Agro-ecology: the necessary agricultural transition towards nutrition security for all
Action Against Hunger mandate is to fight against hunger by focusing its efforts on undernutrition. Under-nutrition results from interactions between various and complex factors. Food insecurity combined with inappropriate care practices and an unsanitary and inadequate environment (limited access to health services, water and sanitation) are the main underlying causes of undernutrition. As these causes usually relate to one or more of the Action Against Hunger technical sectors (nutrition & health, food security & livelihoods, mental health & care practices, water, sanitation and hygiene), Action Against Hunger promotes and uses a multidisciplinary approach, including disaster-risk management, to prevent and treat undernutrition. One of these approaches is through the development and implementation of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs.
Today, one of the major challenges for agriculture is its capacity to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security for the world’s growing and urbanizing population. A recent FAO study estimates that about 795 million people are still suffering from hunger in the world (FAO, IFAD, and WFP, 2015)1. In addition to hunger, there is also the burden of undernutrition: globally, in 2015, 159 million children under age five were estimated to be stunted and 50 million under five children were wasted; 26% of children in the world show growth failure, and 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Moreover, impacts of climate change amplify the already existing threats to food and nutrition security
