Food security for peace: Exploring pathways to build peace through food and agricultural interventions

By FAO, CIGAR, The Geneva Graduate Institute, Interpeace, WFP, and the Geneva Water Hub

The climate crisis is significantly transforming the global peace and security landscape by exacerbating the social, economic and political processes that can lead to instability and conflict. These effects are particularly evident in fragile and conflict-affected countries that are highly dependent on a climate-sensitive agricultural sector. In these settings, climate-change induced pressure on local food systems can lead to food shortages and acute food insecurity, even famine, which have been identified as a key pathway through which climate change can cause conflict, especially at the local level. This situation has led to the emergence of a new area within the security sector, climate security, which refers to conflict and security risks induced, directly or indirectly, by climate variability. Within this broader area, food security plays a prominent role: more than 26% of all damages and losses caused by medium- and large-scale climate-related disasters are absorbed by the agricultural sector. In addition, food security interventions and natural resource management has also been identified as an opportunity that can be used to both build peace and adapt to climate change.

This podcast aims at increasing understanding of how agriculture and food systems are linked to climate and conflict dynamics and explores pathways through which food security and agricultural interventions can support the dual processes of building resilience to climate change and sustaining peace. It brings together the expertise and experience of interdisciplinary actors from across international Geneva, and from around the world, to examine both promising past interventions and consider lessons for the future.