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The challenges of climate change and food security are closely intertwined, with agriculture both driving and being impacted by extreme weather events. Policymakers around the globe are faced with the need to increase food production to feed growing populations while reducing that production’s negative impacts on the environment. According to a recent article in Global Environmental Change, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) provides an effective way to enhance countries’ climate resilience while simultaneously ensuring food and nutrition security.

Food loss and food waste continue to pose a serious challenge for sustainable agricultural growth and food and nutrition security around the world. In many developing countries, lack of modern storage and transportation infrastructure plays a large role in food loss and waste, particularly for more nutritious and profitable but perishable foods like fruits and vegetables.

While the record-breaking drought of 2020-2023 has eased and conflict in the region has largely ended, Ethiopia remains in need of significant humanitarian and food aid, according to a May report from FEWS Net. Populations in the northern Tigray region and the southeastern Oromia and Somalia regions continue to experience IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) and Phase 4 (Emergency) food insecurity, which could worsen even further in the upcoming lean season.

In Africa south of the Sahara, the share of the population facing food insecurity is more than double that of any other region in the world, according to IFPRI’s 2023 Global Food Policy Report: Rethinking Food Crises Responses. Approximately 282 million people in Africa south of the Sahara, or around 20 percent of the population, were undernourished and food-insecure in 2021.

The eastern Horn of Africa continues to experience acute hunger and food insecurity, according to FEWS Net. The region has faced multiple shocks in recent years, including a historic five-season drought, multiple conflicts, and economic shocks; all of these factors have contributed to drastically lowering agricultural and livestock productivity, reducing livelihoods, and driving poor populations into ever-worsening hunger.