Complex Emergencies, Food Security and the Need for Research-based Policy Responses

Abstract

While many problem areas requiring identification in crisis or postcrisis situations before contemplating any policy intervention must be found and assessed ‘on the ground’, some concern the kind of institutional arrangements and responses at the global level which are put in motion in response to any emerging crisis. One such area is that of food security and the nature of the international response patterns to any upcoming crisis in this regard. The present chapter aims to explore the connections between the emergent concept of ‘complex emergencies’ and that of food security and to understand why the way these concepts are used together often leads to iterative forms of policy response that are characteristic of the international system. These are shown to overlook the context specificity of complex emergencies and to lead to sometimes perverse or unhelpful, near automatic responses based on food aid. In the light of the prevailing policy gap, the chapter considers the analytical capacities and information instruments in need of enhancement so as to improve the approach to food security issues in the context of complex emergencies, arguing in favour of a light-footed, flexible research capacity.