Luca Russo IFPRI-FAO conference, "Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition" November 28–30, 2018 Bangkok, Thailand

1. Preventing and addressing food crises
through resilience
Luca Russo, Senior Food Crises Analyst and Advisor (Resilience), FAO

2. Rising global hunger and increasingly
protracted food crises

3. The State of Food Security and Nutrition
in the World 2018 (SOFI)
The number of
undernourished
has been on the
rise since 2014,
reaching
821 million people
in 2017

4. O
N
• 124 million people across 51
countries facing Crisis (IPC/CH Phase 3)
food insecurity or worse
• Overall an increase of 16
million or 15% more people compared
with previous year report
• An increase of 11 million or 11%
more people in the 45 countries analyzed in
both 2017 and 2018 report
KEY FIGURES MAIN CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
• New outbreaks and
intensified conflict &
insecurity e.g. Yemen, Northern Nigeria,
Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan
and Myanmar
• Consecutive climate shocks
affecting livestock and agricultural production
e.g. eastern and southern Africa

5. Number of people in
hunger Crisis or
worse in countries
affected by conflict

6. Number of people in
hunger Crisis or
worse in countries
affected by climate
shocks

7. South Sudan – August 2013 to March 2019
(IPC)

8. Why invest in resilient livelihoods?

9. Why agriculture-based livelihoods in
humanitarian contexts?
Up to 8 of 10 people rely on crop
production, fishing, livestock and
forests for their survival
Although affected, agriculture is
one of few sectors to continue
even in conflict

10. Risk of famine in 2017
 In 2016, 30 million people in IPC Phase
3 and above in northeastern Nigeria,
Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen –
facing elevated risk of famine
 Famine declared in two counties of
South Sudan in February 2017
 Rapid humanitarian action contained
famine in South Sudan and averted
famine in the other three countries
 But, the numbers in IPC Phases 3 and 4
rose by 5 million in the four countries by
end 2017

11. Humanitarian assistance is CRITICAL but not
sufficient on its own – hunger is rising!
Humanitarian action to address immediate needs
And simultaneously,
Development and peace building
interventions to address the root causes of food insecurity,
prevent conflict/return to conflict and contribute to sustainable peace

12. What do we need to accelerate efforts to
address food crises?

13. Information, analysis and early warning
Implementation
Famine data
analytics
Financing
World Bank FAM RIMAGlobal Report

14. Early Warning Early Action and the right
incentives

15. Partnership: from analysis to consensus
building and coordination
 IPC/Cadre harmonisé; Resilience
Index Measurement and Analysis
(RIMA) – building consensus
around the situation
 Joint programming – building
consensus around programming
options based on evidence
 Joint evaluation and learning to
feed back into programming for
greater impact in fighting hunger

16. FAO, WFP, UNICEF joint resilience efforts in
Somalia
• WFP – safety nets; FAO – focus on production; UNICEF – access to basic
services

17.  Upscaling best practices in
development for humanitarian
contexts, e.g.
osocial protection
odisaster risk reduction practices
 Engaging peace actors, e.g.
olivelihoods options for displaced,
returning, disarmed groups
onatural resource management to
address local-level conflicts
Humanitarian, development, peace nexus

18. Global Network Against
Food Crises Initiative
Consensus-building mechanism
on FSN analysis – TWG 1
(12 FSIN members)
Deliverables:
 GRFC
 Updates (UNSC)
 Real time info (web tool)
Consensus-building mechanism on
response option – TWG 2 (partner
members & senior advisors)
Deliverables:
 HDP programming options
 Typology of interventions
 Guidance material
Advocacy &
Policy
stakeholders
(SDG 2 and
SDG16)
Operational
stakeholders
(humanitarian
-development
-peace nexus)
International Peace and Security
Organizations - UNSC
SDG 2 relevant stakeholders
• CFS
• FAO/WFP governing
bodies
Humanitarian & Development coordination system
Global Food
Security Cluster
Global Nutrition
Cluster
Food
Assistance
ConventionUNGA/
ECOSOC
IASC Working Group
IASC Emergency
Directors Group (EDG)