ADVOCACY: Review – National Strategy for Food Security in Remote First Nations Communities

The National Strategy for Food Security in Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities is out.

In September 2024, Healthabitat submitted to the call-out for the National Strategy for Food Security above. Healthabitat are pleased to see some aspects have been adopted, but thinks there is still work to do.

The initial 8 focus areas of the National Strategy for Food Security in Remote First Nations Communities discussion paper have been reduced to 7 as a result of a lack of existing “Policies, Practice and Governance” that was the 8th focus area.

Review of Healthabitat’s Submission

• Healthabitat offered a submission, focusing on ‘Housing’. We encouraged the discussion to broaden to the entire living environment and use of the 9 Healthy Living Practices (9HLPs) as a holistic framework for health.
• We believe current Housing for Health data can offer valuable insights into the development of the strategy, in particular Housing for Health (HfH) data on HLP4: the ability to store, prepare, and cook food across the Northern Territory (NT) and Australia.
• We recognise the expertise of many organisations in Aboriginal housing but emphasise there is a critical need for evidence-based data collection on house function and targeted, ongoing repairs and maintenance programs linked to health priorities.
• Utilising HLP4 National and NT data, the submission discusses what the data reveals about people’s ability to store, prepare and cook food and key areas to prioritise to improve people’s ability for healthy living practices. Through the submission, we also offer tangible recommendations in the areas of Design & Specification and Maintenance.

You can access the submission here.

Submission Excerpt (pg 10) Healthabitat diagram showing areas of the kitchen above 900mm eligible to be counted as ‘storage’. The amount of storage should be relative to the size of the house, i.e. A house with 4 bedrooms (or more), should have greater than 5sqm of storage above 900mm to pass this criterion.

Review of National Strategy for Food Security in Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Communities

This review will focus on the “Housing, Infrastructure and Environmental Health” focus area

• Healthabitat are pleased to see that the “housing” focus area has been broadened to include “infrastructure and environmental health”. The report does a good job of linking aspects like energy insecurity, water quality and housing maintenance to food insecurity. We know that the living environment as a whole impacts the health of residents – see HfH the Guide
• Whilst the report was good at identifying and communicating the issues and challenges of food insecurity in remote communities (crowding, lack of functional health hardware, etc) see page 36. It did not provide direct or measurable targets (functional health hardware, storage areas in kitchens, functional yard space, etc) that could assist in the development of further plans.
• The strategy is focused on long-term planning but offers little to no practical, immediate options that can improve people’s housing and living environments.  Whilst Healthabitat acknowledges that long-term thinking and planning are important, improving people’s living environments now is just as critical.
• From page 60 – “There remain significant data gaps – there is no reliable, relevant and consistent information about the rate and impact of food insecurity in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This hinders the ability to understand, monitor and effectively address the issue.” – Healthabitat has data since 1991 on the function of kitchens in housing across Australia. We know that having a functional kitchen is a critical part of a house to keep you healthy. While this data covers housing only, it provides a base to start and offers a methodology for other parts of the living environment to simultaneously improve the living environment and gather data. Local organisations like Nganampa Health have produced reports with clear data on remote store nutrition offerings.

Knowing you can’t fix the whole issue should not stop you from starting.