Food security interventions for refugees
Citation: Nisbet C, Lestrat KE, Vatanparast H. Food Security Interventions among Refugees around the Globe: A Scoping Review. Nutrients. 2022;14(3):522.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).
What is this? A large proportion of refugees face food insecurity and evidence on which interventions may help ease this might help policy makers and practitioners.
In this scoping review, the authors searched for studies of food security interventions implemented for refugees. They restricted their searches to articles published in English after 2010 and did their search in June 2020. They included 57 articles.
What was found: Most interventions to address food insecurity among refugees related to cash, vouchers or food transfers; urban agriculture, gardening, animal husbandry or foraging; nutrition education; and infant and young child feeding.
International organizations and humanitarian agencies were involved in delivering different interventions, depending on their focus. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) focused on urban agriculture while the World Food Programme (WFP) focused on cash and voucher interventions.
Few studies considered gender in the implementation of programs, although it was considered as a vital issue to the success of food security interventions.
Cash transfers are probably most suitable when markets are stable and promoting self-sufficiency among refugees is a clear outcome of strategies that aim to incorporate livelihood strategies.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that collaboration should be encouraged among international organizations and humanitarian agencies, while further efforts are needed to incorporate marginalized populations in food security programs. They also stated that more research is needed to assess the efficacy of these interventions and that there is a need for a standard tool to assess food security.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of gender and place of residence.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Yasmeen Saeed and Cristián Mansilla, and finalized by Mike Clarke.