Food and nutrition security

We promote the diversification of production and improved connections to markets to make healthy food accessible to everyone. 

Priority measures:

• Reducing post-harvest losses
• Promoting nutrient-rich food such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, eggs and fish
• Increasing the year-round availability of food at affordable prices, including for poor households

We recommend giving preference to a plant-based diet, as it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and protects the environment and biodiversity. 

However, in certain regional and cultural contexts, animal products continue to play an important role as a source of protein and provider of essential vitamins and nutrients..

GIZ promotes climate-smart agriculture, to conserve natural resources while achieving food security.

Approaches to climate-resilient agriculture and resources

• Promoting agrobiodiversity
• Protecting and rehabilitating soil
• Protecting global fish stocks and promoting sustainable management of fisheries
• Promoting disaster risk reduction and early warning systems

Good food requires knowledge and appropriate practices. We provide practical information on food storage, processing, preparation and hygiene. 

Our approaches for nutrition education are:

• Gender-sensitive
• Participatory
• Easy to apply in everyday life

Our goal is to bring about lasting behavioural change and to create a supportive environment – for example, through measures that promote gender equality.

We strengthen the foundations for better nutrient utilisation by supporting:

• Access to health services
• Access to clean drinking water and sanitary facilities
• Breastfeeding, along with child-appropriate nutrition and care practices

Food security requires social protection. We combine short-term approaches and measures with long-term income strategies.

Social protection measures include:

• Vouchers for staples, such as rice, oil and flour
• Time-limited subsidies (for example, for fertiliser and seed)

To achieve long-term improvement of access to food, we complement these with policy advice and initiatives to diversify and increase incomes, such as the further processing and marketing of animal- and plant-based products.

We advise national, regional and local governments on  institutionalising food security.

Measures for strengthening nutrition governance include the following:

• Providing multisectoral coordination between different sectors, such as agriculture, health, education and water
• Developing coherent policies, legislation and plans
• Establishing effective steering structures and resource planning

In humanitarian contexts, we link short-term measures and approaches with long-term reconstruction:

Typical measures for food security in regions affected by crisis and conflict include the following:

• Supplying fortified staples such as rice, oil and flour
• Providing temporary subsidies and inputs such as fertiliser and seed
• Promoting the cultivation of short-cycle crops, such as vegetables for growers’ own consumption
• Implementing Cash-for-Work programmes, provided the target groups can still purchase the goods they need on the open market
• Offering local arbitration mechanisms
• Providing financial support for at-risk groups
• Facilitating the resumption of agricultural production