Food security

What is food security?

There are many different definitions of food security. The definition below is frequently used.

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.

Food security as defined

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to

sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active

and healthy life.(World Food Summit, 1996/2009)

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Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

What is food security? Food security includes the following aspects:• Availability• Access• Affordability• Quality• Nutrition• Safety

Think of an example of an issue which may affect each aspect of food security.

What are some of the issues affecting world food security?

Food security is one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. There are many factors which have combined to make food security such a large issue. This includes:

Increasing population - In 2009, the world population was 6 billion. By 2050, it is predicted to reach 9 billion. Our current output of food is not enough to feed a population of 9 billion.

Changing diets - As countries develop and people become richer they tend to eat a more varied diet, including more meat, which requires more energy to produce. This also means there is more competition for the same types of food.

Reduced arable land - The drive to produce more biofuels for transport uses edible crops and has reduced arable land.

What are some of the issues affecting world food security?

Transport costs - The relatively high price of oil in recent years has increased the price of food storage and distribution.

Climate change - Climate change is leading to a warmer world which will affect what crops can be grown where. Climate change can also lead to more frequent extreme weather events (e.g. floods) which can damage crops.

Pests and diseases - Pests and diseases are becoming more resistant to pesticides and sprays. The changing climate is also bringing pest and diseases into new areas where they could not previously survive.

What is being done?

There are a number of EU funded projects investigating how food security can be improved.

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Food Security Indicators

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Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

The four dimensions of food security

1. Availability2. Access 3. Utilization4. Stability

Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

The four dimensions of food security (2)1. Food Availability refers to the physical existence of food, be it from own

production or on the markets.

2. Food Access is ensured when all households and all individuals within those households have sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.

o Depends on the level of household resources -capital, labour, and knowledge, and also on prices;

o Function of the physical environment, social environment and policy environment, which determine how effectively households are able to utilize their resources to meet their food security objectives; and

o Drastic changes in conditions, such as during periods of drought or social conflict, may seriously disrupt food production and threaten the food access of affected households.

Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

The four dimensions of food security (3)

3. Food Utilization has a socio-economic and a biological aspect. If sufficient and nutritious food is both available and accessible:o socio-economic

o households make decisions/choices on what food to consume (demand) and how the food is allocated within the household;

o Unequal distribution leads to suffering from food deficiency; o the same is true if the composition of the consumed food is unbalanced;

o biological utilization of food – Focused at the individual level food security, which refers to the ability of the human body to take food and translate it into either energy that is used to undertake daily activities or is stored.

Utilization requires not only an adequate diet, but also:– a healthy physical environment, including safe drinking water and adequate

sanitary facilities (so as to avoid disease); and– an understanding of proper health care, food preparation, and storage

processes.

Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

The four dimensions of food security (4)

4. Food Stability refers to the temporal dimension of nutrition security - i.e. the time frame over which food security is being considered. o Distinction of chronic food insecurity - the inability to meet food

needs on an ongoing basis; and o transitory food insecurity when the inability to meet food needs is of

a temporary nature; • cyclical (where there is a regular pattern to food insecurity, for example,

the "lean season" that occurs in the period just before harvest); and• temporary (which is the result of a short-term, exogenous shock such as

droughts or floods). Also civil conflict belongs to the temporary category, although the negative impact on food security often continues over long periods of time.

Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

Major challenges 1. Too much “toktok” but less real commitment

to progress work;

2. There are no additional resources at the national and regional levels;

3. Lack of coordination among stakeholders – at both the national and regional levels

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Food Security Indicators: 2010 – 2013

The Human Tragedy

• Each day 800 million people go hungry• Among them are 170 million children

under 5 years of age

The World Food Summit Goal

Halve the number of hungry people by 2015• 22 million must achieve food security every year• Since 1990, only 6 million a year have left “the

prison of hunger”

Vision 2020: A World Free from Hunger

• Every person has access to sufficient food to sustain a healthy and productive life

