Long-term food security: investing in people and livelihoods
Sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to achieve a single Millennium Development Goal. It is the only region in the world where malnutrition, a product of food insecurity, is on the rise. Food insecurity in Africa has many complex causes, including HIV/AIDS, climate change, environmental degradation, conflict, a huge increase in population size, and debt.
These factors have had a profound impact on traditional livelihoods, making them unsustainable and, for many people in constant crisis, restricting their ability to access sufficient food. Coping strategies used in response to crisis further contribute to the erosion of livelihoods. The International Federation is focusing its support on food security in Africa in response to such particularly highlevel needs in the continent.
Since 2000, a large number of African National Societies have been actively engaged in initiatives to reduce food insecurity. Around half of the sub-Saharan African National Societies have so far implemented food security programmes, designed to improve the availability, access and utilization of food in communities. The International Federation regards these three components as interrelated and essential for achieving food security.
What do we aim to achieve?
Our purpose is to scale up our efforts in assisting national food security programmes so that at least 20 per cent of the most vulnerable populations are provided with longer-term food security support by the Red Cross Red Crescent and that their resilience is enhanced. We aim to achieve this through three programmatic objectives:
- improving and scaling up community-based food security programming in 15 African National Societies;
- increasing long-term food security technical capacity at the International Federation, in particular at African National Societies;
- strengthening understanding of long-term food security programming, including integration and coordination.
These objectives will be bolstered by a fourth enabling objective:
- strengthening community and National Red Cross Red Crescent Society organizational and structural capacities.
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