Analysing vulnerability and reducing risk | FIVIMS - Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems | Food, Vulnerability, Insecurity, Insecure

Analysing vulnerability and reducing risk

Effective policies and interventions to reduce food insecurity

Glossary: food insecurity

A situation that exists when people lack 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 the unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution, or inadequate use of food at the household level. Food insecurity, poor conditions of health and sanitation, and inappropriate care and feeding practices are the major causes of poor nutritional status. Food insecurity may be chronic, seasonal or transitory.

must take into account both those who are food insecure at present and those who are vulnerable to food insecurity. For long-term action to eradicate hunger, it is important to tackle the factors that create vulnerability

Glossary: vulnerability

The presence of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure or malnourished, including those factors that affect their ability to cope.

and to know more precisely who the vulnerable are. Vulnerability refers to the presence of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure. These factors can be external or internal. External factors include: trends such as depletion of natural resources from which the population makes its living, environmental degradation or food price inflation; shocks such as natural disasters and conflict; and seasonality, such as seasonal changes in food production and food prices. Internal factors are the characteristics of people, the general conditions in which they live and the dynamics of the household that restrict their ability to avoid becoming food insecure in the future.

Understanding Vulnerability to Food Insecurity

1. Tomorrow’s hunger: A framework for analysing vulnerability to food insecurity (FAO 2005). While traditional food security

Glossary: food security

A situation that exists when 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.

analysis offers an ex post view on who the food insecure are and why they are so, looking at food insecurity from a vulnerability perspective provides a dynamic and forward-looking way of analysing causes and, more importantly, options for reducing food insecurity. This approach can help improve policy responses to food insecurity.
The paper seeks to expand a standard food security analytical framework by including risks and the ability to manage these at different levels in order to reduce the probability of people being food insecure in the future. It looks at how different shocks can impact availability, access and utilization, and uses a twin-track approach to identify policy options for reducing vulnerability. ESA Working Paper No. 05-07. Authors: Christian Romer Løvendal and Marco Knowles

2. The Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Unit (ESAF) of FAO has undertaken a number of pilot studies to develop a methodology for understanding why certain groups of people are vulnerable to becoming food insecure. The studies use the sustainable livelihoods approach adopted for food security work on food security and vulnerability analysis. The objective of these studies is to inform policy and programming decisions for reducing vulnerability to food insecurity. Drawing from these experiences and those of other FAO units involved in similar work, this paper identifies key lessons learnt and makes recommendations for strengthening future work on food security and vulnerability analysis. ESA Working Paper No.04-18. Authors: Christian Romer Løvendal, Marco Knowles and Naoko Horii.

3. In 2000 FAO published "Who are the food insecure?", a publication that gives a concise description of the external and internal factors that contribute to vulnerability and presents a methodology for profiling vulnerable groups, using livelihoods systems as an entry point. This is accompanied by easy-to-use formats for vulnerability profiling, a checklist of a minimum information set needed for such profiling, and an example of a vulnerable group

Glossary: vulnerable group

A group of people with common characteristics, a high proportion of whom are food-insecure or at risk of becoming food-insecure.

profile of artisanal fishers in Benin.