Conflict is one of the most common causes of food insecurity and the interface between food security policy and conflict prevention requires debate and clarification.

The number and scale of conflict-related, food security emergencies is increasing, and the role of human-induced conflict in escalating a natural crisis, such as a drought, to a food security emergency has grown in importance over the last decade. HIV/AIDS is another important factor exacerbating natural and human-induced crises.

But while the number of short-term emergency interventions is increasing and funds are diverted towards humanitarian aid, resources for long-term development aid have stagnated or decreased.

The challenge is to create a new framework which includes responses to both short-term emergencies and sustainable food security. However, while humanitarianism is guided by a clear set of principles, concepts for longer-term policies and interventions require further development.

The key item on the agenda of this workshop, "Food security in complex emergencies - building policy frameworks to address longer-term programming challenges", was to identify elements for policy frameworks to enhance the resilience of food systems in different emergency contexts and the role of information in supporting this.

The event was organized by the FAO Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA) from 23-25 September in Tivoli, Italy and funded by the European Commission. It brought together 36 people from 20 agencies, including the UN, government, NGOs, civil society, donors and research institutions from across the world.

Participants acknowledged FAO's position as a neutral arbiter of food security information and as a crucial player in public information. The Organization unveiled a new international portal on food security which will provide access to information and online networks to field practitioners and food security and policy analysts involved in designing broader and longer-term policy frameworks.

Workshop report