We are living in unprecedented times; as attested by recent headlines some of the positive trends observed in past years are kicking in reverse with ever more people affected by new combinations of risks and trends: climate crisis, conflicts, resource scarcity (water), inequality, food insecurity, malnutrition and obesity, environmental degradation, affect particularly people living in marginalized rural communities or poor city dwellers.

After  decades  of  steady  decline,  the  trend  in  world  hunger  reverted  in  2015,  remaining  virtually  unchanged in the past three years at a level slightly below 11 percent. Meanwhile, the number of people who suffer from hunger has slowly increased. As a result, more than 820 million people in the world were still hungry in 2018, underscoring the immense challenge of achieving the Zero Hunger target by 2030.

Today, over 110 million people are suffering from food crisis. It will only get worse if current trends cannot be reversed. Why is this happening?

Multiple drivers are causing these trends and can be grouped in three clusters:

• Socio-economic factors: demographic change, urbanization, growing inequality, unequal access to resources, unhealthy eating habits. Poverty.
• Environmental  factors:  climate  change,  soil  degradation,  over-exploitation  of  natural  resources,  water scarcity. Reaching the limit.
• Peace and security: armed conflict, good governance, rule of law. Fundamental rights.

Deepen a common understanding of the underlying dynamics of these trends was the reason why the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations co-organized the High Level Event “Food & Agriculture in times of crisis: working better together for long-term solutions” (1-2 April 2019). First in its kind, the event was organised on behalf of the Global Network against Food Crises.

For  this  event,  CIRAD  prepared  a  booklet  with  key  maps  and  facts1  to  be  complemented  with  a  scientific report on critical drivers & trends, system components, interactions and critical challenges as  regards  food  and  nutrition  security.  Upon  request  of  the  European  Commission,  through  the  FAO  Agrintel  project  (GCP/GLO/948/EC),  CIRAD  developed  also  an  analytical  framework  on  the  trends that are shaping current food systems as well as to realize an assessment of the risks they are subjected to and which may lead to food crises (or worse) in the future.

While  the  event  represented  a  strategic  opportunity  for  the  international  community  and  civil  society  to  start  tackling  some  of  the  key  challenges  posed  by  food  crisis  and  the  fundamental  injustice of about 800 million people facing hunger, the scientific report hereunder takes stock of  the  current  and  future  risks  and  challenges  as  regards  food  systems.  In  a  next  step  FAO  and  CIRAD  project  to  develop  an  approach  and  toolkit  to  realize  diagnostics  of  food  systems  at  sub-national, national, sub-regional or regional level in order to identify and formulate transformative interventions improving their welfare benefits and environmental sustainability.

Solutions exist and new approaches for efficient joint work are possible.

There must be no more food crises.