Food Security Bulletin No. 11, Winter 2014

The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) is pleased to launch this eleventh issue of the semiannual Food Security Bulletin, the second edition for 2014. For yet another year, food insecurity poses a considerable challenge in Palestine. While comprehensive data on food security and insecurity for 2014 will not be available before mid 2015, we do not expect that the situation of Palestinian households has improved in this regard from 2013, when a third of the households suffered from food insecurity, another third enjoyed food security, and the final third were either vulnerable to food insecurity or marginally food insecure. The 51-day Israeli war on the Gaza Strip played the single most important role in affecting food security – through its impact on food availability, food prices, and disposable income – in Palestine in general and in Gaza in particular. This devastating military assault, took place amid an intensified vulnerability and instability caused by an eight-year-long siege and harsh restrictions on movement and access to and from the Gaza Strip. In the second quarter of this year the unemployment rate in Gaza reached 45% following the end of the tunnel trade and the decline in construction activities. According to the latest available 2013 data, 57% of Gaza households were already food insecure prior to the war, and this ratio could only be expected to rise now. Nonetheless, emergency actions of local and international organizations and governments have prevented starvation among the Gaza households. However, the road to recovery in the agricultural sector, which is the most important for food security, will be a long one with damages estimated at $450 million, while the Israeli restrictions on access to agricultural land in the northern and eastern parts of the Gaza Strip and the continuation of the overall blockade on the Strip make any recovery nearly impossible.

The Literature Review in this issue summarizes a recent report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which endorses building resilience to food insecurity as a key element in preventing violent conflicts.