“We will respond both to acute needs and to the underlying causes of hunger. Our overall aim is to contribute towards food security through a range of interventions, including rural development, agricultural research and building livelihoods.”
White Paper on Irish Aid

The Challenge

At the 1996 World Food Summit, governments agreed a definition of food security: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

Many regions in the world, particularly the Horn of Africa and southern Africa, are vulnerable to food scarcity each year. Millions of people are permanently vulnerable to famine, largely because of chronic poverty. These people cannot wait for longer term development programmes to bring them out of poverty.

Food insecurity can range from temporary, localised food shortages to protracted and large-scale famine. Chronic food insecurity translates into a high degree of vulnerability to famine; food security ensures reduction of that vulnerability.

Ireland’s Response

We will respond both to acute needs and to the underlying causes of hunger. Our overall aim is to contribute towards food security through a range of interventions, including rural development, agricultural research and building livelihoods. Our focus on poverty reduction is the most comprehensive way of addressing hunger.

Food Security and Famine Prevention

We are committed to working closely with our partner governments, multilateral agencies and humanitarian organisations to develop effective mechanisms and supports that, in parallel longer term development programmes, proactively prevent persistent food shortages becoming famines.

In regions and countries particularly vulnerable to food shortages and famine, we will support disaster risk reduction programmes to diminish the effects of persistent food shortages and to prevent widespread famine, while trying to address the root causes of vulnerability.

Hunger Task Force

Ireland has an excellent track record of responding to the problems of hunger, food and livelihood insecurity in poorer countries. In his address to the United Nations in September 2005, the Taoiseach announced that substantial new resources would be made available through the Irish Aid programme for famine relief and for tackling the root causes of hunger.

On 10 April 2007, Minister of State Conor Lenihan announced the establishment of a Hunger Task Force to examine the particular contribution we can make to tackling the root causes of food insecurity, particularly in Africa.

The Hunger Task Force will bring together leading figures from international organisations, the NGO sector, third-level institutions, Government and the private sector. The Task Force will work closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Government Departments and will be asked to report within six months of its establishment.

Read more about the Hunger Task Force

Social Protection

Most of the world’s poorest countries do not have the social welfare systems and support entitlements that exist in most developed countries. The absence of any meaningful social protection mechanisms and supports places large numbers of very poor people with little or no livelihoods at huge risk from economic and natural shocks each year.

In desperate times, poor people and communities will do what they can to survive, including selling off precious assets such as land, livestock and tools, choosing low-risk, low-yield crops for food, and sending their children to work rather than to school. This has the effect of both increasing the suffering of people and the death toll during a crisis, but it also dramatically reduces the capacity of those who survive such an event to return to productive activity once the crisis has passed.

Social protection programmes consist of public interventions to assist individuals, households and communities in better managing vulnerability and risk. Examples of such programmes include: social insurance programmes, including safety nets and pensions, to cushion the risks associated with unemployment, ill health, disability, work-related injury and old age. Crucially, social welfare systems provide a vital safety net for communities attempting to break away from unsustainable livelihood patterns.

Last updated: 03/05/07