Emergency food security interventions

Emergency food security interventions are evolving. In the past few years new ideas have emerged for protecting the access of disaster – and crisis -affected people to adequate and nutritious food. Some old approaches remain relevant, but are sometimes not well understood.

This Good Practice Review explores programming practices in emergency food security. It provides a concise overview of conceptual issues and analytical and planning approaches, together with state-of-the-art programming practices in interventions designed to protect the food security of disaster – or crisis – affected groups. Along with a brief description of the intervention, its application, management and monitoring, each chapter includes references to the best topic-specific overviews, tools and case studies currently available.

This review is intended primarily for humanitarian aid workers, managers and staff, as well as government officials and donor agency personnel, whose task it is to ensure that food security is protected in times of emergencies. It is intended to provide aid workers with a full range of programmatic options and the means to determine which are best suited to their circumstances. While much has been written on food security more broadly, this review situates the emergency programming element in the context of the wider debate on protecting people’s right to adequate food.