• Malnutrition is absent• Food originates from efficient,

effective, and low-cost food systems• Food production is compatible with

sustainable natural-resource use

Progress in the Developing World Since 1970

• Number of food-insecure people has fallen from 959 million to 780 million

• Percentage of food-insecure people has fallen from 37% to 17%

• Progress has been uneven– major reduction in East and Southeast Asia– slight increase in South Asia– number of hungry people in Sub-Saharan

Africa has more than doubled

Even Less Progress without China

Between 1991 and 1998 • The number of food-insecure people

declined in China by 76 million

• In all other developing countries the number of food-insecure people increased by40 million

Uneven Income Distribution

• 20% of the world’s population lives on the equivalent of less than US$1 a day

• Fully half of the human race earns less than US$2 a day

• The income of the richest 1% of our planet equals that of the poorest 57%

The Gap Is Widening

• In 1960 average per capita income in industrialized nations was 9 times the average of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Today it is 18 times

0

5

10

15

20

1960 2000

Sub-Saharan AfricaIndustrialized Nations

Difference in magnitude

A Focus on Children

• One-third of preschool children in developing countries are malnourished

• Malnutrition among preschool children– impairs their mental and physical development– compromises their future health, productivity,

and food security– undermines economic growth and social justice

The Cost of Child Malnutrition

Malnutrition • Is a factor in more than 5 million deaths of children under five• Accounts for 20-25% of the economic impact of childhood

diseases in developing world• Reduces gross domestic product by 0.7% annually in India and

0.5% in China

Indicators of Human Development

In developing countries in the past 30 years

• Life expectancy rose from 56 to 64 years• Mortality rates of preschool children fell

from 167 per 1,000 live births to 89• Adult literacy rate rose from less than

65% to 73%• Incomes per capita more than doubled

Food Availability

• Improved dramatically in developing countries as a whole during past 30 years

• Daily per capita calorie availability– rose from 2,100 to 2,700 in all developing

countries, or more than enough to meet minimum needs

– lags behind in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

– remains below minimum requirements in Sub-Saharan Africa

Agricultural Productivity Increases

Benefits • Improved per capita

production• Reduced unit costs and

prices• Increased incomes and

purchasing power for farmers and consumers

• Restrained expansion into forests, grasslands, and wildlife habitats, helping to avert natural resource degradation

Costs• Increased soil salinity and

lowered water tables in irrigated areas

• Exacerbated health and environmental problems through inappropriate use of fertilizer and pesticides

Where Are We Headed?

With business as usual there is no possibility of achieving food security for all by 2020• Number of malnourished children will decline by only 20% by 2020

• Number of food-insecure people will decline from 780 to only 675 million by 2015

– The goal of cutting hunger in half will only be reached by 2050

Confronting the Causes

We must address– food insecurity– malnutrition– unsustainable resource management

within the context of nine driving forces

Nine Driving Forces (I)

1. Accelerating globalization, including further trade liberalization

2. Sweeping technological changes3. Degradation of natural resources and

increasing water scarcity4. Emerging, reemerging, and continuing

health and nutrition crises

Nine Driving Forces (II)

5. Rapid urbanization6. Changing structure of farming7. Continued conflict8. Climate change9. Changing roles and responsibilities

of key actors

Getting the Priorities Right

• Rapid pro-poor economic growth• Effective provision of public goods• Empowerment of poor people

Seven High-Priority Policy Actions (I)

1. Invest in human resources2. Improve access to productive resources and

remunerative employment3. Improve markets, infrastructure, and

institutions

4. Expand appropriate research, knowledge, and technology

5. Improve natural resource management6. Promote good governance7. Support sound national and international

trade and macroeconomic policies

Seven High-Priority Policy Actions (II)

1. Investing in Human Resources

• Improve access to healthcare• Assure clean water, safe sanitation, and

low-cost quality child care• Fight “hidden hunger”• Ensure food safety• Educate girls as well as boys

2. Improve Access to Productive Resources and Paid Employment

• Promote broad-based agricultural and rural development

• Foster secure urban livelihoods• Promote civil society organizations• Empower women

3. Improve Markets, Infrastructure, and Institutions

• Ensure that markets are not biased against small farmers, less-favored areas, or food-insecure consumers

