Food systems are critical for building peace, resilience and food security. However, in contexts affected by conflict, food systems face formidable challenges, including the disruption of agricultural production due to violence, the displacement of farmers, and collateral or deliberate damage to farmland and essential infrastructure such as roads, markets and storage facilities. The combination of risks linked to political instability and conflict, weak governance, economic instability, limited local capacity, exposure to shocks and climate hazards, and poor infrastructure often undermines and deters long-term private and public investment in food systems in the very places where they are most needed.
On average, only 3 per cent of official development assistance goes to food-related sectors in fragile settings, compared with 32 per cent of humanitarian assistance. This reflects the widespread perception that food is predominantly a humanitarian issue, even in contexts of protracted fragility.
According to the Food Systems Dashboard, food systems comprise ‘all the people, institutions, places, and activities that play a part in growing, processing, transporting, selling, marketing, and, ultimately, eating food’ and are ‘critical for ensuring food and nutrition security, people’s livelihoods, and environmental sustainability’.
To reduce food crises sustainably, aid actors across the humanitarian, development and peace (HDP) nexus must identify new ways of addressing the risks associated with food systems in fragile settings, through their programming and investments. Recent examples from Yemen, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa show that, with the right approach, substantial progress can be made in some of the most challenging and fragile contexts.
Inclusive partnerships are crucial to ensure sustained improvements
In fragile settings, partnerships between government, international aid actors and local civil society organizations across the HDP nexus can foster trust and cooperation. Nurturing inclusive and equitable partnerships is a prerequisite for developing food systems that are resilient to shocks and stressors.
In Yemen, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement facilitated multistakeholder dialogues on food systems and nutrition, resulting in a nationwide Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan. The dialogues took place across conflict lines, involving stakeholders from areas controlled by the Presidential Leadership Council and areas controlled by the Houthi, along with the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, civil society and donors. As this uniquely inclusive process focused on a technical issue—food systems and nutrition—it helped to bridge the political divide between fragmented national institutions by building on pre-conflict technical networks and promoting a shared understanding of nutrition issues across Yemen.
Affected communities must be at the heart of decision making
Investing in food systems requires a deep understanding of local power dynamics as well as strategies and capacities to respond to food crises in fragile contexts. This is essential to learning from and building on the sustainable and equitable elements of local food systems while ensuring that investments contribute to addressing drivers of food insecurity, such as conflict.
Over the past decade, the World Food Programme (WFP) Integrated Resilience Programme in the Sahel has been implemented within territorial units that are defined based on socio-economic and agro-ecological dimensions rather than humanitarian need assessments alone. The rehabilitation of natural assets and preservation of natural resources have been valuable entry points for the programme. This is because land degradation has been a significant amplifier of shocks in Sahelian countries such as Niger, where 80 per cent of livelihoods depend on rainfed subsistence agriculture. Land rehabilitation has been complemented with activities such as building community infrastructure, promoting education, improving nutrition and health, and creating jobs for women and young people.
The design of these activities involved inclusive participatory planning, which put affected communities at the heart of decision-making processes. This ensured that programmes were culturally sensitive, practical and context-specific in order to build trust and collaboration. Although improving social cohesion was not an explicit goal of the programme, addressing competition over natural resources—particularly between farmers and herders—through dialogue and negotiation, promoted harmony and cooperation between communities.
The programme created local opportunities for youth and reduced men’s seasonal outmigration, contributing to community resilience and stability. As a result, these communities became less reliant on humanitarian aid, with some communities no longer requiring assistance during the lean season.
Overcoming risk aversion—adaptive financing for food system transformation
Investing in agriculture and broader food systems is an inherently risky business. Weather, climate, diseases, natural disasters, and market and environmental shocks are among the many types of risk that can co-occur and reinforce each other, making investment in food systems an unattractive proposition, even in advanced economies. Although, as noted above, investment in food systems in fragile settings remains predominantly humanitarian, some development actors are identifying new ways of working to adapt to highly volatile contexts, facing multiple concurrent risks.
In Sudan, the African Development Bank (AfDB) collaborates with the WFP on an emergency project to boost wheat production and reduce import dependency. Despite the outbreak of civil war in 2023, shortly after the project began, the project has managed to adapt and keep going, with positive results.
The civil war has disrupted agricultural activity, resulting in 25.6 million people, nearly 51 per cent of the population, experiencing acute hunger according to the latest estimate. The AfDB’s emphasis, therefore, is on supporting Sudan in bolstering its capacity to meet domestic food demand, even under conditions of active conflict. Development partners who can implement emergency projects in a conflict setting are brought on board to help more effective delivery.
