Food Security

Why did the UN World Food Programme (WFP) receive the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize? And what does that have to do with nutrition? The answer to both questions is embedded in renewed concerns globally about food insecurity.

During 2020, this strangest of years, food has emerged as an important narrative shadowing COVID-19 at every step. During the early months of the pandemic, the focus of much attention was on the effects on food supply chains of lockdown rules brought in to control viral spread... [continued]

Abstract:

Household food insecurity remains a major policy challenge in low-income countries. Identifying accurate measures that are relatively easy to collect has long been an important priority for governments seeking to better understand and fund solutions for communities in remote settings. Conventional approaches based on surveys can be time-consuming and costly, while data derived from satellite imagery represent proxies focused on biological processes (such as rainfall and crop growth) lack granularity in terms of human behaviors.

Abstract

Background:

The 2015 earthquake in Nepal caused massive damages and triggered relief activities to minimize human suffering. The post-earthquake nutrition and food security situation in the hardest hit areas remains uncertain.

Methods:

In Nepal, international migration is a highly gendered phenomenon. Compared to global figures, where women make up about half of the world’s migrant population, 90% of Nepalese migrants are men. Many of these men migrate alone to earn wages abroad while their families stay behind. This level of male out-migration in Nepal occurs in a context characterized by widespread food insecurity. This paper examines the effects of male out-migration on household food security, especially on the women who stay behind, in the mountains of Far West Nepal.

Urbanization is occurring rapidly in many low- and middle-income countries, which may affect households’ livelihoods, diet, and food security and nutritional outcomes.

The main objective of our study was to explore whether agricultural activity amongst a peri-urban population in Nepal was associated with better or worse food household security, household and maternal dietary diversity, and nutritional outcomes for children and women.

This presentation was given in Washington DC at a USAID tri-Innovation lab event: Advancing the Global Food Security Strategy: Insights from three Innovation Labs on food security, gender and nutrition. It centers possibilities emerging from new data, but stresses the need for further research so outcomes are more conclusive.