• Develop private competitive markets with supporting institutions and infrastructure

• Build competent public administration• Invest in public goods

4. Expand Appropriate Research, Knowledge, and Technology

• Invest in pro-poor agricultural research• Make use of the agroecological approach• Tap the potential of conventional agricultural research• Explore the potential of modern agricultural

biotechnology• Bridge the “digital divide”• Pursue affordable alternative energy

technologies

5. Improve Natural Resource Management

• Overcome water-related constraints• Manage soil fertility• Promote sustainable development in less-

favored areas• Assure property rights and collective action• Address global climate change

6. Promote Good Governance

• Institute rule of law• Protect and promote human rights• Prevent and resolve conflict • End corruption

7. Support Sound National and International Trade and Macroeconomic Policies

• Make globalization work for poor people• Expand development assistance• Undertake debt relief• Conserve plant genetic resources

Roles and Responsibilities (I)

• Governments of developing countries have primary responsibility for

– creating conditions to end hunger – forging partnerships with other sectors– ensuring local governments have necessary

resources and authority• Governments of developed countries should– put resources behind their pledges– relieve unpayable debt of poor countries– restructure global trading system

Roles and Responsibilities (II)

• Parliaments and judiciaries – assure poor people have a political voice– promulgate pro-poor policies – prevent arbitrary government action– ensure that governments fulfill their

obligations• International organizations and multilateral institutions– provide development finance, technical

assistance, and information– provide global public goods– facilitate/strengthen international agreements

Roles and Responsibilities (III)

• Global and civil society– design and implement development activities– promote open, vigorous, and peaceful debate

• Transnational business and industry– make useful proprietary technologies available– provide innovative financial support to

sustainable development– practice social responsibility

Roles and Responsibilities (IV)

• Domestic private sector, including farmers– produce food– develop markets– support credit institutions– invest in small enterprises that employ people

and develop skills

Food-insecure people are important actors in achieving food security, not passive victims

Food Security for All Is Affordable

Public and private investments will be needed to achieve IFPRI’s 2020 Vision• Investments to reduce number of malnourished children

by 34 million by 2020 amount to just 3.6% of total spending by developing-country governments

• A more optimistic future with 72 million fewer malnourished children by 2020 requires that investments increase to 4.9%

Costs and BenefitsGlobal investment1997-2020`

Number of malnourished children in 2020 compared to 1997

US$323 billion 12 million more

US$579 billion 34 million less

US$802 billion 72 million less

The Need for Political WillPolitical will means • Placing food security higher on the agenda• New partnerships, new programs, new institutions,

and new ways of thinking• Economic and political empowerment of poor people

– governments must be held accountable to their own citizens and to international public opinion

– institutions are needed that represent the interests of food-insecure people

– national governments, the private sector, and civil society must put the well-being of poor and hungry people at the top of their priority lists

– global advocacy effort is needed to push for food security for all

The impact of food prices on women

Karigirwa

• Widowed• Insecure land• Weather changes• Failing cropsDespite this• Produces• Supports her

children and orphans• works with other

widows some of whom are HIV+

• Planting trees

The perfect storm

• Women caught between:– Increasing food prices– Climate Change driven

environmental stresses– Impact of HIV and Aids

(more care giving by women, more new infections among women)

– Existing and continuing marginalization

The food price problem

• Prices of basic food stuffs rose in some cases by over 100% from early 2007 to mid 2008

• Poor families spend up to 80% of incomes on food so feel the pressure more

• Increased import costs hurt many economies• At least 119million more people going hungry• Small farmers not benefiting from higher prices as

many (70% in Tanzania) are net consumers and the terms of trade have worsened for the farmers

• Despite recent fuel price decreases food prices, especially in many rural areas, have remained high

Food insecurity is not new for millions around the world, it is

structural (as is the oppression of women) and must be dealt with as

such

• Gendered power operates at all levels from household to community to national

• Our analysis of the food crisis must be at all levels and not stop at the household door

• To go beyond generalizations we must understand the impact on women in poverty:

– In the home– The farm; and– The market.

