriculture, social protection, humanitarian response or community development. They should be familiar with programme cycles, including assessment, design, implementation and monitoring, and able to interpret simple project documents and data tables. Prior exposure to human rights principles is useful but not required. The course does not require legal training, advanced nutrition science, statistical modelling or prior use of a specific assessment platform. Participants gain most value when they bring a current or recent programme case.

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

You should understand the basics of programme design or delivery in food security, nutrition, agriculture, humanitarian response or social protection. Legal training and specialist nutrition qualifications are not required.

Bring a current or recent programme document, assessment summary, proposal or monitoring framework if you can. A laptop is useful for adapting the templates, but participants can also work from printed materials.

It is suited to programme managers, technical officers, government staff, monitoring specialists, donor personnel and civil society practitioners. It is particularly relevant for staff responsible for targeting, participation, accountability or nutrition-sensitive interventions.

Assessment courses primarily focus on measuring food insecurity and prioritizing needs. This course uses assessment evidence but concentrates on rights, non-discrimination, participation, duty-bearer obligations, complaints and remedies.

Participants can review targeting criteria, stakeholder engagement plans, feedback mechanisms and monitoring indicators against the course templates. The final application plan identifies actions to complete within the next 90 days.

The course provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between instructor input, applied case analysis, group work, simulations, peer review and individual application 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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