Alleviating Transitory Food Crisis In Africa PDF Download

The prevailing definition of food security, agreed upon at the 1996 World Food Summit, is "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." Food insecurity exists when that condition does not hold. Food security is commonly conceptualized as resting on three pillars: availability, access, and utilization. These concepts are inherently hierarchical, with availability necessary but not sufficient to ensure access, which is in turn necessary but not sufficient for effective utilization. Availability reflects the supply side. Access reflects food demand, as mediated by cash availability, prices, and intrahousehold resource allocation. Utilization reflects whether individuals and households make good use of the food to which they have access, commonly focused on the intake of essential micronutrients such as iodine, iron or zinc, and vitamins A and D. Some consider stability to be a fourth dimension of food insecurity capturing individuals' susceptibility to food insecurity due to interruptions in access, availability or utilization. The temporal aspect of stability links to the oft-made distinction between chronic and transitory food insecurity. Chronic food insecurity reflects a long-term lack of access to adequate food, and is typically associated with structural problems of availability, access or utilization, especially poor access due to chronic poverty. Most food insecurity is chronic (Barrett 2002). Transitory food insecurity, by contrast, is associated with sudden and temporary disruptions. The most serious episodes of transitory food insecurity are commonly labeled "famine", typically caused by simultaneous or sequential availability, access, and humanitarian response failures.