This report commissioned by United Against Malnutrition & Hunger calls on UK leaders to make hunger prevention a national and international security priority
Hunger and malnutrition are not only humanitarian emergencies, but predictable drivers of political instability, protest and violent conflict, a new report authored by Professor Stuart Gordon, of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) reveals.
From Hunger to Instability: Why Global Hunger Matters for UK National Security, argues that global food insecurity should be treated as a strategic security issue and an early warning signal of instability. While conflict is widely recognised as a major driver of hunger, the research shows that hunger itself can also be a root cause of political crises, fuelling unrest and increasing risks to national and international security.
Drawing on evidence from current, recent and historical unrest in Tunisia, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Yemen, the report illustrates how food insecurity can destabilise societies by eroding trust in government, fuelling mass protest, intensifying economic shocks, particularly among urban populations vulnerable to food price inflation, and creating opportunities for armed groups and coercive actors.
With half of the world’s population unable to afford a healthy diet, and malnutrition contributing to nearly half of all deaths among children under five, the findings underline the scale of the challenge and the need for leaders to act before food insecurity contributes to wider instability.
The report urges political leaders to invest in early, coordinated and locally informed interventions that can reduce the risk of escalation, protect food access and strengthen resilience before crises become costlier and their impacts harder to contain.
A preventive-security case for the UK
The report says instability linked to food stress can create direct costs for the UK, including greater humanitarian need, regional spillovers, displacement pressures and openings for armed or coercive actors. It calls for food security and nutrition to be incorporated into the UK’s wider approach to conflict prevention, diplomacy, development and, where appropriate, defence engagement.
It recommends that UK policymakers:
- Expand predictable and anticipatory financing so support can scale before food stress becomes politicised;
- Include food-price volatility, harvest failure, market disruption and malnutrition in fragility and conflict early-warning assessments;
- Support locally led responses, shock-responsive social protection and domestic investment in nutrition, including exploration of debt-for-nutrition swaps;
- Treat climate adaptation and land governance as conflict-prevention priorities in exposed regions; and
- Protect civilian access to food by safeguarding trade corridors, ports, local markets and humanitarian supply chains in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
The report calls for nutrition programmes to be treated as long-term investments in resilience. Chronic undernutrition can impair physical and cognitive development, educational attainment and lifetime productivity, weakening the capacity of households, communities and states to absorb future shocks.
It underlines the need to protect and prioritise spending on proven nutrition interventions, including supplementary and emergency therapeutic foods such as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), antenatal multiple micronutrient supplements, breastfeeding support and vitamin A supplementation.
Key insights from the report:
- Hunger is both a consequence of instability and conflict and a factor that can contribute to its emergence or escalation.
- Malnutrition weakens human capital and economic resilience, reducing societies’ capacity to withstand future shocks.
- Early predictable and locally informed action can reduce the risk and cost of later crisis response.
- Supporting debt relief initiatives, including piloting debt for nutrition swaps and support for local supply chains in nutrition interventions, can help ensure that nutrition is embedded within national policy rather than reliant on external donor cycles.
- Predictable financing, integrated nutrition policy, locally informed programming, and the protection of food systems together form a preventive approach that can reduce the likelihood of conflict escalation, displacement pressures, and prolonged crisis response.