Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security

In recent years, many people and parts of the world have been hit by major shocks ranging from conflicts, erratic weather patterns, earthquakes, droughts, and floods to food price spikes. At the same time, poor people and communities remain vulnerable to shocks that may be smaller in scope—such as emerging diseases and contaminated foods—but just as devastating for affected households. We confront a world of shocks, both familiar and unfamiliar.

We know that building resilience means helping individuals, households, communities, and countries prepare for, cope with, and recover from these shocks and become even better off. We have far less understanding, however, of how to build resilient agricultural and food systems, health systems, social systems, and governance structures that can preempt and better manage different types of shocks.

The 2020 conference, “Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security” held in May 2014 assessed emerging shocks that threaten food and nutrition security, discussed approaches and tools for building resilience, and identified knowledge and actions gaps.Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security brings together a series of informative briefs from the conference that ask and answer many questions including—are shocks becoming more frequent? Why are some communities more resilient than others? What kinds of interventions are needed to move households from vulnerable to resilient? How can people’s food and nutrition security be assured in the face of different shocks? What works to build resilience?