Food Policy Analysis Tools

The food security and nutrition indicators dashboard is an interactive tool designed to provide a comprehensive overview of nutrition and food security metrics, including chronic and acute indicators, across different nations and regions. Users can analyze trends, compare multiple indicators, and visualize complex data through customizable charts and maps, making it an invaluable resource for policymakers and researchers addressing global food challenges.

International food prices are volatile. Prices for major staple crops, like wheat, maize, rice, and oil seeds have suffered major up- and downswings creating uncertain market conditions for farmers and unstable food access for consumers. This international price volatility is disproportionately impacting consumers in low-income countries that are heavily reliant on food imports. The FSP’s Vulnerability to Global Market Shocks V.2: Price Shocks to Major Staple Foods provides new metrics quantifying country-level vulnerability to changes in international prices for major staple crops.

The outbreak of the war in Ukraine sent fertilizer prices soaring to all-time highs as prices for natural gas, a key feedstock for nitrogenous fertilizer production, drove production cutbacks and sanctions and export restrictions disrupted exports. These drivers of market turmoil intensified fears of reduced global food production and higher food prices. While global supply continues to rebound and prices abate, risks linger and monitoring market developments remains key.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to expose global food security to high uncertainty, exacerbating already soaring food prices stemming from COVID-19-induced supply disruptions and drought-reduced yields. As seen in past global food price crises, some countries have begun restricting food trade with the objective of controlling domestic food inflation. These restrictions can have dire unintended consequences for vulnerable people in food-importing countries, increasing prices and exacerbating food insecurity.

This tool is designed to identify the exposure (vulnerability) of countries to shocks in global markets that may cause supply shortages or price surges in staple foods and key agricultural inputs (like fertilizers) which could erode food security in countries if they are highly dependent on imports of such commodities and/or lack the economic capacity to cushion their vulnerable population against the impacts of those shocks.

Israel’s continuing attacks against Hamas are causing massive collateral damage to agricultural livelihoods and food supplies in the Gaza Strip. More than one third of agricultural lands in Gaza have been damaged since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, according to analysis based on satellite imagery by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The stock-to-use ratio measures the level of stocks of a commodity relative to its total use, and it is an important indicator of the vulnerability of world food markets to shocks. When stock-to-use ratios are high, more supply is available in inventory, which enables countries to smooth consumption and even out prices in the case of a shock. Low stock-to use ratios increase the severity of price spikes and volatility.

Excessive food price volatility (variability) affects farmers, traders, processors and consumers – and it threatens food security. In the aftermath of the 2007-2008 food price crisis and post-crisis commodity price volatility, the Food Security Portal developed the Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System, which identifies periods of excessive price variability (i.e. price variability that exceeds a pre-established threshold). The instrument serves as an early warning system for unusual periods of excessive price variability.

The Food Price Monitor dashboard is a tool that allows you to keep track of changes in food prices both internationally and domestically. The tool is divided into three sections: international food prices, domestic food prices, and food price determinants.

The Food Price Monitor provides daily updates of prices in wholesale and retail markets for a wide range of food products. Alerts refer to price changes from the start of social distancing measures taken because of COVID-19 and are based on a pre-COVID-19 reference price.

The effects of climate change are already being felt, and they are projected to worsen in the course of the 21st century, with impacts varying by region. Adaptation is critical to continue pursuing sustainable development goals (SDGs), including on fighting poverty (SDG1), hunger (SDG2), and managing water resources (SDG6).

As the world deals with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the international community has started discussing more urgently how land use change and the conversion of natural habitats to agricultural or urban ecosystems can affect the risk and emergence of zoonotic diseases in humans as well as the spread of new pathogens and diseases in livestock.

Reliable, timely information on food production and availability, food prices, and hunger levels are key to helping decision makers anticipate and respond to food crises and their drivers. Early warning systems exist to collect, analyze, and disseminate such information.

The Early Warning Hub brings together in one place the alerts and other information from across several Early Warning Systems.

The Food Security Portal's Price Shocks Tool provides an interactive way to explore the impact of price changes on poverty. When you set hypothetical price shock(s) using the tool, net impacts of selected price changes are generated per household and the impact on poverty is automatically calculated accordingly.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, social and economic relief measures—including fiscal stimulus and expansion of social safety nets—are crucial to prevent poverty and hunger from rising dramatically in developing countries.

The control panel for real-time monitoring of risk factors is an innovative tool that brings together information on various drivers of food crises, including conflict and climate-related shocks.

While the impact of rising food prices may be clear, the root causes of such price increases often are not. The role of various short- and long-term factors, such as the growth of commodities futures markets and changing levels of grain stocks, continues to be debated. This tool generates up-to-date media daily analysis of factors that may influence commodity price volatility and food security.

The spread of COVID-19, as well as the wide range of policy responses enacted around the world to contain the pandemic, have exerted wide-ranging effects on agri-food systems and livelihoods.

The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and aTrade (IMPACT) explores policies that can help feed the world, reduce poverty, and protect the natural resource base. Here we examine how alternative investment scenarios affect agricultural production, productivity, and food security for the period 2010-2050 compared to a reference scenario.

The fight against hunger is not over yet. A fight against overweight and obesity must begin. Here you can find how patterns of malnutrition are evolving across the globe.

Agricultural production is both strongly affected by and a major contributor to climate change, accounting for a quarter of total global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Agriculture receives around US$600 billion per year worldwide in government support. However, no rigorous quantification of the impact of this support on GHG emissions has been available until now.

Crop pest and disease outbreaks threaten global food security by reducing food quantity and quality, potentially leading to shortages, price spikes, and hunger. Smallholder farmers in developing countries are particularly vulnerable. To address this challenge, the Food Security Portal has developed a real-time media analysis system to monitor the top 5 crop pests and diseases identified by the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative.

The Food Loss and Waste database is the largest online collection of data on both food loss and food waste and causes reported throughout the literature. The database contains data and information from openly accessible reports and studies measuring food loss and waste across food products, stages of the value chain, and geographical areas.

The IPC Population Tracking Tool is a new online platform that gives the public access to population data from more than 30 different countries. It allows users to download resource data for offline IPC analyses from the past three years. All national population figures are based on official country population estimates. IPC estimates are those published in country IPC reports.