The widely accepted World Food Summit (1996) definition reinforces the multidimensional nature of food security and includes food access, availability, food use and stability. It has enabled policy responses focused on the promotion and recovery of livelihood options. Initially made popular by academics such as Chambers and Conway (1992), livelihood approaches are now fundamental to international organizations’ development programmes. They are increasingly applied in emergency contexts and include the concepts of vulnerability, risk coping and risk management.