Food security exists when all people, at all times, have the physical, social and economic means to access sufficient, safe and nutritious food in order to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Food security is based on four main pillars: availability, access, use and stability. “Availability” refers to the availability of food in sufficient quantity and of appropriate quality, supplied by domestic production or imports (including food aid). “Access” refers to physical and economic access, whilst “Use” includes water quality, hygiene, nutritional quality, as well as the distribution of food within the household at mealtimes; and finally “Stability ” is achieved when the other three dimensions are sustained over time.
There are still 735 million people in the world living with food insecurity.
This figure has been rising steadily over recent years. Worldwide, 148 million children under the age of 5 suffer from stunted growth¹. The fight against undernourishment must be a political priority if we hope to put an end to this scourge.
Conflict and security problems are a direct cause of food insecurity. Conflicts can lead to the destruction of agricultural land and livestock, which play a key role in people’s means of production and ability to support themselves. As such, hunger is used as a weapon of war. This is a practice that is denounced by NGOs such as Action Against Hunger and condemned by the UN Security Council through Resolution 2417 adopted in 2018.
Conflicts also cause massive population displacements. These security problems force people to abandon their land, their livestock and often their sources of income and food, leaving them in a very precarious situation with no financial or food resources.
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