Evaluation Insight Note

The world is moving backward in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, targets by 2030 is becoming more challenging each year. In addition to food price increases, most vulnerable people and communities face a range of shocks that compromise their food security. Disasters caused by natural hazards, conflicts, disease and pandemics, financial and political crises, and the impacts of climate change, all drive recent food insecurity and malnutrition trends. The intensification of these drivers will continue to challenge food security and nutrition, therefore, broadening food security to better insulate the vulnerable from medium- and longer-term impacts is a useful adjunct to looking at immediate food assistance needs. This Evaluation Insight Note (EIN) answers the question: How has the World Bank integrated resilience into food security operations The EIN includes five main insights: (i) Food security operations are increasingly focusing on resilience. (ii) Emergency operations designed to address acute crises can, and increasingly do, include resilience features. (iii) Closed projects with resilience features achieved higher outcome ratings. (iv) Food security projects with resilience features tend to have a longer time frame to tackle the drivers of food insecurity with five strategies: pairing various interventions, providing emergency support and creating income opportunities (productive inclusion); using decentralized approaches, including community engagement; leveraging partners and donor coordination; and strong analytics and design. (v) It is critical to adapt the pace and sequencing of short- and long-term reforms and measures to country capacity.