Interactive Session with Media on Relationship between Food Insecurity, Poverty, Extremism and Conflict It is often said, “Food insecurity anywhere,

Interactive Session with Media on Relationship between Food Insecurity, Poverty, Extremism and Conflict

It is often said, “Food insecurity anywhere, threatens peace everywhere”. Food insecurity may cause unrest or even political instability. Persistent food insecurity may cause conflicts, civil wars and can threaten the overall peace of community, society, nation or world depending on the extent and spectrum of hunger and poverty. The term food security reflects the desire to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. The World Food Summit in 1996 defined food security as, “when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. This definition implies that food security has three pillars i.e., physical availability of food, socio-economic access to food and food absorption.

Based on a composite index of the above mentioned pillars of food security, it is observed that state of food security in Pakistan has deteriorated since 2003. The conditions for food security are inadequate in 61 percent districts (80 out of 131districts1) of Pakistan . This is a sharp increase from 2003, when conditions for food security were inadequate in 45 percent districts (54 out of 120 districts2) of Pakistan . Almost half of the population of Pakistan (48.6 percent) doesn’t have access to sufficient food for active and healthy life at all times. The recently published “Food Insecurity Report Pakistan ” by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), World Food Programme (WFP) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) comes up with substantial evidence that inter and intra provincial disparities exist in terms of food security. FATA has the highest percentage of food insecure population (67.7 percent) followed by Balochistan (61.2 percent), and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) (56.2 percent). The lowest percentage of food insecure population (23.6 percent) is in Islamabad . Among the districts, Dera Bugti in Balochistan has the highest percentage of food insecure people (82.4 percent).

The research in above report reveals that individual food security in Pakistan has deteriorated from 2003 to 2009. One can try to understand the insurgency and militancy in Balochistan, FATA, KPK and four remote districts of Southern Punjab from a food security angle. Although it is difficult to develop conclusive empirical proof, the strong overlap of food insecurity and militancy provides considerable evidence of a potential nexus. On the other hand, in many instances people have joined extremist groups due to economic factors instead of religious beliefs because in many cases extremist groups promised financial support to such people and their families after the job was done.

Coping with growing food insecurity is a daunting challenge for the government of Pakistan that has to prioritize its limited resources amongst defense related expenditures (to curb militancy); debt retirement; day to day administration; and public sector development However, the potential militancy-food insecurity nexus cannot be ignored in Pakistan and requires a change in paradigm where food insecurity should not be treated merely as a humanitarian issue, but a national security issue. This report endorses the recommendations of the Planning Commission’s Task Force on Food Security that a National Food Security Strategy must be evolved. We suggest that the primary focus of such a strategy should be ensuring food security in extremely food insecure districts. Resources channelized to improve the food security situation at the local level are critical to improve development and security at province, national and regional level. It looks like that the country is already paying its price for having neglected food security.