Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts - to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.
FAO's mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy.
FAO’s Concept of Food Security:
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. (World Food Summit, 1996)
Food security pillars:
Food availability: The availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports (including food aid).
Food access: Access by individuals to adequate resources (entitlements) for acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.
Utilization: Utilization of food through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met.
Stability: To be food secure, a population, household or individual must have access to adequate food at all times.
FAO REOSA has a role for supporting countries to have “Improved Preparedness for, and effective response to, food and agricultural threats and emergencies”. This is known as Strategic Objective I and forms the objective of all FAO’s emergency activities in the region.
The Food Security Nutrition Working Group of Southern Africa (FSNWG) has been set up by a number of key actors in food security, both NGO and UN. The overall goal is to contribute to enhanced programming for improved Food