During the 2023–24 agricultural season, the project distributed climate-adapted wheat seeds and fertilizers to over 170 000 smallholder farmers in both conflict-affected states, including Gezira and White Nile, and more stable northern and eastern states such as Kassala, Northern and River Nile. The project improved food security, producing 645 000 tonnes of wheat in 2024, and played a vital role in crisis response for internally displaced persons (who represented over 30 per cent of beneficiaries in Northern State).
The project builds on the success of earlier transformative wheat production initiatives, showcasing how long-term development interventions can address immediate emergency and humanitarian needs while fostering resilience for the future. It has also demonstrated the AfDB’s flexibility and commitment to support investments over a period longer than the one- to two-year humanitarian financing usually deployed in active conflict contexts.
Food systems for long-term stability and development
National ownership, multistakeholder engagement, and integrated approaches that combine development, humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts are vital to transforming food systems in fragile contexts. Carefully designed and inclusive methodologies and approaches ensure that interventions are contextually relevant, are locally owned and build on local capacity, fostering stakeholders’ trust and engagement.
A paradigm shift is needed to meet the ambition of ending hunger by 2030. Building resilient food systems that withstand shocks and stressors is paramount to sustainably preventing or reducing humanitarian needs and protracted food crises. This shift requires a long-term commitment from development technical and financial partners to stay and deliver in fragile settings, jointly with humanitarian actors, and adopt conflict-sensitive programming to promote peace and social cohesion.
By leveraging learning from emerging innovative and adaptive approaches to investment in fragile and volatile settings, actors across the HDP nexus can sustainably improve the resilience, peace outcomes and food security of the communities that are most in need. Resilient food systems are at the heart of these new approaches and the key to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, leaving no one behind.
SIPRI is pleased to share a series of guest blog posts from partners of the 2024 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. The World Food Programme co-organized with the HDP Nexus Coalition a Forum session entitled ‘Cultivating Peace: Integrating Peace into Food Systems Transformation’.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Emilie Chazelle is a Programme and Policy Officer at the World Food Programme and the Head of the HDP Nexus Coalition Secretariat.
Alain Leroy is a Programme and Policy Officer with the HDP Nexus Coalition Secretariat at the World Food Programme.
Food systems are critical for building peace, resilience and food security. However, in contexts affected by conflict, food systems face formidable challenges, including the disruption of agricultural production due to violence, the displacement of farmers, and collateral or deliberate damage to farmland and essential infrastructure such as roads, markets and storage facilities. The combination of risks linked to political instability and conflict, weak governance, economic instability, limited local capacity, exposure to shocks and climate hazards, and poor infrastructure often undermines and deters long-term private and public investment in food systems in the very places where they are most needed.
On average, only 3 per cent of official development assistance goes to food-related sectors in fragile settings, compared with 32 per cent of humanitarian assistance. This reflects the widespread perception that food is predominantly a humanitarian issue, even in contexts of protracted fragility.
According to the Food Systems Dashboard, food systems comprise ‘all the people, institutions, places, and activities that play a part in growing, processing, transporting, selling, marketing, and, ultimately, eating food’ and are ‘critical for ensuring food and nutrition security, people’s livelihoods, and environmental sustainability’.
To reduce food crises sustainably, aid actors across the humanitarian, development and peace (HDP) nexus must identify new ways of addressing the risks associated with food systems in fragile settings, through their programming and investments. Recent examples from Yemen, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa show that, with the right approach, substantial progress can be made in some of the most challenging and fragile contexts.
Inclusive partnerships are crucial to ensure sustained improvements
In fragile settings, partnerships between government, international aid actors and local civil society organizations across the HDP nexus can foster trust and cooperation. Nurturing inclusive and equitable partnerships is a prerequisite for developing food systems that are resilient to shocks and stressors.
In Yemen, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement facilitated multistakeholder dialogues on food systems and nutrition, resulting in a nationwide Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan. The dialogues took place across conflict lines, involving stakeholders from areas controlled by the Presidential Leadership Council and areas controlled by the Houthi, along with the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, civil society and donors. As this uniquely inclusive process focused on a technical issue—food systems and nutrition—it helped to bridge the political divide between fragmented national institutions by building on pre-conflict technical networks and promoting a shared understanding of nutrition issues across Yemen.
