Only informed duty-bearers can identify those rights-holders most in need and meet their demands for food security.

  Those who are most vulnerable, for whatever reason, must be identified and empowered to claim their rights. Any discriminatory processes in governance and power structures must be detected and corrected.

  Food security plans should be based on a thorough socio-economic assessment of different groups' situation as regards realization of the right to food, with data disaggregated as far as possible, according to sex, age and ethnicity, for example, so that those most liable to be food-insecure are identified, and the reasons for their vulnerability understood.

  Groups of people who tend to be particularly vulnerable include the elderly, infants and young children, pregnant and nursing women, the disabled and sick, particularly those living with HIV/AIDS or chronic diseases; victims of conflict, rural people in precarious livelihood situations and marginal populations in urban areas; and groups at risk of social marginalization and discrimination, such as indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.

  Following the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS), an inter-agency working group on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) was established at the request of FAO member states, as a key step towards achieving the goals of the WFS Plan of Action.

  Countries who take on their obligation to realize the right to food first need to know the point of departure. For this it is recommended to conduct a right to food assessment which consists typically of the following four elements:

• identification and characterization of food-insecure, vulnerable and marginalised groups that do not enjoy the right to adequate food (and most likely other economic, social and cultural rights);
• understanding of the underlying reasons why each group is food-insecure, vulnerable and/or marginalised;
• understanding the legal and institutional environment within which policy and programme measures need to be implemented, and potential risks that could jeopardize the furthering of the right to adequate food; and
• understanding the implementation processes and impacts of existing (or proposed) policy and programme measures and the needs for policy and programme re-design to facilitate the realization of the right to adequate food.