WHY FOOD SECURITY

According to the UN, FAO, WFP and World Bank, 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to eat and 791 million (98%) of this figure reside in developing countries including Ghana.

The number of people who die from hunger in a year is more than that of AIDS, malaria and TB combined (WFP, 2017). Each night, 1 in 9 people go to bed hungry (The Economic Times, 2015). Ghana Statistical Service, reports poverty rate in Ghana as 23.4% in its Ghana Living standard survey in 2017. UNICEF (2016) also reports that one (1) in ten (10) children live in extreme poverty and 1.2 million children live in households that are unable to provide adequate food. FAO (2012) estimated that nearly 870 million men, women and children were chronically food-insecure – in other words, they did not eat enough nutritious food each day for a healthy life. This situation creates crisis with far reaching effects.

Hunger weakens immune systems and stunts children’s cognitive and physical development. The majority of the world’s food-insecure people are women and children who rely on agriculture as their primary source of food and income. Like most of the other West African countries, Ghana is also affected by climate change, manifested mostly in the form of higher temperatures and lower rainfall, heightening the risk of droughts and wildfires. Other frequent natural calamities include floods, and pests (locusts and fall army worm). Chronic hunger and under nutrition result primarily from poverty. Without enough food, adults struggle to work and children struggle to learn, posing severe challenges to sustainable, long-term economic and social development. With the growing population of more than 29 million, Ghana’s poverty rate stands at 23.4% (GLSS, 2017) with a wide inequality gap between rural and urban areas. This indicator shows a lot of Ghanaians are living below the poverty line. Poverty remains a rural phenomenon with household heads being farmers remaining to be among the poorest in the country, making it difficult to support their own families. Poverty remains to be one of the root causes of all child well-being issues.

It is in light of this persistent deprivation facing the majority of the vulnerable people each year that ignited World Vision to take action in terms of what we can do to help improve the situation. What kind of program design will address these issues? How can we live out our vision and mission to address hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition? How do we understand God’s provision in the face of so much hunger?

WHY FOOD SECURITY ?

“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (definition agreed to at the 1996 World Food Summit).

Why do we need food security?

Need of Food Security

Food security is needed because the poor section of society is more insecure as compared to the person above the poverty line when the country faces national disasters or calamities like earthquakes, drought, flood, failure of crops, etc.

What are 5 reasons for food insecurity?

Factors affecting Food Security

1. Climate Change and Global Warming.

2. Scarcity of land for farming.

3. Technological barriers.

4. Inadequate supply of water for irrigation.

5. Poverty.

Why is it important to achieve food security in the future?

Food insecurity is a driver of conflict. The rise in global hunger has been a direct result of climate temperatures which have caused massive crop failures and human migrations. Food systems are global and crop failures in one part of the planet can have dire consequences for peace and stability a continent away.

What is World Vision doing to improve food security and resilience?

World Vision approach to food and livelihood security aims at improving child wellbeing by assuring family well-being and the parents’ ability to provide. We achieve this through addressing the root causes of food insecurity. Addressing long-term food insecurity for poor smallholder farmers throughout most of the communities where WV does agriculture and livelihood programming will increase/restore assets and resources where they are limited or depleted (for example, trees have been removed from the landscape, soils have become infertile and severely degraded and families have no savings). This will give more options to families to improve their livelihood. World vision implementing model that help farmers increase productivity, increase income and have easy access to credit.

Food Security & Resilience Objectives:

MAIN OBJECTIVE:

All children, especially the most vulnerable, and their families, have improved household food security and resilience.

SUB-OBJECTIVES:

Improved production and productivity of crops and livestock

Increased economic opportunities for the youth and women

All children especially the most vulnerable live in communities with increased resilience to climate change and disaster

Increased resilience to economic shocks

All children especially the most vulnerable live in households with improved food utilization

Cross cutting Issues

1. Gender

2. Environment

3. Peace building

4. Disability

5. Faith and Development

6. End Child Marriage Campaign

Contribution of food Security & Resilience to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

1. SDG1: No Poverty

2. SDG2: Zero Hunger

3. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

4. SDG10: Reduce Gender Inequalities

5. SDG12: Responsible consumption and production

6. SDG 13: Climate Action

7. SDG 15: Life on Land

Contribution of Food Security & Resilience to Regional and Global Initiatives

1. Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)

2. lobal Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)

3. AFR100 (the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative

4. The Great Green Wall Initiative

5. Global Food Security Strategy