Near East and North Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2020: Enhancing Resilience of Food Systems in the Arab States

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

This report examines data available prior to the Covid-19 pandemic that affected the region and the world in 2020. By 2019, the Arab Region was already off track to achieve hunger and nutrition-related SDG targets by 2030. In fact, after good progress during past decades, since 2015-17 the number of undernourished people in the region has been increasing steadily. In 2019, the number of hungry people stood at 51.4 million, or 12.2 percent of the region’s population. If such trends continue, even ignoring the potential impact of Covid-19, the number of undernourished in the region will exceed 75 million people by 2030.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: Jul 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9789251346518

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.

Book preview

This flagship publication is part of Regional Overview of Food security and nutrition in the Near East and North Africa series of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Required citation:

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO and ESCWA. 2021. Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa 2020 - Enhancing resilience of food systems in the Arab States. Cairo, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4902en

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) or the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP or WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO, IFAD, WFP, UNICEF, WHO or ESCWA concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers.

All reasonable precautions have been taken by FAO, IFAD, WFP, UNICEF, WHO and ESCWA to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall FAO, IFAD, WFP, UNICEF, WHO and ESCWA be liable for damages arising from its use.

ISBN 978-92-5-134471-2 [FAO]

E-ISBN 978-92-5-134651-8 (EPUB)

© FAO, 2021

Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY–NC–SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).

Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non–commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original English edition shall be the authoritative edition.

Any mediation relating to disputes arising under the licence shall be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) as at present in force.

Third–party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third–party–owned component in the work rests solely with the user.

Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [e-mail]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [e-mail].

COVER PHOTOGRAPH ©FAO/ALESSANDRA BENEDETTI

SYRIA. Syrian women visit the goat cheese producer farm.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

COUNTRY AND TERRITORY ABBREVIATIONS

KEY MESSAGES

PART 1

RECENT TRENDS IN HUNGER, FOOD INSECURITY AND MALNUTRITION

1.1 Progress towards hunger and food insecurity targets

1.2 Progress towards global nutrition targets

PART 2

ENHANCING THE RESILIENCE OF FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE ARAB REGION

2.1 Conceptual framework for assessing food systems’ resilience

2.1.1 Why a food systems approach? What are the complex relationships between different food system components?

2.1.2 Food systems’ resilience: concept and indicators

2.2 How shocks and stresses worsen food security and nutrition in the Arab Region, contributing to rising hunger and malnutrition

2.2.1 Shocks to Arab food systems: a review of evidence and impact

2.2.2 What are the main stresses in the Arab food system?

2.3. Analysis of major vulnerabilities and resilience capacities of food systems

2.3.1 Impact of shocks and stresses on Arab food supply chains

2.3.2 Impact of shocks and stresses on the Arab food environment

2.3.3 Impact of shocks and stresses on consumer behaviour influenced by individual filters

2.4 Analysis of policy responses to food systems’ resilience in the Arab Region

2.4.1 Which policies address food system resilience in the Arab Region?

2.4.2 Recommended policy approaches and actions

2.5 Overall conclusions: linking food security and nutrition data with food systems and resilience capacities

ANNEXES

REFERENCES

TABLES, FIGURES AND BOXES

TABLES

1 SDG and WHA targets and indicators

2 Prevalence of undernourishment in the Arab Region and sub-regions, 2007/09-2017/19 and 2028/30 projection (%)

3 Number of undernourished in the Arab Region and sub-regions, 2007/09-2017/19 and 2028/30 projection (million)

4 Prevalence of people affected by food insecurity in the Arab Region and sub-regions, 2014/16-2017/19 (%)

5 Number of people affected by food insecurity in the Arab Region and sub-regions, 2014/16-2017/19 (million)

6 Children’s nutritional status for Arab Region and public health significance, latest year

7 Selected WHA indicators of maternal and infant nutrition and non-communicable disease for the Arab Region latest estimates)

8 Prevalence of childhood stunting, wasting and overweight: latest year, WHA target and trend

9 Prevalence of anaemia in women of reproductive age and adult obesity: base year, WHA target and trend

10 Climate change effects in the Arab Region: record maximum average temperature years and warming since 1960

11 The impact of fluctuating oil prices on government finances in the Arab Region

12 Travel and tourism, share of GDP and change in international tourist arrivals, % over previous year

13 IMF estimates and projections for GDP growth in 2019, 2020 and 2021, % growth over previous year

14 Affordability of three reference diets in the Arab states, 2017

15 Projections of the annual cost of current diets in the Arab Region by 2030, USD billion

16 Sustainability scores for 10 Arab countries plus New Zealand and the United States of America

FIGURES

1 Prevalence of undernourishment in the Arab Region, 2000-02 to 2017-19, and projection to 2028–30

2 Histogram of adult obesity prevalence in the Arab Region, 2016

3 Conceptual framework of a food system

4 Simplified model of resilience for food systems showing the function of resilience capacities

5 Resilience and sustainability: complementary concepts (Tendall, et al., 2015)

6 Wheat production, net imports and self-sufficiency ratios in selected Arab countries, 2015-17

7 Prices for United States of America hard red winter wheat and crude oil, real 2010 USD per tonne

8 Health costs of various diets in the Arab Region

9 Predicted reduction by 2030 in the social cost of GHG emissions from the adoption of plant-based diets

BOXES

1 The two main SDG 2 indicators of hunger and food security

2 Definitions and consequences of the main nutritional status indicators for children under 5

3 Approaches for measuring food system resilience

4 Methodology for estimating the cost of healthy diets

5 An approach to estimating hidden health and environmental costs of diet patterns

6 Diets and health risks in GCC countries

FOREWORD

The 2020 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region provides