The challenges of humanitarian crises
The prevalence and scale of food and humanitarian crises is unacceptable and ethically reprehensible. It is imperative that we address the causes and consequences of these problems comprehensively and innovatively.
The world is facing the highest number of violent conflicts since the Second World War. These conflicts are major triggers of humanitarian and food crises, reducing access to production factors, social safety nets and trade, and causing forced displacement.
Under global climate change, extreme weather events have become a further important trigger of humanitarian and food crises worldwide. It is crucial that international support for resilience is expanded and prioritized at upcoming Climate Summits. Policy actions must be based on the understanding that the right to life and access to basic necessities such as food and water are human rights.
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) has repeatedly addressed problems of the world food system in the past from various angles, and issued statements for action and research.[1] The findings from these conferences and the related statements and publications form important backdrops to the concept of this workshop.
Systematically addressing multi-dimensional crises
Food systems are impacted by a complex set of multidimensional problems including,
- Wars and armed conflicts, which add to risks and uncertainty, disrupt food supply chains, and hinder production (e.g., access to inputs such as fertilizers) and food trade. The workshop will give strong attention to these related issues;
- Climate change and water stress, which undermine Agrifood systems’ resilience;
- Covid-19 and other disease-related disruptions of food value chains;
- Economic slowdowns and downturns, accelerated inflation, exchange rate devaluation, market volatility, and income and job losses.
These problems are interconnected and reinforce one another, and result in humanitarian crises and food access problems, 3.1 billion people with no access to healthy diets, and with accumulated debts, curtailing finance of social protection and nutrition programs. Moreover, there is regional diversity in the set of determinants of agrifood systems’ crises, as well as diversity in capacities to respond.
While the above-mentioned earlier PAS conferences offered important insights and solutions mainly for the medium- to long-term, this workshop has a focus mainly on acute food insecurity and nutrition crises and related short-term actions. The 2021 UN World Food Systems Summit too mainly had a focus on medium- to long-term actions. Follow up to the Summit will need to have a stronger focus on acute crises. Addressing acute food crises effectively in the short-term also requires more attention because new research findings point to significant human impacts in terms of child underdevelopment (stunting) and mortality due to even short-term price and income shocks. Effective action for protecting the poor in crises cannot wait. Trade-offs and synergies between short-term and long-term actions and investments also need to be on the policy agenda and will be addressed by this workshop.
Concepts and approaches
A concept that may shape the agenda before us is the “Triple Nexus” approach, which postulates integration of the interlinkages between the humanitarian, development and peace sectors (HDP). It specifically refers to attempts in these fields to work together to more effectively meet peoples’ needs, mitigate risks and vulnerabilities, and move toward sustainable peace. Sciences, i.e. natural sciences and social sciences, need to explore opportunities to contribute to short-term lifesaving actions in acute food crises. Noting that there are significant practical experiences with such actions, sciences have not paid much attention to short-term food crises mitigation and prevention. Theoretically, short-term actions need to be based on foresight, information about risks and consideration of uncertainties, and the need to make decisions while there is a high degree of information deficiency. New data, modelling, and analytical approaches, incl. application of artificial intelligence, may be helpful to explore to narrow risks and uncertainty and for effective actions. Political economy aspects, governance, and power need consideration. Short-term actions are often taken under conditions of lack of information, missing predictability of emerging crises, and lacking resources for comprehensive responses. There are also hard choices between the short and long term, i.e. to address the challenge of systems’ transformation toward sustainability, while also addressing the acute food crisis with urgency. And it must be noted that initially considered short-term issues can result in very long-lasting consequences, such as populations in refugee status in the Levant Region, Afghans in Pakistan, Darfur, etc.
Moral and ethical Issues
The focus of the workshop is on marginal population groups, incl. smallholder producers, slum dwellers, migrants, women, children, as well as indigenous peoples. Direct and indirect effects on vulnerable people in food crises situations shall be considered prominently, such as exploitation, human trafficking and modern forms of slavery. The short cum/versus long-term choices raise moral and ethical issues that will be considered in the workshop. A focus on science related to helpful short-term actions is justified for at least three reasons: first, because lives at risk in crises must be saved, and second, it is likely, that complex crises of Agrifood systems triggered by the set of causes mentioned above may occur more frequently in the future, and third, there is a lack of scientific insights into appropriate short-term actions, as indicated by many ad hoc initiatives in food crises, and lack of science involvement.
Innovative solutions and recommendations for action
At the center of solutions to the challenges are innovations, that is, policy-, technological-, and organizational innovations. These must be guided by science, be context specific, and some must be international. They include finding ways to promote local agency in acute food crises, because individuals, households/families, and communities are invariably the first and most important respondents in crises. Expanding the choices available to them in real time may be vital – i.e., in addition to getting external support to them.
The great diversity of contexts of humanitarian crises must be considered when concrete actions are planned. The important country and regional chapters are testimony to that. A set of key actions and innovations are considered in the chapters, mapped into relevant contexts and regions. They include actions such as emergency aid interventions incl. forecast based actions and investments, modelling agrifood systems shocks and trade-offs of actions/incl. over time, explicit integration of transformative policies, peace building, governance strengthening for food security, digital innovations, bio-science, new foods, processing, technology innovations for de-risking the agrifood systems, and organizational innovations, to identify best operational/institutional models to alleviate malnutrition and speed up humanitarian work during and post-conflicts.
The recommendations are summarized in the statement issued by the workshop participants forming the final chapter of this volume. Key points include,
- To prevent food and humanitarian crises, we call for context-specific and appropriate international and regional engagement, local peacebuilding, and multilateral conflict resolution by the UN, G20, and regional political bodies.
- The urgent need for more proactive and better-resourced response to the global refugee crises, including a welcoming culture for refugees, as called for by Pope Francis. Respect for and adherence to international law and treaties for the protection of refugees is also required.
- The structures, governance and management of humanitarian and food crises require comprehensive reform. This includes elements of global governance, such as nested institutions that reflect rights and responsibilities at both local and global levels to address mitigation and prevention of humanitarian crises.
- We need increased and more flexible financial resources at an international level, along with redesigned emergency aid interventions. Without such reforms, we will continue to deal with symptoms rather than addressing the root causes.
- Women’s roles and leadership in these contexts must be strengthened.
- Science has an important role to play in addressing food and humanitarian crises, because they are problems of complexity. Sciences can and must help identify policy, organizational and technological innovations.
- Cooperation between faith and science is critical in overcoming humanitarian crises by combining ethics with innovation.
[1] Recently this included conferences on Science and Innovations for a Sustainable Food System – Preparing for the UN Food Systems Summit, 21-22 April 2021, and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste, 11-12 November 2019. Moreover, PAS climate-related conferences and biodiversity-related conferences, as well as conferences addressing innovations in bio-sciences also included attention to food systems and food security.