Food security in times of war: problems and ways of ensuring it in Ukraine

Abstract

The peculiarities of the manifestation of the food crisis in Ukraine in times of war are investigated and the foreign experience and the experience of international organizations and political institutions in overcoming it are analyzed. The analysis is based on the concept of food security developed by the UN, which defines it as sustainable physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. It also uses the comprehensive approach with four pillars of food security: food availability, access, utilization, and stability. In the context of the study of food security in Ukraine, two areas for analysis are identified: a decrease in the availability of food for the population and a violation of nutritional stability; a decrease in the economic access of the population to food and essential goods. The article focuses on the issue of economic access to food for vulnerable groups of the population (including internally displaced persons and people living near the demarcation line, and in the occupied and liberated territories), compares the incomes of households of internally displaced persons in Ukraine at different moments since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia in February 2022, and presents the results of the assessment of the population's food needs in Ukraine. The prevalence of food insecurity and the ongoing fight against it at the international level have made it possible to develop clear mechanisms to overcome it. Based on numerous studies and taking into account the experience of countries where the food crisis was caused by natural disasters or the impact of climate factors and states whose territories became the arena of military conflicts, in the context of finding ways to overcome the food crisis, the author examines the comprehensive approach of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to achieving food security in crisis conditions, which combines two areas: Sustainable development of rural areas and stimulation of agriculture; development and implementation of targeted programs to provide direct access to food for vulnerable groups. The areas of the comprehensive approach of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are defined as complementary and aimed at reinforcing each other's positive results. Moreover, the article analyzes the European Union's approach to rural development in the Common Agricultural Policy, which provides for the definition of two equally important directions: support and stimulation of the agricultural sector; strengthening the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of rural areas in the context of overcoming the risks inherent in this type of territory.