Food security: 'Renewed efforts to collaborate on building resilience is the way forward'

“Building resilience is critical to end hunger and under-nutrition by 2025,” according to a global conference with over 800 experts from around the world participating under the lead of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with the theme ‘Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security’.

In the context of a series of environmental, political and economic shocks that threaten food security and livelihood, experts discussed the scope of the challenge and resources including investments required to end hunger and malnutrition for good.

Building resilience is about helping vulnerable individuals, households, communities and countries prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks and even to become better off. The shock can be natural or man-made, short- or long-term and acute or chronic.

Opening the conference, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn noted that resilient agricultural systems are necessary for a resilient country.

“Ethiopia has invested heavily in raising productivity of small farmers, strengthening agricultural market systems, bringing more land under irrigation, and reducing land degradation by soil and water conservation measure including biological measures for sustainable land management”, he said adding that people are at the centre of investment and policies.

IFPRI Director General Dr Shenggen Fan pointed out that growing uncertainty and extreme events offer many potential shocks such as disease, food price spikes and natural disasters which know no borders. “Renewed efforts to cooperate and collaborate on the resilience agenda is the way forward”, he emphasised.

Many major shocks hit poor people and vulnerable communities hardest, and these groups also face constant threats of crop failure, disease and accidents. All these shocks, large and small, combined with chronic poverty contribute to the persistence of hunger and under-nutrition, other experts noted.

There are an estimated 500 million smallholder family farms around the world and smallholder cultivation contributes to as much as 80 percent of food produced in some countries. One way to build resilience is through successful small farms that can create vibrant rural areas that ensure a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural and urban areas, according to the President of International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Several experts from around the world representing governments, aid agencies, non-governmental organisations, research institutions, corporate and related other shared their vision and action plan to build resilience in order to ensure food and nutrition security.