SOFI 2017: Building resilience for peace and food security
This annual report (PDF), ‘The state of food security and nutrition in the world’, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) or the World Health Organization (WHO) monitors progress towards the SDG targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition. After a prolonged decline, a recent increase in undernourishment could signal a reversal of trends. The vast majority of the chronically food insecure and malnourished live in countries affected by conflict. Therefore, the report singles out conflict – increasingly compounded by climate change – as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition. To effectively address conflict-related causes of food insecurity and undernutrition, it is necessary to invest in multisectoral causal analyses and interventions that address both chronic and acute food insecurity and undernutrition. Policy and programme coherence is needed in addressing the impacts of conflict, along the following lines: economic policy responses where conflict creates economic crises; social policies to address challenges to health and nutrition resulting from reduced access to and availability of food; policies and investments for agriculture and food systems in particular; integrating support to populations displaced by conflict into the policy agenda. Closer partnerships between humanitarian, development and peace actors and international financial institutions will be important to support conflict and protracted crisis-affected communities in addressing root causes, building resilience and finding durable solutions.