Food insecurity is a problem currently faced by many fragile contexts. With chronic instability hampering development in general and natural disasters brought about by climate change in recent years, along with the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, global food supply is tight, and fragile contexts are especially prone to food crises. Currently, parts of Somalia are on the brink of famine. As per the UN’s definition, when famine is declared in an area, it means that at least 20% of the households are facing an extreme lack of food; more than 30% of children under 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition; and two adults or four children in every 10,000 are dying each day due to hunger-related reasons. Besides Somalia, about 19 million people in Afghanistan are also facing crisis levels of hunger.
The causes of hunger are complex and have been accumulating over the years. Besides distributing food in hunger-stricken places and meeting the most pressing needs, it is also important for humanitarian agencies to commit to multiple years of service. Prior to implementing works, it is crucial to conduct thorough needs assessments, plan with flexibility and balance the risks, as well as conducting regular reviews and adjustments, in order to fully tackle the issue of food insecurity through effective and adequate interventions. Through the works below, World Vision has been helping children and families achieve long lasting changes.
Nutrition
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Partner with the World Food Programme to provide nutritious food baskets to families, help children under 5 obtain essential nutrients to grow stronger, provide hot food, and run supplementary feeding programmes for newborn and infants
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Offer training to mothers and caregivers on providing balanced diets for their kids. An example is the Positive Deviance/Hearth approach, which supports families with underweight children in communities by equipping them with knowledges on nutrition and teaching them ways to prepare nutritious meals using local produce in order to provide a balance diet for their children
Food and Livelihoods
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Provide training and assets to help families in need start farming or rearing of poultries, become self-sufficient and obtain the nutrients they need
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Provide improved seeds, tools and training to help families grow their own food, enable them to use organic manure, plant according to weather patterns and practice line spacing when planting to improve agricultural production, and assist families with access to the market for them to become self-sustainable while improving livelihoods through the selling of crops
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Manage resources in a sustainable way to prevent soil erosion, maintain soil fertility, use water more efficiently, and protect the environment. An example is to promote the Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration *(FMNR) model, which keeps soil fertile and increases productivity in a low-cost, simple and sustainable way
*In 1983, World Vision pioneered FMNR, a low-cost land restoration technique used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor subsistence farmers by increasing food and timber production and resilience to climate extremes. In practice, FMNR involves the systematic regrowth and management of trees and shrubs from felled tree stumps, sprouting root systems or seeds. The regrown trees and shrubs – integrated into crops and grazing pastures – help restore soil structure and fertility, inhibit erosion and soil moisture evaporation, rehabilitate springs and the water table, and increase biodiversity. Some tree species also impart nutrients such as nitrogen into the soil.
World Vision has always been concerned about the problem of hunger. We have been implementing both emergency and long-term responses in many of the world’s fragile contexts, with an aim to address existing and future need of food, enable severely malnourished children to receive treatment and recover, and help ensure a stable supply of food so that they will not go hungry again. After all, the cause of hunger is often complex and intertwined. Providing immediate assistance is important, but even more so is to build capacities in the communities, for people to have the resources and ability to overcome hunger on their own.
