Definition
Food security exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization and stability. The nutritional dimension is integral to the concept of food security.
The nutritional aspect of food and nutrition security is achieved when secure access to food is coupled with a sanitary environment, adequate health services, and knowledgeable care to ensure a healthy and active life (free from malnutrition) for all household members.
(Source: modified after UNICEF 1998)
Dimensions of Food and Nutrition Security
Four elements build the framework of food and nutrition security: The three dimensions describing the food flow from availability and access to use and utilization as well as the aspect of stability, representing the temporal determinant of Food and Nutrition Security, which affects all other elements from the basis.
Availability
Availability refers to the physical existence of food. On national level food availability is a combination of domestic food production, commercial food imports and exports, food aid and domestic food stocks. On household level food could be from own production or bought from the local markets. Regarding food production, water resources are required to produce the crops. Due to population growth and climate change, the pressure on existing natural resources, namely land and water, increases. Impacts of climate change are often leading to land degradation, lack of irrigation water, reduced soil moisture and therefore losses of economic livelihoods. Together with an increase in conflicts over usage of water resources (cultivation of crops for energetic use vs. cultivation of crops for nutritional use, use by other sectors like drinking water, industry and environment), this may be a threat for long-term food security. With suitable adaptation measures to climate change such as irrigation systems improving water-use efficiency through cultivation methods and technologies, or infrastructure development for water harvesting and (re)use of marginal quality water and treated waste water, or improved soil-water management in rain fed systems, the resilience of agricultural systems can be strengthened, risks reduced and livelihoods secured. Support of local water user groups and strengthening their planning and management skills can help minimize risks of scarce resources and reduce conflicts.
Accessibility
Accessibility is ensured when all households have enough resources to obtain food in sufficient quantity, quality and diversity for a nutritious diet. This depends mainly on the amount of household resources and on prices. In addition, accessibility is also a question of the physical, social and policy environment. Drastic changes in these dimensions may seriously disrupt production strategies and threaten food access of affected households. As an example, developing countries may be affected by severe droughts or floods more and more frequently. Accordantly, the harvest volume shrinks and the prices for food increase, affecting on the availability and accessibility of food for households. To prevent such negative developments, different technical adaptation measures exist. The construction of infrastructure such as small dams and reservoirs or water spreading weirs to hold back water and raise the shallow groundwater tables is one of them, dykes and improved drainage systems for floods are other ones. In addition, the preservation and rehabilitation of ecosystems, flood sensitive planning or early warning systems and emergency plans further enhance the capabilities to deal with extreme weather events and to preserve the physical environment.
Use and Utilization
Use describes the socio-economic aspects of household food and nutrition security, determined by knowledge and habits. Assuming that nutritious food is available and accessible, the household has to decide what food to purchase and how to prepare it as well as how to consume and allocate it within the household.
Another aspect is the biological utilization. This relates to the ability of the human body to take food and convert it. This gained energy is very important when it comes to daily physical activities, for example working in agriculture. Beside that utilization requires a healthy physical environment and adequate sanitary facilities as well as the understanding and awareness of proper health care, food preparation, and storage processes. In this context safe drinking water plays an important role, especially for preparing food and creating a healthy environment for the population. Safe drinking water is connected to groundwater which is often contaminated through human, industrial or agricultural waste water. In combination with other factors 884 Million people worldwide have no access to adequate drinking water.
Stability
Stability describes the temporal dimension of food and nutrition security, respectively the time frame over which food and nutrition security is being considered. Stability is given when the supply on household level remains constant during the year and in the long-term. That includes food, income and economic resources. Furthermore it is important to minimize external risks such as natural disaster and climate change, price volatility, conflicts or epidemics through activities and implementations improving the resilience of households. Such measure include insurances e.g. against drought and crop failure as well as the protection of the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources like land, soil and water.
References
Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition, 2011
(http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs1011/WG_GSF/GSF_annotated_outline_formatted_Rev1_22_Jun_11.pdf)
FAO / EC - FAO Food Security Programme, An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Food Security, Food Security Information for Action - Practical Guides, 2008 (http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/al936e/al936e00.pdf)
GIZ Arbeitspapier Ernährungssicherung
IICA, Food Security, 2009
http://www.iica.int/Esp/conocimiento/actualidad/Documents/Food%20security%20IICA%20Eng.pdf
Klennert, Klaus (edt.), Achieving Food and Nutrition Security, 2009, Feldafingen/InWEnt
UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children, Focus on Nutrition, 1998 (http://www.unicef.org/sowc98/silent4.htm)
USAID, Food Aid and Food Security Policy Paper, 1995 (http://transition.usaid.gov/policy/ads/200/foodsec/foodsec.pdf)
