A recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that climate change will greatly continue to exacerbate food security. Especially among developing countries.
In most countries across the east and Horn of Africa region, the pursuit of food security is widely documented, institutionalised and framed. Indeed, food security features prominently among the National Development pillars of all countries in the region. However, scratching below the surface reveals a different story.
For instance, projections from the East African food security report for 2019-20 paint a gloomy picture. On the one level, an estimated 43 million people across eight countries will require humanitarian food assistance in the next 18 months. On the other level, the intensity of resultant impacts will be severe, and widespread as compared to previous years.
Thus, as the rate, frequency, intensity and geographical spread of food insecurity continue to expand, resultant insecurity incidents will consequently balloon. Which then begs the question, is the pursuit of food security hype, or hope?
It is fashionable to argue that impacts of food insecurity will spell doom and gloom for countries in the region. Especially when they exacerbate risks to the lifeblood of a nation’s food security situation. Moreover, many of the ingredients for food security are not present in most countries in the region.
The contest of hype, or hope is premised on the fact that when assessing the extent of food insecurity, there is a tendency to deliberately analyse it as a single hazard risk, and forget its interactions with multiple threats, such as water and health insecurities. Not only does this approach fail to understand emerging complex risks, but it also ignores the role of development in food security risk assessment.
To override the hype, national food security strategies should encompass a risk-informed development approach. As a concept, risk informed development enables understanding of multiple concurrent threats and complex risks to, and arising from development decisions and acting on that knowledge. This will act as a basis of assurance to the governments and provide a line of defence to vulnerable people who are exposed to the threat of food insecurity.
The context of any food security strategy is a critical determinant of its success. Risk-informed development approach can significantly help sustain the fragile gains made in the pursuit of food security; and mitigate the impacts foreseen in the report above
To instil hope, prioritisation and focus that balances vision and achievability are key. This requires governments and humanitarian organisations to find an ideal tone to address the imbalance between the role of humanitarian organisations and governments to actualise food security.
It is an established fact that humanitarian organisations harbour council-wide expertise in food security; however, the element of humanitarian organisations assuming stewardship of the food security agenda is often pocket-vetoed by governments.
The reasons for this are twofold: it challenges the order of battle of national security risks, and it negates the core role of governments as principle assurer of national security needs.
Mutual accountability needs to be two-sided. Governments can harness the comparative advantage of humanitarian organisations such as World Food Programme, for coordinated implementation of the food security, and this could deliver resilience to a wider range of threats and risks posed by food insecurity.
A successful transition from the hype of food insecurity to hope on food security goes beyond documentation and will require a comprehensive, coherent and coordinated approach by both communities.
In sum, there is a strong case for hope.
Risk Management and Compliance Officer, World Food Programme-Somalia