Agriculture needs a more prominent role in humanitarian response efforts

We spoke with FAO Deputy Director-General Laurent Thomas about why agriculture must be central in global humanitarian response efforts.

With hunger levels rising worldwide, how do you see the humanitarian response in 2022?

I believe the humanitarian response in 2022 will have to focus on three priorities: (i) anticipating and preventing crises, (ii) reducing risks, and (iii) achieving more with fewer resources. Shocks to food systems and food security are today, to a great degree, predictable, so anticipating food crises is an obtainable goal and one which we need to collectively pursue. 

As 2021 draws to a close, we bear witness to a worsening hunger situation, with no sign of improvements in 2022. Intensifying conflicts,increasingly recurrent climate extremes, and the continued ripple effects of the pandemic are poised to push more people to the brink of famine or famine-like conditions. 

As of September, the Global Report on Food Crises reported that 161 million people were experiencing high acute food insecurity. This is more than in the whole of 2020. Almost 600 000 people are now living in famine-like conditions – that’s four times the number of 2020. Furthermore, an estimated 45 million people in 43 countries are today in Emergency levels of acute hunger, or IPC Phase 4. Just to recall, IPC Phase 4 represents an emergency phase – households are extremely food deprived, acute malnutrition is rising, and livelihoods are being irrevocably lost. The world has not faced a risk of widespread famine affecting multiple countries so severe, in well over a decade. The most effective way to tackle this is to address the immediate needs and the root causes of hunger. However, the agriculture sector currently only receives 8 percent of all humanitarian funding, even though two-thirds of those currently experiencing acute hunger are in rural areas, relying on agriculture for their food and income. 

The sheer scale of today’s humanitarian needs, which are expected to increase as the climate emergency deepens, point towards even greater suffering and greater funding needed for humanitarian actions going forward. How can we change this trajectory?

As a community of humanitarians, I think we have to ask ourselves more often: “Are our actions the most appropriate for the needs of the people affected or at risk, and are our core responses enhancing resilience while addressing urgent needs?” 

I think we stand to benefit from asking these questions, and we need to get better at sharing some of the answers. Agriculture, for example, is massively underfunded in emergencies but is among the most cost-effective humanitarian interventions. It not only offers an immediate means to reduce hunger, but it also lays the pathway for resilience building, reducing the impacts of food crises, and helping vulnerable communities create a pathway out of crises.

Take Afghanistan as an example. Four out of five of the estimated 22.8 million people projected to be in acute food insecurity from now through March 2022 are rural. FAO is working to deliver wheat cultivation assistance packages – at a cost of USD 157 each – that can supply a family of seven with their staple cereal requirements for a full year. This is less than one-quarter of the cost of purchasing the same amount of grain on the local market! The alternative would be spending USD 1 080 to cover those same needs for the same 12 months using direct food aid.

In South Sudan, where almost 95 percent of those facing acute hunger rely on agriculture, livelihoods are being decimated by conflict and recurrent floods. FAO’s seed distributions ahead of the main planting season have ensured that after harvesting, some 3.3 million at-risk people will have food for at least seven months. 

As for Yemen, hundreds of thousands of families face the imminent threat of losing their primary source of income to easily preventable animal diseases. With just USD 8, FAO is vaccinating and deworming an average herd of five sheep or goats, protecting assets worth USD 500 on the local market. More than just saving costly assets, something as simple as deworming an animal has a near immediate impact on improving milk production, often by at least 20 percent. I cannot overstate how critical milk is for household nutrition, especially in contexts of high acute malnutrition among children.  

Yet, as we scramble to address immediate food needs, we fail to adequately invest in emergency agricultural assistance. Despite donors’ immense generosity, we are falling short of needs. At a time when donors are overwhelmed by funding demands, we need to be more strategic in allocating resources to, not just temporarily pause, but actually halt and reverse acute hunger. 

What can we expect to see if agriculture is taken more seriously as a part of the humanitarian aid response? 

We can get on track towards a realistic, sustainable, and inclusive exit strategy from hunger. This can be a strategy that moves us away from a situation where a growing number of people are forced to rely on food assistance for seemingly endless periods – a situation that is neither morally dignified nor financially sustainable for resource partners. This inclusive pathway out of hunger also helps these communities be more resilient and better able to deal with shocks and crises. 

Humanitarian efforts must aspire to do more than just save lives today, so we need to come together to save the livelihoods upon which those lives depend. Of course, agriculture by itself is not sufficient. But we know that when we combine time-sensitive food assistance and comprehensive livelihoods assistance, we have the greatest impact on acute hunger.

How is FAO progressing its work across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to deliver more effective approaches to acute food insecurity?

FAO is a steadfast advocate for a collective response that brings together humanitarian, development, peace, and climate actors and implements interventions to tackle the root causes of hunger. In recognizing the criticality of the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus, FAO has taken the lead as the first UN agency to evaluate its own work in this area. The ‘Evaluation of FAO’s Contribution to the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus: 2014-2020’ helped develop the new FAO Strategic Framework 2022‑2031, both of which reconciled with the calls to action at the September 2021 UN Food Systems Summit for a nexus approach to transform our agri-food systems.

In 2020, 15 major food crises were caused primarily by weather extremes. What does this mean for the livelihoods of the 2.5 billion small-scale farmers, fishers, foresters and pastoralists who are being exposed to rapidly mounting risks from climate change? 

Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. Climate change is already causing droughts, floods, heatwaves and other impacts that cost lives, undermine livelihoods, and damage human health. 

Anticipatory action is a leading priority for FAO – that is, acting ahead of crises, or preventing the impact of inevitable crises to reach their peak, through data-driven decisions and early warning systems that trigger life and livelihood-saving actions ahead of a shock or crisis. Acting before a hazard occurs allows more cost-effective interventions to protect livelihoods and food production, as well as avert a deterioration of food security levels. In the last few years, there has been enormous progress in efforts to link early warning alerts to decision-making actors to prevent and respond ahead of crises.

Whatever the context, anticipatory actions share the same goal: to protect vulnerable farmers, fishers, and herders so that they do not lose their livelihoods and can continue providing food for themselves and their families. In 2020–21 alone, FAO invested USD 250 million in anticipatory action, and with the help of our partners, we aim to dedicate at least 20 percent of our emergency funding to anticipatory action by 2025.

Across the humanitarian system, we need to be smarter in how we respond to needs. Anticipatory actions have ensured that people have rapid and sustained access to nutritious food. Importantly, they also lay the path towards recovery. In 2022, we have to ensure a seismic shift towards a smarter, more dignified way of addressing food crises and supporting communities at risk of disasters.

You can read more about FAO’s work with countries and partners to prepare for, and respond to, food and agricultural threats and emergencies.

What positive trends are you seeing as we look ahead to the challenging global food insecurity picture in 2022?

There are many good things happening and I am optimistic about what more we can do. Again, there is widespread agreement on the need to focus on prevention and preparedness, for example, increasing resources for anticipatory action linked to early warning. I am also heartened by the growing support to resilience, and within that scope, to disaster risk reduction. This was well reflected at COP26, and I look forward to resources matching those statements. We are also seeing that humanitarian, development, peace, and climate actors are stepping up collaboration on the ground, not just to respond to the impacts of climate change, but also to proactively reduce disaster risks and build long-term resilience.