Climate Change, Hunger andFood Security

MARCH 2010www.et21symposium.org

PROGRAM ON GLOBAL SECURITY

et21.rutgers.edu

Reela Khalifa

Ethnically fromSudan, Reela iscurrently a first year master’s student atthe Division of Global Affairs,RutgersUniversity. She hasobtained her Bachelor’s Degreein InternationalStudies from EwhaWomen’sUniversity, Seoul.South Korea. Her academic interestsinclude humanrights anddevelopment andinternational peaceand security.

SYMPOSIUM BRIEF

Introduction

Global climate change has widespread effects on environmental, social, and economicissues. Understanding what makes and keeps people vulnerable and what contributesto their resilience remains at the core towards achieving sustainability. Climatechanges, economic development, as well as other factors, are contributing to patternsthat intensify, accumulate and compound risk of societal failure. As different risks become more interdependent, this creates a much more complex and challenging envi-ronment for development agencies. Food security, for instance, in many countries isunder great threat as a result of drought, changes in rainfall, and also more frequentextreme weather patterns. Through risk assessment, governments can establish strongareas of possible growth and development thereby improving their economies, in-creasing foreign investments, and adjusting themselves for improved adaptation andmitigation methods when dealing with climate changes and impacts on hunger andfood security.The United Nations define food security as "people having at all times, physi-cal, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meetstheir dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." The commondefinition of food security is built on three pillars: mainly in the (1)

availability

of food (through the market and through state’s production); (2) adequate purchasingand/or relational power to acquire or

access

food; (3) the stability of sufficient nutri-ents from the available food, which is influenced by the ability to digest and absorb

nutrients

necessary for human health, access to safe drinking water, environmentalhygiene and the nutritional content of the food itself. The overall impact of climatechange on food security will differ across regions based on the socio-economic statusof that country.190 University Ave, Suite 219 Newark, New Jersey 07102Tel (973) 353-5416 Fax (973) 353-5074

ET21 PROGRAM ON GLOBAL SECURITY

March 2010

There are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world today and a significant portion doesnot get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in factthe number one risk to the health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosiscombined. Climate change affects all four dimensions of food security, namely food availabil-ity (i.e., production and trade), access to food, stability of food supplies, and food utilization.

Data Needs & Structures

The following brief aims to shed light on common methodologies used to assess the risks of global climate change and its impact on food security. Global networks including governments,United Nation agencies such as the World Food Program and the Food & Agriculture Organiza-tion, as well as, the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

are fundamental actors in ad-dressing these risks.Food security is affected by many factors such as the absence of good governance, in-adequate poverty, education, war and civil strife, poor health, natural disasters, and unstableenvironments unable to sustain economic development. Through risk assessment, indicators of sustainability are established based on elements of economy, health and nutrition, education,infrastructure, governance, demography, agriculture, energy and technology. In relation to foodsecurity, the definition of poverty in itself is an important factor to sustainability, in that it in-cludes deprivation of health care, lack of sanitation, exclusion from education, and other basichuman rights. It is undeniable that the poor and marginalized around the world face difficultiesin finding safe drinking water, sanitation and adequate food, all of which affect human security.With this reality, the international community must pull together to ensure the sustain-ability of life on Earth. Thus, through international organizations, such as the United Nations,the global community recognizes that sustainable development means eradicating poverty andimproving life for all, which is first goal of the UN Millennium Goals.Food security is a multi-dimensional problem that needs intervention in inter-related ar-eas including health, markets, learning and emergency preparedness and early intervention.The global community and national governments need to implement effective policies andstrategies which include situation analysis, strategy formulation, resource mobilization, imple-mentation, and monitoring and accountability. Thus, the determination to succeed depends on political will and global collaboration.

Climate Change & Food Security

ET21 PROGRAM ON GLOBAL SECURITY

March 2010

Risk Assessment

To illustrate how we can apply these ideas to food security, the following lays out the steps thatwe would follow in conducting risk assessment on this topic.