Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems
In Islamic States in Face of Future Food Crises
26
Figure 9: Global Food Security Index - Regional Performance 69
Source: Analysis based on the Global Food Security Index
In terms of individual countries’ performance, Singaporewas the highest performing country in
food security in 2017. As the table below shows, with the exception of Singapore, all of the top
10 countries are European and North American. Singapore’s standingwasmainly due to a high-
income economy, lowhousehold expenditure on food, and low agricultural import tariffs, which
all contribute to reducing the costs of food imports. These factors in turn contribute to
Singapore’s high score on affordability, which led it to occupy the top rankings despite
availability and quality and safety scores below those of the other top 10 countries. Singapore is
susceptible to climate and natural resource risks; it is over dependent on food imports (90% of
its food supply) and highly vulnerable to climate change. The U.S. occupies third place, down
from second place in 2017 and first place between 2012 and 2016. This is mainly due to
improving scores in other countries rather than a decrease in its own score.
Table 5: Global Food Security Index - Top Performing Countries
Global Ranking Country Overall score Affordability Availability Quality & Safety
1 Singapore 85.9 94.3 81.0 78.1
2 Ireland 85.5 87.8 83.6 84.8
=3 United Kingdom 85.0 82.6 88.8 80.4
=3 United States 85.0 86.8 83.2 85.4
5 Netherlands 84.7 82.8 86.1 85.1
6 Australia 83.7 84.3 82.6 85.4
7 Switzerland 83.5 82.2 86.1 79.8
8 Finland 83.3 81.3 84.2 86.0
9 Canada 83.2 81.9 84.4 83.0
10 France 82.9 80.5 83.8 86.5
Source: The Global Food Security Index
The following table gives an overview of the scores of the 10 lowest performing countries
according to the Global Food Security Index. Five of the lowest performing countries—Yemen,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Niger, and Chad—have experienced conflicts in
2017, which contributes to their food insecurity. In addition to disrupting economic and
agricultural activities, conflict causes price spikes that lead directly to food price shocks. In
certain instances, conflict coincides with crop shortfalls and currency depreciation, which
compound one another and worsen food crises. Population displacement from conflicts entails
living in camps or informal urban housing, which heightens food safety risk and increases
foodborne and waterborne disease, as seen in cholera outbreaks in Yemen. It is important to
69 Note that OIC data is included in the Appendix
0,0
50,0
100,0
Affordability
Availability Quality & Safety
Europe
North America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Asia and Pacific