Chapter 7 CONFLICT AND FOOD INSECURITY How Do We Break the Links? Clemens Breisinger, Olivier Ecker, and Jean Francois Trinh Tan
SUMMARY Food and nutrition insecurity are becoming increasingly concen- trated in conflict-affected countries, affecting millions of people. Policies and interventions that build resilience to these shocks have the power to not only limit the breadth and depth of conflict and violence around the world, but also strengthen national-level governance systems and institutions.
T
he year 2014 was a stark reminder that conflicts often worsen food and nutrition insecurity. Millions of lives were affected, even lost. Reports of destroyed houses, roads, schools, and hospitals in Gaza,
Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, and other conflict-affected places permeated the news throughout 2014. In addition to the humanitarian tragedies associated with these conflicts, the destruction of infrastructure, together with disruptions in access to markets, oſten renders goods and services prohibitively expensive or makes them unavailable altogether. Both investors and tourists oſten abandon conflict-affected areas, and clashes between conflicting parties force millions of refugees to flee either to safer places within the affected countries or across the border to neighbor- ing countries. As a result, economies oſten contract, instability and insecurity spill over national borders, and food and nutrition insecurity rises. For example, almost the entire population of Gaza is in need of assistance, and about half of the people in Syria and Yemen are suffering from severe food insecurity.1 It is clear then why conflicts are likely to seriously threaten our ability to
achieve the ambitious development goals that the international community has been discussing in the context of the post-2015 agenda, including the goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2025. While some countries—like Ban- gladesh, Brazil, China, and Vietnam—have demonstrated that rapid reduction in hunger and chronic child undernutrition is possible, there is a general percep- tion that reaching these goals may be particularly difficult in countries affected by civil conflict and political instability. As of 2013, an estimated 46 percent of the developing world’s population lived in countries affected by civil conflict— compared with 38 percent two decades ago. With this as background, what then
Clemens Breisinger is senior research fellow, Olivier Ecker is research fellow, and Jean Francois Trinh Tan is research analyst, Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.
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