Food Security Interventions among Refugees around the Globe: A Scoping Review

Abstract

There are 26 million refugees globally, with as many as 80% facing food insecurity irrespective of location. Food insecurity results in malnutrition beginning at an early age and disproportionately affects certain groups such as women. Food security is a complex issue and must consider gender, policies, social and cultural contexts that refugees face. Our aim is to assess what is known about food security interventions in refugees and identify existing gaps in knowledge. This scoping review followed the guidelines set out in the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. We included all articles that discussed food security interventions in refugees published between 2010 and 2020. A total of 57 articles were eligible for this study with most interventions providing cash, vouchers, or food transfers; urban agriculture, gardening, animal husbandry, or foraging; nutrition education; and infant and young child feeding. Urban agriculture and nutrition education were more prevalent in destination countries. While urban agriculture was a focus of the FAO and cash/voucher interventions were implemented by the WFP, the level of collaboration between UN agencies was unclear. Food security was directly measured in 39% of studies, half of which used the UN’s Food Consumption Score, and the remainder using a variety of methods. As substantiated in the literature, gender considerations are vital to the success of food security interventions, and although studies include this in the planning process, few see gender considerations through to implementation. Including host communities in food security interventions improves the refugee–host relationship. Collaboration should be encouraged among aid organizations. To assess intervention efficacy, food security should be measured with a consistent tool. With the number of refugees in the world continuing to rise, further efforts are required to transition from acute aid to sustainability through livelihood strategies.

Humanitarian Ration Cuts: Impacts on Vulnerable Groups

“…Malnutrition is very common in refugee children (Nisbet et al, 2022). Stunting (low height-for-age (HAZ)) is widely used as a measure of chronic malnutrition and/or linear growth faltering in children (Fenn et al, 2021).…”

“…The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that 80% of the world's displaced people are in countries or territories suffering from acute food insecurity and malnutrition (Nisbet et al, 2022;Fenn et al, 2021). Humanitarian organisations, such as the WFP and the UNHCR, rely entirely on donors' contributions to administer programmes for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) (Verme & Gigliarano, 2019).…”

“…Vulnerable groups and households: While information on women and children in humanitarian aid programming is available; the elderly and persons with disabilities are often overlooked in the design and implementation of programming (Jote & Tekle, 2022;Nisbet et al, 2022). They are often not identified or counted in registration or data collection exercises , resulting in limited reliable data on the number and profile of displaced persons with disabilities ; and little agedisaggregated data on the elderly (Jote & Tekle, 2022;Weldeyohannis, 2018).…”

“…There was inadequate information on impacts on the elderly, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ communities, and ethnic or religious minorities. The elderly and persons with disabilities are often overlooked in the design and implementation of programming; and in data collection (Jote & Tekle, 2022;Nisbet et al, 2022). Much of the literature also centres on sub-Saharan Africa.Malnutrition: Prolonged insufficient food assistance will likely contribute to a rise in the prevalence of acute malnutrition among refugees (Mohmand, 2019).…”

“…Malnutrition is very common in refugee children (Nisbet et al, 2022). A recent study (spanning 2010-2017) on refugee children under 5 years of age living in camps in Chad, finds that a 50% reduction in general food distribution (GFD) rations had adverse effects on child growth : children 24-59 months were more at risk of stunting, whereas children 6-24 months was more at risk of wasting (Fenn et al, 2021).…”