Affected communities must be at the heart of decision making
Investing in food systems requires a deep understanding of local power dynamics as well as strategies and capacities to respond to food crises in fragile contexts. This is essential to learning from and building on the sustainable and equitable elements of local food systems while ensuring that investments contribute to addressing drivers of food insecurity, such as conflict.
Over the past decade, the World Food Programme (WFP) Integrated Resilience Programme in the Sahel has been implemented within territorial units that are defined based on socio-economic and agro-ecological dimensions rather than humanitarian need assessments alone. The rehabilitation of natural assets and preservation of natural resources have been valuable entry points for the programme. This is because land degradation has been a significant amplifier of shocks in Sahelian countries such as Niger, where 80 per cent of livelihoods depend on rainfed subsistence agriculture. Land rehabilitation has been complemented with activities such as building community infrastructure, promoting education, improving nutrition and health, and creating jobs for women and young people.
The design of these activities involved inclusive participatory planning, which put affected communities at the heart of decision-making processes. This ensured that programmes were culturally sensitive, practical and context-specific in order to build trust and collaboration. Although improving social cohesion was not an explicit goal of the programme, addressing competition over natural resources—particularly between farmers and herders—through dialogue and negotiation, promoted harmony and cooperation between communities.
The programme created local opportunities for youth and reduced men’s seasonal outmigration, contributing to community resilience and stability. As a result, these communities became less reliant on humanitarian aid, with some communities no longer requiring assistance during the lean season.
Overcoming risk aversion—adaptive financing for food system transformation
Investing in agriculture and broader food systems is an inherently risky business. Weather, climate, diseases, natural disasters, and market and environmental shocks are among the many types of risk that can co-occur and reinforce each other, making investment in food systems an unattractive proposition, even in advanced economies. Although, as noted above, investment in food systems in fragile settings remains predominantly humanitarian, some development actors are identifying new ways of working to adapt to highly volatile contexts, facing multiple concurrent risks.
In Sudan, the African Development Bank (AfDB) collaborates with the WFP on an emergency project to boost wheat production and reduce import dependency. Despite the outbreak of civil war in 2023, shortly after the project began, the project has managed to adapt and keep going, with positive results.
The civil war has disrupted agricultural activity, resulting in 25.6 million people, nearly 51 per cent of the population, experiencing acute hunger according to the latest estimate. The AfDB’s emphasis, therefore, is on supporting Sudan in bolstering its capacity to meet domestic food demand, even under conditions of active conflict. Development partners who can implement emergency projects in a conflict setting are brought on board to help more effective delivery.
During the 2023–24 agricultural season, the project distributed climate-adapted wheat seeds and fertilizers to over 170 000 smallholder farmers in both conflict-affected states, including Gezira and White Nile, and more stable northern and eastern states such as Kassala, Northern and River Nile. The project improved food security, producing 645 000 tonnes of wheat in 2024, and played a vital role in crisis response for internally displaced persons (who represented over 30 per cent of beneficiaries in Northern State).
The project builds on the success of earlier transformative wheat production initiatives, showcasing how long-term development interventions can address immediate emergency and humanitarian needs while fostering resilience for the future. It has also demonstrated the AfDB’s flexibility and commitment to support investments over a period longer than the one- to two-year humanitarian financing usually deployed in active conflict contexts.
Food systems for long-term stability and development
National ownership, multistakeholder engagement, and integrated approaches that combine development, humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts are vital to transforming food systems in fragile contexts. Carefully designed and inclusive methodologies and approaches ensure that interventions are contextually relevant, are locally owned and build on local capacity, fostering stakeholders’ trust and engagement.
A paradigm shift is needed to meet the ambition of ending hunger by 2030. Building resilient food systems that withstand shocks and stressors is paramount to sustainably preventing or reducing humanitarian needs and protracted food crises. This shift requires a long-term commitment from development technical and financial partners to stay and deliver in fragile settings, jointly with humanitarian actors, and adopt conflict-sensitive programming to promote peace and social cohesion.
By leveraging learning from emerging innovative and adaptive approaches to investment in fragile and volatile settings, actors across the HDP nexus can sustainably improve the resilience, peace outcomes and food security of the communities that are most in need. Resilient food systems are at the heart of these new approaches and the key to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, leaving no one behind.
SIPRI is pleased to share a series of guest blog posts from partners of the 2024 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. The World Food Programme co-organized with the HDP Nexus Coalition a Forum session entitled ‘Cultivating Peace: Integrating Peace into Food Systems Transformation’.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)