Food Security and Livelihoods
Every person has the right to a standard of living adequate for his or her health and wellbeing. This includes the right to food and livelihood protection.
Food security rests on four key pillars:
Availability of diverse and nutritious foods.
Physical, economic and social access to nutritious foods.
Adequate utilisation of food items consumed to maintain a healthy nutritional wellbeing.
Strengthening stability of the pillars and systems people rely on over time.
Our expertise in livelihoods and food security
We provide food assistance to prevent loss of life and to contribute to the rehabilitation of local food and market systems. We promote livelihood strategies that protect, recover and strengthen individuals’ and households’ abilities to earn a living.
We follow the UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) definition of food security:
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
Our livelihoods and food security work focuses on the following thematic areas:
Household and livelihood vulnerability analysis
Emergency food assistance
Asset creation (creating local assets that reduce food insecurity and build livelihood opportunities)
School meals and gardening
Nutritious food production systems
Integrated natural resource management
Food infrastructure systems
Employment and income generation and/or diversification
Initial business and value chain development
Integrated risk reduction
We work in three areas to enable livelihoods that are in support of durable solutions:
Meeting basic needs/livelihoods provisioning
Protect and stabilise affected households against further effects of risks and crisis by ensuring access to adequate and appropriate nutritious food. Provide other essential livelihood needs required for survival.
Livelihoods protection
Support affected households and communities in protecting household and livelihood systems, avert erosion of productive assets, and support households and communities in restoring productive assets.
Livelihoods promotion
Enhance household and community capacity to manage risks and shocks and to leverage their adaptive, financial and human capabilities. Invest in lasting solutions for improved economic and social wellbeing and dignity.
