Food Security
 Feed the Future
FY 2010 Implementation Plans
USAID is developing FY 2010 Implementation Plans for Feed the Future focus countries. These working documents outline U.S. government planning for the first year of the global hunger and food security initiative. Download these plans here.
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From now to 2050, the world's population is expected to grow by more than 30%, resulting in an estimated 2.3 billion more mouths to feed. To ensure that people have sufficient food requires aligning short-term assistance within a long-term development strategy.
Food insecurity is often rooted in poverty and has long-term impacts on the ability of families, communities, and countries to develop. Prolonged undernourishment stunts growth, slows cognitive development, and increases susceptibility to illness. Food security means having, at all times, both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. A family is food secure when its members do not live in hunger or fear of hunger.
Feed the Future: the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative
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| Indigenous women in Guatemala instruct families on proper food sanitation practices during a USAID sponsored workshop. |
In response to this growing challenge, President Obama announced a U.S. government initiative to help eradicate global hunger and achieve food security: Feed the Future. Feed the Future emphasizes country-led plans that reduce hunger and extreme poverty through agriculture-led growth and improved nutrition. The initiative employs strategic coordination among U.S. government agencies and among several multilateral institutions to leverage significant food security investments. Feed the Future holds U.S. programs publicly accountable through benchmarks and targets to measure progress.
USAID plays a leading role in the Feed the Future Initiative, working to improve food security in the poorest and most vulnerable developing countries. USAID views improving food security as both a humanitarian and development priority—it involves improving food availability, access, and use. Many developing countries have raised incomes, reduced poverty and boosted food security through agriculture-led growth, and are beginning to incorporate climate change adaptation into agricultural planning for more sustainable growth.
To achieve global food security, USAID works with developing countries, civil society, the private sector, and other development organizations to:
- Improve agricultural productivity to increase yields, reduce post-harvest losses, adopt better technologies and production practices, and improve links to markets.
- Promote market development by enabling small-scale producers to plan their production strategies and connect with markets
- Facilitate trade expansion by helping to reduce tariffs and other formal restrictions, and improve banking laws that hinder cross-border capital flows.
- Invest in global innovation and research through the multilateral Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) to expand access to knowledge through agricultural extension and advisory services.
- Promote equitable rural economic growth for the vulnerable and very poor by connecting them to food-related value chains and enabling them to take advantage of economic entry points.
- Prevent nutritional deficiencies by improving diet quality, diversity of foodstuff, and delivery of health services to the severely malnourished.
- Provide emergency relief aid to countries suffering from severe food shortages due to famines, natural disasters, and conflict.
For further information, access the Feed the Future website.
Potential Feed the Future focus countries, strategic partners, and regions include:
| AFRICA |
| East Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia |
| ASIA |
| Asia (RDMA), Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Tajikistan |
| LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN |
| Brazil, Central America, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua |
Additional Resources
Famine Early Warning Systems Network
USAID-funded activity that collaborates with international, regional and national partners to provide early warning and vulnerability information on emerging and evolving food security issues
Food & Agriculture Organization's Global Information and Early Warning System
Contains information on national basic food prices data and provides analysis tools
Food Security III
USAID-managed Leader with Associates Agreement that integrates research into policy and programming to promote agricultural growth as a means to cut hunger and poverty
Food Security Assessment, 2008-09
US Department of Agriculture report on the state of food security
IFPRI Food Prices Website
The International Food Policy Research Institute’s latest research on food prices as well as links to news articles and a blog on world hunger
Indices of Primary Commodity Prices
Provide International Monetary Fund information on primary commodity prices from 1998 to 2008
UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Task Force on the Food Security Crisis
Provides background, fact sheets, and the UN strategic framework on food security
World Bank Food Crisis Site
Provides the latest information on the World Bank’s response to the food insecurity crisis
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