Our Priorities

About Us

In 2015, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an Intelligence Community Assessment on Global Food Security  that judged the overall risk of food insecurity in many countries of strategic importance to the United States will increase during the next 10 years because of production, transport, and market disruptions to local food availability, lower purchasing power, and counterproductive government policies. Upwards of 800 million people are facing hunger, an increase of 118 million people attributed to COVID impacts. Nearly a billion people are malnourished, and yet the world wastes one-third of the food it produces.

The Office of Global Food Security (E/GFS) identifies, analyzes, and takes action on emerging food systems and nutrition issues, develops new initiatives, and fosters U.S. interagency cooperation and broad stakeholder engagement on these issues. E/GFS forms partnerships with the private sector, civil society, research institutions, and other donors to address food security and nutrition, including in the context of addressing the climate crisis, fostering equity and inclusion, countering the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and working to address the effects of the conflict, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on global food security.

Food Security and Food Systems

In the context of the U.S. Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) 2022-2026, the Department of State promotes global, regional, national, and sub-national policies that foster sustainable reductions in hunger and malnutrition and build resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food systems. E/GFS works towards the goal of agricultural systems that are better prepared to withstand shocks, whether from climate change, conflicts, spikes in input costs, or supply chain disruptions.

Read more about the GFSS here 

Feed the Future

E/GFS serves as the Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy for the Feed the Future Initiative, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Feed the Future works hand-in-hand with partner countries to develop their agriculture sectors and break the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger.  Through Feed the Future, the U.S. Government is helping people feed themselves and creating important opportunities for a new generation of young people, while building a more stable world.  Following the submission of the FY 2022 – 2026 Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) to Congress in October 2021, President Biden announced in June 2022 the expansion of the number of Feed the Future (FTF) target countries to 20 in total.

Learn more about Feed the Future here 

Nutrition

E/GFS heads the Department’s nutrition work, through leadership in multilateral fora such as the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, Nutrition for Growth, and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.  E/GFS serves as the Department of State’s Champion for the Global Nutrition Coordination Plan (GNCP) , a whole-of-government effort toward improving nutrition work.  As part of this strategy, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is making investments in multisectoral nutrition in 14 Nutrition Priority Countries and 4 Nutrition Strategic Support Countries , working strategically within and across sectors to deliver the greatest possible impact.  Nutrition Priority Countries were selected based on: (1) burden and severity of malnutrition; (2) ongoing USAID investments in the health and agriculture sectors; (3) country commitment to nutrition; and (4) opportunities for USAID to leverage investments by host country governments and other donors.

At the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G), the United States announced an intention to invest up to $11 billion over three years, subject to Congressional appropriations, to combat global malnutrition.

Read more about N4G: 

USAID Readout – 2021 Nutrition for Growth [185 KB]