ABSTRACT
Food assistance is adapting to meet the challenges of the complex and demanding food security context of the twenty-first century. The instruments, platforms and thematic focus of food assistance must be responsive to conflict, mass migrations, climate change, political instability and underlying development challenges. Recent analysis of food assistance shows that poorly functioning food systems are implicated in food insecurity and crises by failing to manage both food abundance and scarcity, often exacerbating the vulnerability of poor rural communities and small food producers, who are critical stakeholders in food security. In order to build resilience and against food crises, food assistance must evolve to meet both short-term, humanitarian needs as well as strengthen food systems and support broader development goals.
