Combining forces against hunger – a policy to improve food self-sufficiency: Norway’s strategy for promoting food security in development policy.

The present document contains Norway’s strategy for promoting food security in development policy. Norway's vision is to promote, within sustainable frameworks, local production of nutritious food that is processed and sold locally and regionally, thus increasing the incomes of small-scale food producers, stimulating local job creation throughout the value chain, and expanding access to healthy food. More specifically, the Strategy is intended to help achieve the following: 1) an increase in local climate-resilient food production; 2) an increase in local value creation and incomes for food producers; 3) a reduction in malnutrition and undernutrition; and 4) a reduction in the scale of hunger crises. Norway’s efforts will be targeted towards small-scale food producers.
The Strategy has four main priorities: 1) Improved productivity, including reduced production loss, for small-scale food producers; 2) well-functioning local value chains and markets that strengthen the position of small-scale food producers in the value chain and accommodate small and medium-sized enterprises; 3) Improved access to food that is healthy, varied and safe; 4) Preventive action and rapid, integrated response efforts.
The strategy’s key action points are to: 1) Take a leading role internationally to promote food security, and increase national food selfsufficiency and national food sovereignty, while enhancing the role of small-scale producers in strengthening sustainable food systems; 2) Focus on small-scale food producers; 3) Promote climate-resilient food production, including nature-based solutions for carbon capture and sequestration; 4) Take a human rights-based approach; 5) Strengthen the position of women as food producers and participants elsewhere in the value chains and food systems; 5) Have a global perspective but target efforts towards sub-Saharan Africa; 6) Enhance value creation and business development; 7) Cooperate more systematically with civil society and with farmers’ and fishers’ organisations; 8) Bring together Norwegian expertise that is in demand; 9) Support the development of digital solutions and relevant technology; 10) Strengthen social safety nets; 11) Prevent hunger crises; 12) Consolidate food security efforts; 13) Strengthen rapid, integrated food security efforts; 14) Maintain dialogue on implementation of the strategy with civil society, farmers’ and fishers’ organisations, business and industry, and academia; and 15) Strengthen cooperation between ministries. Norway will also strengthen advisory services as well as plant health, animal health and veterinary services, with a focus on the One Health approach and on antimicrobial resistance and the use of antimicrobial agents.