The Food Security Risk Index (FSRI), released by risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, is based on the key elements of food security as laid out by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is calculated using 12 indicators, measuring the availability, access and stability of food supplies across all countries, as well as the nutritional and health status of populations.
Maplecroft states that contributing factors for food insecurity include: a low capacity to combat the effects of extreme weather events such as drought; prevalence of poverty; and failing infrastructures, which undermine both food production and emergency food distribution capacity. Conflict is also a major driver of food insecurity as it displaces people from their normal social networks and livelihoods. The on-going violence in eastern DR Congo, for example, was largely responsible for its precarious food security situation.
adapted from http://maplecroft.com/about/news/food_security.html
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