Integrating Food Security and Biodiversity Programming

Government's Global Food Security Strategy aims to sustainably reduce global hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. The strategy is implemented through the Feed the Future initiative, which focuses on 12 target countries where U.S. Government investments have the greatest potential to achieve sustainable improvements in poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. These countries include Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda. The strategy recognizes four key emerging challenges to food security: instability and conflict, climate and natural resources, complex demographic challenges, and continued gender inequalities. To address these challenges, USAID uses a range of approaches, including capacity development and extension services, adaptive agriculture practices, financing and investment, infrastructure and information and communication technology (ICT), and policy and advocacy. Capacity development and extension services focus on individual, organizational, and system-level capacity development to improve agricultural productivity and incomes. Adaptive agriculture practices and policies aim to increase agricultural productivity and incomes through improved farmer inputs, mechanization, stress-tolerant animals and crops, and natural resource management. Financing and investment approaches provide grants, in-kind assistance, debt, equity, concessional finance, loan guarantees, women's savings and loan groups, insurance schemes, and investment preparation and promotion. Infrastructure and ICT investments focus on irrigation, energy, transportation, and communication systems to improve agricultural productivity and access to markets. Policy and advocacy approaches aim to create an enabling environment for agricultural development, improve access to markets, and enhance the role of women in agriculture. The U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy is guided by the Global Food Security Act of 2016 and its subsequent reauthorization, as implemented by the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy. The strategy has three main interconnected objectives, which are supported by nine intermediate results and six Cross-Cutting Intermediate Results. The latter include Cross-Cutting Intermediate Result 2, which focuses on improved climate risk and natural resource management. Feed the Future programming often focuses on specific zones of influence where the need and opportunity for impact are highest. In addition to the 12 target countries, Feed the Future supports a number of aligned countries and provides technical support to any USAID mission with food security interest. The initiative is coordinated by the USAID Bureau for Food Security, implemented by field missions, and draws on the agricultural, trade, investment, development, and policy resources and expertise of multiple federal agencies. The U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy recognizes that food security is not just an economic and humanitarian issue, but also a matter of security, as growing concentrations of poverty and hunger leave countries and communities vulnerable to increased instability, conflict, and violence. The strategy aims to address the root causes of poverty and hunger by equipping people with the tools to feed themselves, and to improve climate risk and natural resource management to enhance agricultural productivity and incomes. Developing countries are home to roughly two-thirds of the Earth's biodiversity, and these countries play important roles as partners in safeguarding biodiversity around the world. USAID defines food security and nutrition as access to, and availability, utilization, and stability of, sufficient food to meet caloric and nutritional needs for an active and healthy life. The absence of food security is characterized by extreme poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and increased vulnerability to food shocks, stresses, and stunting. More than 800 million people around the world are chronically undernourished, 2 billion are micronutrient deficient, and 159 million children under five are stunted, forever robbing them of opportunities to reach their full potential. Malnutrition, unsafe food, and food-borne diseases are increasing health costs and mortality while reducing educational attainment, lifetime earnings, and economic productivity and growth.