Are we looking in the right places?

52% of married women in India

suffer from anaemia

• Main providers of food• Access/control of fewer

resources and less food• Less decision making power• Responsible for most

domestic work • Pressure on time fetching,

making, cooking and working.

Women in the home• Women and girls first to

eat less and eat worse• Girls first to be pulled out

of schools• Increase in forced

marriages of girls• Women first to miss

proper health care• More of women’s time to

make rather than buy• Increased psychological

stress (e.g. child care)

Food Crisis Impact

In Africa women receive only 7% of extension services and 10% of credit

to small-scale farmers despite

being the majority of small farmers

Women on the farm• Majority of workforce in

agriculture• Insecure tenure• Less and worse quality land

than men• Limited access to credit and

extension services• Less access to storage and

transport infrastructure

• More vulnerable to corruption

• More time needed to produce sufficient crops

• Marginal land gives less options

• Vulnerable to increased exploitation as workers

• Worsening terms of trade for women as small producers

• Women not benefiting from interventions

In the Philippines, “women make up the majority of those in the informal sector, some 27 million. They have no social security, no protection … workers in this sector are eating less and less” (Women Thrive Worldwide, 2008)

• Earn lower wages• Often in informal economy

or temporary informal jobs• Don’t get benefits of those

formally employed• Less power to negotiate in

markets when buying and selling

• More vulnerable to corruption

Women in the market• Larger proportion of

women’s smaller incomes going to food

• Unable to benefit from increased prices

• Vulnerable to increased exploitation as workers, traders and consumers

While women lost outBig business profited 2007-08

- Nestle’s sales grew 9%- Tesco’s profits up by 10%

- Monsanto 26% increase in revenue- Some grain traders and speculators

making massive profits

Drivers of food prices increases

• Bio-fuel industry, especially maize for ethanol as in the USA (contributing 30-70% of increases)

• Climate changes putting pressure on production in some areas

• Growing middle classes increasing demand for food (meat) and fuels

• Unfair trade regimes, in particular ‘northern’ subsidies, undermined investment in agriculture in Africa and other developing countries.All MMM

Climate Change in the mix• Marginal land that women often have access to becoming

more unviable• Increasing conflicts that often have a gendered impact• Displacement that always has a disproportionate impact on

women and children• Water and other natural resources that women collect are

becoming more scarce; taking a longer time, distance, and risk to find

• Women not in decision making on CC responses• Higher vulnerability and mortality of women in disasters

(The 1991 floods in Bangladesh killed 140,000 people of which 90% were women)

Women the obvious solution

• We all know that investing in women is good for development, good for children, good for communities

• But we still sadly and amazingly have programmes that are gender blind or at least partially sighted

• Example fertilizer subsidies

“If our goal is to improve economic development, we must invest in women as economic and social agents in the agricultural economy” Amrtya Sen

Resolve the Food Crisis By Focusing on Women

• Our analysis of the food crisis in every country and region must be gender differentiated, focus on the impact on women, and not stop outside the household

• Interventions must be explicitly focused on women ensuring that women benefit and that the worst impacts on women are addressed

• Involve, listen and respond to women in poverty during the analysis and design, delivery and monitoring of interventions

• Be responsive to the specificities of each context as gender relations manifest and impact in different ways

Specific recommendations• Cash/food vouchers for women• Support to women small farmers, food vendors,

informal workers, pregnant or nursing mothers• Early childhood nutrition and school feeding with

specific measures to ensure girls benefit • Provide incentives for keeping girls in school• Improve HIV and Aids care and support• Increase women’s land tenure security• Improve women’s access to and control of credit,

agricultural inputs, storage facilities, and technologies• Listen to women in poverty and strengthen women’s

organisations and women’s leadership in organisations

Feminization of responses

• The causes of and responses to this food crisis – and climate change - have been beyond the control of women

• Success will require not just the delivery of better services for women, it is about women being able to assert their rights and gain greater control of their lives

• Especially for women to have more control over fundamentals like securing food and the environment for survival today and in the future