CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Currently, the world is faced with an unprecedented call for action at a moment in which four countries have been identified as at risk of famine, and demand for humanitarian and resilience assistance is escalating. Against this background, informing the global and national food security community on the risk of food crises and on the severity of such crises is of fundamental importance. In recent years, stakeholders have made major investments to improve food security analysis and related early warning systems in order to prevent and tackle food crises more efficiently. Although significant improvements have been made over time in the methods and technologies used to improve the quality and timeliness of food security assessments and monitoring systems, a comprehensive global pictures of food crises is still often missing. Partial geographical coverage and a lack of comparable data within a standardised system make it difficult to get a full global picture of food crises at any given time.
The European Union, WFP and FAO have joined forces to coordinate the compilation of analyses to increase the impact of humanitarian and resilience responses through the preparation of the “Global report on Food Crises”. The Global Report enhances coordination and decision-making through a neutral analysis that informs program planning and implementation. The key objective and strength of the report is to establish a consultative and consensus-based process to compile food insecurity analysis from throughout the world into a global public product to inform annual planning and resource allocation decisions. Technical, operational and financial partners require evidence-based information to ensure appropriate planning and resources to tackle the consequences of food security crises within an evolving humanitarian financing landscape. The World Humanitarian Summit has prompted a major rethink of the way response financing is delivered in crisis settings, highlighting the need for more long-term development investments to address risk, prevent crises and build resilience.
Since 2013 , the European Commission has worked to develop ways to compare and clarify the results of food security analyses across partners and geographical areas to provide a comprehensive overview of the global food security situation. In 2015, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (ECJRC) produced an annual report on food insecurity hotspots to inform decisions on food crisis allocations at the global level. In 2016, to increase the inclusiveness and transparency of the report, the European Commission invited FAO and WFP to contribute by providing additional food security data and analysis. Following the successful experience of the 2016 analysis, the three organizations agreed to move forward, involving additional partners in the global assessment of the food crisis situation, with the aim of producing a consensusbased yearly report from early 2017. The initiative was cemented with the launch of the Global Network for Food Insecurity, Risk Reduction and Food Crises Response on 23 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. It was then agreed to undertake this effort under the umbrella of the “Food Security Information Network” (FSIN), an already structured global initiative cosponsored by FAO, WFP and IFPRI.