Food Security As Peacebuilding: Analyzing the Relationship between Food Security and Conflict Data to Support Empirical Policy Making

During the previous decade there has been an increased focus on the role of food security in conflict processes, both in the academic and policy communities. While the policy community has pushed forward with new programs, the causal linkages between food security and conflict remain debated and not well understood. This article emphasizes the endogeneity that characterizes the coupling between food (in)security and violent conflict. We make three contributions. First, we operationalize conflict and food security using the standard Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the FAO databases, and illustrate how intervening factors influence the relationships between conflict and food security at the micro and macro levels. Second, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the linkages between food security and conflict, focusing on findings that account for endogeneity issues and have a causal interpretation. Third, we highlight critical data gaps impeding learning and policy-making and discuss chart ways forward of improving and extending the existing data base, and opportunities for innovation in food security and peacebuilding.