Report: NIRAS at the yearly Committee on World Food Security

Every year, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) gathers stakeholder from the entire world to discuss global food security. The vision of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is to be the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together.

NIRAS employees Kristina Mastroianni and Karin Höök participated as representatives of The Agroforestry Network, a group of Swedish actors that NIRAS recently joined. The event provided a good space for networking, and they had informal meetings with the FAO Agroecology team, FAO division for Climate, energy and tenure, SDC, GIZ, Sida, MFA Sweden and NGOs.

Global hunger on the rise – again

FAO’s annual report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”, called SOFI 2017, was presented. With the sub-title “Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security” this year’s report focuses on the strong nexus between conflicts and food security.

This year also marks the beginning of regular monitoring of progress towards achieving the food security targets set by the 2030 Agenda.

SOFI 2017 in short:

• SOFI estimates that 815 million people suffered from hunger last year – an increase of 38 million people compared to 2015, when the number was 777 million, one of the lowest levels since FAO started measuring it.
• The prevalence of undernourishment has also increased lately. In 2016 up to 11 percent of the world population, or one in nine people, were undernourished.
• About 60% of the 815 million people suffering from hunger and 75% of the stunted children in the world live in countries affected by conflicts.
• Currently, many conflicts are being fought in the rural areas of developing countries. Agriculture and the livelihoods of the poorest are directly damaged. These people often have no other option than moving elsewhere, increasing the numbers of forced migration and internal displacement.
• Today, there are about 64 million refugees and internally displaced persons in the world. This is twice the number of 10 years ago.

SOFI 2017 points out that a long-term vision needs to be adopted and the main conclusions of the report are:

• We have to combine humanitarian assistance with development actions.
• To save lives, we must invest in livelihoods.