Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems
In Islamic States in Face of Future Food Crises
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1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Over the past three years, the number of people suffering from hunger has increased, reaching
levels similar to those of a decade ago. According to FAO estimates, the number of people
affected by undernourishment or chronic food deprivation increased from 804million in 2016
to almost 821million in 2017. Ensuring food security has risen to the top of the agenda of most
countries, as well as many regional and international organizations. Food security as defined by
FAO is “a situationthat existswhenallpeople, atalltimes, have physical,social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.” The 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
have substantial potential to improve food security. This study aims to provide agriculture and
food security policymakers in member states’ governments with recommendations for
strategies to manage food insecurity and increase food security resilience in face of potential
crises.
In this study, Chapter 1 defines the concept of food security and explores the pillars of food
security, drivers of food insecurity, food security stakeholders, strategies for managing food
insecurity, and strategies for boosting food security in the context of a proposed food security
framework. Chapter 2 presents a global overview of food security and crises and outlines best
practices for strategies to manage food insecurity (monitoring, adaptation and mitigation), as
well as strategies for boosting food security (enhancing resilience and cooperation). Chapter 3
discusses at length the OIC food system, including current food crises, segmenting the OIC
countries by exposure to future food crises. Chapter 4 presents five case studies from OIC and
non-OIC countries toshed light on best practices for managing food insecurity and boosting food
security. Chapter 5 compares practices of OIC and non-OIC countries for monitoring, adaptation
and mitigation, enhancing resilience, and cooperation. Chapter 6 evaluates the OIC food system
based on learnings from previous chapters, supplemented by an assessment of Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (“SWOT”). Chapter6 provides recommendations based
on study findings for policymakers in the OIC member states to manage food insecurity and
boost food security.
1.2. Objectives
The objective of this study is to enable OIC food security stakeholders
 to review and analyze issues related to global and OIC vulnerability to food crises;
 to explore the drivers of food crises in general and those related to agricultural value
chains in particular;
 to identify the strategies used to mitigate, adapt, and increase resilience to mitigate
potential future food crises; and
 to provide policy recommendations for strategies to increase food security resilience for
OIC member countries to address future food crises.