The report, Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition, has been produced by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) at the request from the Committee on Food Security (CFS) to analyse quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding how inequalities within food systems impede opportunities to overcome food insecurity and malnutrition. The report seeks to identify ways to address those inequalities and their drivers and provides recommendations.
The conceptual framework describes how inequalities in FSN outcomes are best reduced by addressing inequalities in food systems and in other related systems. Sustainable change requires understanding and addressing the systemic drivers and root causes of inequity in context. Understanding inequity and inequality involves recognizing who is marginalized from food and nutrition opportunities, and how and why. In coming to this understanding, it is vital to consider how inequity is intersectional (inequalities interact), intergenerational (inequities are passed on over time), and interterritorial (inequities are spatially and geopolitically determined). In addressing inequality and inequity, actions must work through processes of recognition (acknowledging the specifics and history of inequity in each context), representation (ensuring that marginalized groups are genuinely empowered to have agency over the choice of actions to address inequity), and redistribution (ensuring the opportunities and resources are allocated fairly and that costs do not fall on those with less political power). Actions to address inequalities in FSN outcomes and the inequities that underpin them should work through human rights and justice principles, and consider the range of knowledges and evidence available in framing issues and actions.
