L1 Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is food security?
A situation where all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life
What is food insecurity?
A lack of secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. It may be caused by unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, or inadequate use at the household level
What are the types of food insecurity?
- Chronic - Long-term or persistent
- Seasonal - Linked to specific periods or seasons
- Transitory - Temporary or short-term
What is undernourishment (chronic hunger)
A state, lasting for at least one year, of inability to acquire enough food, defined as a level of food intake insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements
Name some key drivers of food insecurity
Conflict, disasters, economic shocks, climate change, social exclusion, pests, and poverty
What did Malthus predict about population growth and famine?
Population grows geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8…), while food production increases arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4…), leading to inevitably famine due to overpopulation
What is famine according to Sen (1981)?
“A particularly virulent form of starvation causing widespread death”
What is famine according to Walker (1989)?
“A socio-economic process causing the accelerated destitution of vulnerable groups, leading to their inability to sustain life through access to food”
What is famine according to Sen (1981)?
“Starvation is not due to a lack of food but rather due to unequal access to food, where some people do not have enough to eat”
What are some of the key questions to explore in this course?
- When does hunger become famine?
- What is famine, and when do we call it a crisis?
- How do political and social dynamics influence food crises?
What are the main objectives of this course?
To explore the causes, nature, and effects of food crises, how they evolve over time, and what can be done to prevent or alleviate them
What is under nutrition?
The outcome of undernourishment, and/or poor absorption and/or poor biological use of nutrients consumed as a result of repeated infectious disease.
It includes:
- being underweight for one’s age
- too short for one’s age (stunted)
- dangerously thin for one’s height (wasted)
- deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition)
What is malnutrition?
It’s an abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive consumption of macronutrients and/or micronutrients.
It includes undernutrition and overnutrition as well as micronutrients deficiencies
Recent ‘famines’:
- Ethiopia, 1999-2000 (71.000-122.700 deaths)
- Malawi, 2001-2002 (47.000-85.000 deaths)
- Niger, 2004-2005 (13.297-47.755 deaths) - Devereux (2009)
- Horn of Africa, 2011 (50.000-260.000 deaths) (WFP)
What is the IPC (Integrated Food Security Classification)?
It’s a tool for improving food security analysis and decision-making, comprised of organisations and
intergovernmental institutions, including:
- FAO
- WFP
- OXFAM
- Save the Children
- FEWSnet
- CARE
- European Commission
5 phases of Food Security based on the IPC
1: Generally Food Secure
2: Moderately/ Borderline Food Insecure
3: Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis
4: Humanitation Emergency
5: Famine/ Humanitario Catastrophe
1: Generally Food Secure (IPC)
Strategic assistance to pockets of food insecure groups
Investment in food and economic production systems
Eneable development of livelihood systems based on principles of sustainability, justice, and equity
Prevent emergence of structural hindrances to food security
Advocacy
2: Moderately/ Borderline Food Insecure
Design & implement strategies to increase stability, resistance and resilience of livelihood systems, thus reducing risk
Provision of “safety nets” to high risk groups
Interventions for optimal and sustainable use of livelihood assets
Create contingency plan
Redress structural hindrances to food security
Close monitoring of relevant outcome and process indicators
Advocacy
3: Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis
Support livelihoods and protect vulnerable groups
Strategic and complimentary sectoral support (e.g., water, shelter, sanitation, health, etc.)
Strategic interventions at community to national levels to create, stabilize, rehabilitate, or protect priority livelihood assets
Create or implement contingenccy plan
Close monitoring of relevant outcome and proccess indicators
Use “crisis as opportunity” to redress underlying structural causes
Advocacy
4: Humanitation Emergency
Urgent protection of vulnerable groups
Urgently food access through complimentary interventions
Selected provision of complimentary sectoral support (e.g., water, shelter, sanitation, health, etc.)
Protection against complete livelihood asset loss and/or advocacy for access
Close monitoring of relevant outcome and process indicators
Use “crisis as opportunity” to redress underlying structural causes
Advocacy
5: Famine/ Humanitario Catastrophe
Critically urgent protection of human lives and vulnerable groups
Comprehensive assistance with basic needs (e.g., food, water, shelter, sanitation, health, etc.)
Immediate policy/ legal revisions where necessary
Negotiations with varied political-economic interests
Use “crisis as opportunity” to redress underlying structural causes
Advocacy
Which websites give an “early warning” when problems occur somewhere in the world?
e.g.: www.fews.net and www.ifpri.org
What is the “Food Insecurity Experience Scale”?
To measure hunger, you have to look at physiological as well as socio-economic dimensions. Therefore, they created a scale.
What is famine according to Hilhorst (2013)?
“There are in the end no objective criteria by which to measure a crisis. This means that an inquiry into conflict, disaster always has to start with the question WHO defined the crisis and HOW its response came about.”
