Chapter Five

Refugees and Conflict-Affected People

Integrating Displaced Communities into Food Systems

Rob Vos, Julius Jackson, Sally James, and Marco V. Sánchez

Humanitarian interventions that have the greatest likelihood of success involve investing in local agrifood systems and including conflict-affected people in strategies for building, reviving, or strengthening these systems.

KEY FINDINGS

  • More than half of all undernourished people live in countries affected by conflict.
  • Food insecurity and dispossession of agricultural assets can both trigger and result from civil strife.
  • Most conflict-affected countries are overwhelmingly rural, and rural populations are more vulnerable to climate shocks that often compound conflict situations.
  • Refugee host countries must often decide whether to focus responses on preparing affected populations to return home or helping them become economically self-reliant.
  • Integrating conflict-affected people into food systems— either in their new homes or the places they fled—can help them rebuild their lives.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Provide long-term refugees access to land and liveli­hoods to help them achieve food security while also strengthening local economies.
  • Rebuild local agriculture and food value chains to help conflict-affected people move beyond subsistence agri­culture, rejoin exchange markets, adopt climate-smart practices, and become resilient to economic and cli­matic shocks.
  • Protect agriculture, food production, and rural liveli­hoods before, during, and after conflict.

Browse Chapters

Chapter One

Reshaping Food Systems

Chapter Two

Smallholders and Rural People

Chapter Three

Youth

Chapter Four

Women

Chapter Five

Refugees and Conflict-Affected People

Chapter Six

National Food Systems

DOWNLOADS

Chapter One: Reshaping Food Systems

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Chapter Two: Smallholders and Rural People

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Chapter Three: Youth

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Chapter Four: Women

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Chapter Five: Refugees and Conflict-Affected People

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Chapter Six: National Food Systems

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