Future of Food : Building Stronger Food Systems in Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Settings

Improving economic growth, shared prosperity, and extreme poverty reduction in Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) settings at regional, national, and subnational, levels is an immense development challenge. In these situations, per capita income growth is persistently low, food crisis situations are prevalent, and extreme poverty and hunger rates are on the rise; most poor people globally will live in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) by 2030. Two-thirds of the increase in global hunger since 2014 is due to the increase in FCS, and at the end of 2020 over 80 percent of acutely food-insecure people lived in FCS, undermining development due to lost human capital. COVID-19 is amplifying these challenges.

Sustained development in FCV settings is constrained by several interlocking characteristics: poor governance and weak institutional capacity reflected in a lack of state legitimacy and low social cohesion; inadequate security reflected in active conflict and interpersonal violence; and high exposure to climate shocks. All of these factors manifest in an undeveloped private sector, significant internal displacement, and food crises that are caught in an unending cycle.

Food systems in FCV settings need to address these interlocking characteristics to help countries exit fragility. In these contexts, food insecurity is both a cause and consequence of fragility and conflict and improvements to the food system are a foundational element of poverty reduction. Food systems are the largest private sector segment and provider of jobs and can help reduce conflict risk and improve social cohesion.

Interventions in food systems can help through:

• Strengthening governance and institutional capacity via common purpose programs; improving accountability, transparency, predictability, and targeting in food distribution, subsidy programs, and public investment; inclusion of vulnerable people and lagging regions in programs; and repairing and strengthening national and local government and community- based institutions that together can help improve state legitimacy and capacity and social cohesion;
• Preventing and responding to food crises via monitoring and early warning systems; improving crop and livestock resilience to pests, diseases, droughts, and floods, including development and rehabilitation of irrigation schemes; reducing sudden and unexpected food prices spikes; preserving purchasing power through shock-responsive safety net programs; closing gender gaps in access to productive assets; reducing food losses; building longer-term productivity growth; and developing food and input markets;
• Creating jobs through agribusiness development via support for inclusive business models, particularly for youth; considering agrispatial solutions to improve security and 6 FUTURE OF FOOD infrastructure for private sector development; restoring, building, and protecting capital stock in food systems; improving the enabling policy environment; strengthening skills and improving access to finance and insurance, including political risk insurance;
• Reducing conflict risk and environmental fragility via resilient and sustainable resource management, particularly access to and use of land and water among herders and crop producers; improving land administration for good governance and conflict management; and increasing water and soil preservation to sustain natural capital and reverse natural resource degradation.