What is the GFSI?
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index (GFSI), sponsored by DuPont, provides a common framework for understanding the root causes of food insecurity by looking at the dynamics of food systems around the world. It seeks to answer the central question: How food-secure is a country? Food security is a complex, multifaceted issue influenced by culture, environment and geographic location. While the index does not capture intra-country nuances, by distilling major food-security themes down to their core elements it provides a useful approach to understanding the risks to food security in countries, regions and around the world. By creating a common framework against which to benchmark a country’s food security, the GFSI has created a unique country-level food-security measurement tool that addresses the issues of affordability, availability and utilisation in 113 countries around the world. Since its inception, the GFSI has become a policy check for governments and a country diagnostic tool for investment. Non-governmental organisations and multilaterals have turned to the GFSI as a research tool to identify key countries in which to focus advocacy efforts for food-security policy changes and developments. The private sector uses the tool as a launch pad to make strategic decisions, explore food consumption trends and develop corporate social responsibility initiatives.