The EU Approach to Resilience: Learning from Food Security Crises

Recent and recurrent food crises in the Sahel region and in the Horn of Africa, where more
than 30 million people are suffering from hunger, have underscored the need to work on a
long-term and systematic approach to building the resilience of vulnerable countries and
populations.
The effects of economic shocks, rising and fluctuating food prices, demographic pressure,
climate change, desertification, environmental degradation, pressure on natural resources,
inappropriate land tenure systems, insufficient investment in agriculture, have, in many parts
of the world, resulted in greater exposure to risk, notably from natural hazards. The impact of
these global trends is manifested in the increasing number and intensity of natural disasters
and crises. The poorest households are the most vulnerable and in many instances this
vulnerability is compounded by political instability and conflict. In the case of food
insecurity, despite some progress, one billion people are still suffering from hunger and the
issue is particularly acute in drought-prone areas where most of the population depends
directly on agriculture and pastoralism.
The EU is one of the world's largest donors providing life-saving assistance to people affected
by various crises. Over recent years the demands for such assistance have increased
substantially – far outstripping the resources available. Such assistance is vital, but it is aimed
mainly at coping with emergency situations and needs to be supplemented by support to
populations at risk to withstand, cope with and adapt to repeated adverse events and long-term
stress.
Building resilience is a long-term effort that needs to be firmly embedded in national policies
and planning. It is a part of the development process, and genuinely sustainable development
will need to tackle the root causes of recurrent crises rather than just their consequences.
Working with vulnerable populations to build their resilience is also a fundamental part of
poverty reduction which is the ultimate aim of EU development policy, as has been reaffirmed
by the EU in the Agenda for Change1.
Resilience strategies should contribute to different policies, in particular Food Security2,
Climate Change Adaptation3 and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)4. In this context, the EU has
consistently supported prevention and preparedness for crises in the most vulnerable countries and identified the need to integrate DRR and Adaptation to Climate Change, notably into both
development cooperation and the humanitarian response.
Investing in resilience is cost effective. Addressing the root causes of recurrent crises is not
only better, especially for the people concerned, than only responding to the consequences of
crises, it is also much cheaper. When the world is experiencing an economic and budgetary
downturn, the budgets of both partner countries and donors are coming under increased
pressure to show that they deliver the maximum impact for the funds that are made available.
In response to the massive food crises in Africa, the Commission has recently taken two
initiatives: Supporting Horn of African Resilience (SHARE)5 and l'"Alliance Globale pour
l'Initiative Résilience Sahel" (AGIR)6.These set out a new approach to building up the
resilience of vulnerable populations.
The purpose of this Communication is to use the lessons from these experiences to improve
the effectiveness of the EU's support to reducing vulnerability in developing countries, which
are disaster-prone by including resilience as a central aim.
In addition, this Communication aims to contribute to the international debate on enhancing
food security and resilience in a wider sense, notably in the context of the G8, G20, the
Committee on World Food Security, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative, Rio
Conventions7' negotiations and the Global Alliance for the Horn of Africa.