Beyond Compliance Symposium: Practical measures to prevent and mitigate conflict-induced food insecurity

About the author(s):

Katherine Kramer has over 20 years’ experience in humanitarian negotiations for protection outcomes.  While working as Geneva Call’s Programme Director for Asia, she positively influenced the policies and practices of 18 non-State armed groups on International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. As InterAction’s Senior Manager for Protection of Civilians, she led InterAction’s Protection of Civilians work, including helping to influence the content of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMRAP). She also developing a training module on Optimizing Armed Actor Engagement for Protection Outcomes and led the drafting of the Practical Measures to Prevent and Mitigate Conflict-Induced Food Insecurity. She holds a Master’s of Arts degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC, USA and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA.

Editors’ note: This post forms part of the Beyond Compliance Symposium: How to Prevent Harm and Need in Conflict, featured across Articles of War and Armed Groups and International Law. The introductory post can be found here. The symposium invites reflection on the conceptualisation of negative everyday lived experiences of armed conflict, and legal and extra-legal strategies that can effectively address harm and need. 

Conflict is the primary driver and amplifier of acute food insecurity, affecting 134.5 million people across 20 countries and territories in 2023. It affects the entire food cycle, from production, transportation, and procurement, to retention. However, it is not “conflict” which drives food insecurity, but rather the actions of armed actors (whether intentional or unintentional) that inflict hunger on populations. While too readily overlooked by thin conceptualisations of ‘civilian harm’, food insecurity is a lethal consequence of conflict, causing starvation, famine, and long-term, irreversible impacts on an individual and societal level. In response, a new toolset designed for armed actors—both State and non-State—has been launched. The Practical Measures to Prevent and Mitigate Conflict-Induced Food Insecurity (hereafter the Practical Measures), is a guide that lays out the policies, practices, and major considerations that armed actors must and should incorporate into their analysis, planning, operations, and post operations that are necessary to mitigate their impact on food security in the areas in which they operate. It is accompanied by a short videoinformation flyer, and training material. While the toolset has been designed with armed actors in mind, it can also be reference and educational material for anyone undertaking humanitarian diplomacy and negotiations – e.g., the diplomatic community, the UN, NGOs, and community-based organisations (CBOs).

The impact of conflict on hunger

Armed actors damage and destroy markets, the means of food production and processing, personal property, and critical infrastructure on which food security depends. They restrict people’s access to livelihoods, food, water, essential services, and humanitarian aid. They disrupt transportation, kill or take livestock, and contaminate land, food, and water supplies. These actions have immediate and long-term effects on food systems.

For example, consider the impact enforced lockdowns in Cameroon have on food insecurity. Civilians are unable to leave their homes to produce or procure food or engage in their livelihoods. At the same time, food is unable to pass through checkpoints. Food is not harvested, income is lost, and food spoils in the fields, at checkpoints, or in homes due to electricity fluctuations. As a result, the cost of food becomes prohibitively high, families go without, risk their lives, or flee to areas outside of conflict zones to feed themselves and their families. 

Displacement has its own impact on food insecurity. It has a devastating effect on agricultural production and livelihoods with far reaching implications. Often, it does not lead to greater food security of those displaced. 90.2 million displaced people are experiencing acute food insecurity worldwide. 

Food insecurity can also increase civilians’ vulnerabilities to other protection risks—such as sexual violence, including from their own coping mechanisms, which can seriously impact individual and community health and well-being.

Responsibilities of armed actors

The only way to significantly reduce conflict-induced hunger is if armed actors, specifically parties to armed conflict, take preventative and mitigation measures. A statement to this effect was made in 2018 with the unanimous passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2417. The resolution recognises the direct and indirect impact of conflict on food security. It reminds parties to armed conflict of their international humanitarian law (IHL) obligations and that the use of starvation as a method of war is a war crime. It

“…calls on all parties to armed conflict to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law regarding respecting and protecting civilians and taking constant care to spare civilian objects, including objects necessary for food production and distribution such as farms, markets, water systems, mills, food processing and storage sites, and hubs and means for food transportation, and refraining from attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless objects that are indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, agricultural assets, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, and respecting and protecting humanitarian personnel and consignments used for humanitarian relief operations.” (p.3)

Unfortunately, the implementation of the resolution has faced significant challenges. The focus of several champion States towards monitoring and accountability has eroded its support base.  

The Practical Measures

In late 2021, the idea of developing a set of practical and concrete measures that armed actors can take to prevent and mitigate conflict-induced food insecurity sprouted. The target of the measures would be those armed actors—State or non-State—that unwittingly contribute to food insecurity. The concept generated interest amongst the humanitarian, protection, and food security communities. As a result, InterAction, the leading alliance of around 200 humanitarian and development NGOs in the United States, spearheaded a 10-member steering committee composed of UN, NGOs, and academics, including local, women- led organisations, to develop the measures. Successive drafts were widely circulated amongst the diplomatic and humanitarian communities for feedback. Most importantly, a concerted effort was made to meaningfully engage with affected communities in Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria, as well as both State and non-State armed actors, the latter from Colombia, Mali, Myanmar, and Syria, to ensure acceptability and feasibility. The Practical Measures were launched on 6 May 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland, with the educational material following a little over a month later. 

The Practical Measures is not an exhaustive list of all IHL obligations or possible ways that armed actors can prevent or mitigate conflict-induced food insecurity. Nor is it a tool for external actors to hold armed actors accountable to IHL violations. Rather, it is a menu of options framed around civilian harm mitigation. It covers such issues as how to, among others:

  • Ensure sufficient policies and staff trainings to mitigate food insecurity.
  • Avoid forced displacement of populations.
  • Assess the potential impact of operations on civilian food security and to plan accordingly.
  • Protect the natural environment, including agricultural land and water resources.
  • Avoid the potential for looting.
  • Facilitate civilians’ access to food, water, and critical infrastructure, including by facilitating humanitarian access.
  • Ensure partner and allied forces’ behaviour also mitigates food insecurity.
  • Address harm caused by armed actors’ actions or omissions. 

It is understood that not all armed actors will be able to implement all the measures immediately. Many of the measures can be progressively realised as capacity and resources allow. Preventing and mitigating conflict-induced food insecurity is not a simple check box exercise. It requires building a contextualised understanding of the conflict and food system dynamics to adequately mitigate conflict-induced food insecurity.

Next steps

Awareness needs to be raised amongst armed actors of the availability of the Practical Measures and its accompanying educational material. They need to be disseminated widely among armed actors. Armed actors must also be encouraged to apply the measures. This will require humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation efforts by diplomats, peers, UN actors, as well as national and international NGOs and CBOs.  While the tools can be used as is, they will likely be more effective if they are adapted to the specific context and armed actor. Where needed, support should be provided to build the capacity of armed actors to implement the measures. 

Lastly, while armed actors have a duty to prevent and mitigate conflict-induced food insecurity within their own area of responsibility, their efforts should be implemented in conjunction with broader political, military, and governance policies and practices. For example, by supporting food system resilience to avoiding imposing economic measures and sanctions that have an adverse impact on food security. 

The world cannot sit by and let food insecurity continue to run rampant, especially as many studies have shown that hunger fuels conflict. A concerted effort needs to take place to tackle this challenge, and armed actors, both State and non-State, have a key role to play in preventing and mitigating food insecurity. The way for them to do so is now clear. 

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