Food and Nutritional Security

Chronic hunger affects nearly 750 million people worldwide, mostly small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are women. A profound and lasting transformation of agri-food systems is needed to achieve the targets associated with the second sustainable development goal (SDG 2).

The issues

The number of people facing hunger and food insecurity has increased over the past 10 years. Despite efforts to progress towards the goal of ‘zero hunger’, nearly 30% of the world’s population, or 2.4 billion people, still suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity. In 2022, around 45 million children under the age of 5 were suffering from emaciation, 148 million were stunted and 37 million were overweight. Hunger continues to increase in West Asia, the Caribbean and all sub-regions of Africa. The problem of hunger is both structural and cyclical. Our globalised agri-food systems tend to degrade natural resources and reinforce inequalities in terms of access to food. Food crises are becoming increasingly severe and frequent. They are exacerbated by conflicts, climate change and economic shocks, to which we must add the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Among the current and future challenges, we must also emphasise that of urbanisation.

Our services

Through our studies, we seek to contribute to the transformation of agricultural and food systems so that they become more resilient and provide healthy, nutritious and affordable food, while guaranteeing a decent income for producers. In particular, we carry out analyses of livelihoods and vulnerability to food insecurity. We provide methodological support to development actors, conduct strategic reviews and formulate action plans for projects and programmes on food security, resilience and support for smallholder farming. We conduct external evaluations of food security and livelihood strengthening strategies and projects. Finally, we offer training for development and international aid practitioners to facilitate the link between emergency and development.